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Tag Archives: Herald-Dispatch

Huntington Editorial about the UMWA (1925)

05 Friday Feb 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Coal, Huntington, Logan, Williamson

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Tags

Appalachia, Charleston, coal, Herald-Dispatch, history, Huntington, John L. Lewis, John Mitchell, Kanawha Field, labor, Logan, Logan County, Mingo County, New River Field, Ohio, Portsmouth, Samuel Gompers, United Mine Workers of America, West Virginia, Williamson

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this editorial regarding a visit to the region by UMWA officials in 1925. The story is dated September 4, 1925.

A STATEMENT OF INDISPUTABLE FACTS

The Sunday issue of the Huntington Herald-Dispatch contained a most interesting editorial which told the unvarnished truth about the recent visit the officials of the United Mine Workers to the Logan and Williamson coal fields. The editorial follows.

Disappointed Visitors

Within the past three days officials of the United Mine Workers of America have visited Logan and Williamson and some of the mining operations near these prosperous West Virginia cities. Up to the hour of this writing the visitors have made no statement either as to the purpose of their visit or the impressions they have gained from the conditions encountered.

It may be taken for granted, however, that the gentlemen representing the United Mine Workers are not highly pleased. They did not find in the miners of the Logan and Williamson fields the “serfs” and downtrodden creatures professional agitators have described. They did not find beleaguered camps of concentrados crying out for release through the medium of membership in the U.M.W. They did not find gunmen and desperadoes awaiting them at the train to turn them back with broken heads and verbal abuses. The absence of these things were disappointing.

But for the purpose of the U.M.W. the things these visitors did find were even more disappointing. They found for example miners who earn more dollars per year than any others in the bituminous fields in the world. They found more miners living in better houses than are to be found in any of the mining camps of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana or Illinois. They found miners and their wives and children better fed, better clothed and with better living conditions surrounding them than any others in the United States.

They found in Logan and Williamson fields men who are content and who are unwilling to leave steady employment, good wages, and good homes with all the comforts of life, to take up a miserable existence in the tents of professional strikers there to subject their wives and children to unwanted hardships and deprivations.

In short, they were not welcomed as needed deliverers. The miners in these fields know that it is not the purpose of these gentlemen to bring about a betterment of the conditions under which they live, but to create a condition which will cause coal production to cease. Organization is a fine thing and should be encouraged when it is for the good of the organized. But the proposal of the United Mine Workers, as it affects these miners and the business and labor interests of this section in general, is sinister and destructive. The unionization at this time of any considerable part of the Williamson and Logan fields would mean a strike. A strike, if effective, would paralyze business in all of Logan county, and in Huntington the result would be almost disastrous. An effective strike in these fields would paralyze Huntington’s wholesale and jobbing business. It would close many of the factories and worst of all would almost immediately result in unemployment for hundreds of railway shop workers and scores of train crews all the way from Charleston to Portsmouth with the brunt of the blow falling upon Huntington.

The United Mine Workers is no longer the helpful, constructive organization it was twenty years ago. Its ranks have been decimated and its policies have been so radical and unreasonable in many cases as to bring it into disrepute with the public, including the legitimate labor organizations whose members are ruled by reason. In West Virginia dues paying members have dwindled to almost the vanishing point. In strikes, fomented in an effort to destroy West Virginia coal in the interest of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois mines and the mine workers in those states, West Virginia has cost the U.M.W. millions and the officials now face the impending anthracite strike with a sadly depleted treasury.

The desperate plight of Mr. Lewis, his organizers, and well paid cabinet naturally produces its own results. The strike in northern West Virginia has had no effect other than to keep some thousands of men out of employment and deprive thousands of women and children of the comforts the pay envelope would provide. The mining of coal in the Kanawha and New River fields the Miners Union has, to use a baseball term, “struck out.” Attempts to force upon the operators a wage scale which prohibited the mining and marketing of coal at a price less than a ruinous loss have resulted in strike after strike in those fields until the union is but a band of disorganized stragglers whose representatives, when they bolted the State Federation of Labor convention in this city two weeks ago, went away unwept and were not urged to return.

If the miners of this district had any prospect, even remote, of gaining anything by organization, no self-respecting man could afford to oppose or discourage the movement. But the weight is all on the other side. If they needed the union, public sentiment would see that they got it. We are living like that today. But since they do not need it, since the movement is directed against their welfare and against the thousands of legitimate unionists and all business and all industry in this great tri-state area, the organization effort, if it is being seriously contemplated–which we very greatly doubt–has no appeal either to the miners or to public sentiment.

The Logan and Williamson miners do not want to exchange the well filled pay envelope for the miserable weekly doe from the U.M.W. treasury. They do not want to trade their comfortable, well furnished and well lighted homes for leaky tents with tallow candles. They do not want to take their families from places and stations of comfort and respectability to sloth and degradation.

Organization means strike. Strike means starvation and, if the bloody history of Mingo’s experience with the United Mine Workers is to be repeated, bloodshed, terror, and bold assassination. Mr. Lewis, by a blind and unreasoning insistence upon the impossible Jacksonville agreement, has gotten himself into a dilemma of the most embarrassing kind. He is at end of his tether. The treasury is low. The organization is in a state of decay, with miners every day discovering they are better off without it than with it.

If, instead of uttering strike threats; if, instead of trying to enforce a wage scale which is a grotesque economic absurdity and rank impossibility; if, instead of leading the miners into hardship and strike, he would lead them in the ways of peace by consenting to wage adjustments in keeping with the state of the coal market, the organization might regain public confidence, recover its vitality, and reclaim its usefulness. And Mr. Lewis himself, instead of facing the imminent danger of becoming a discredited industrial adventurer, would be acclaimed a leader, as was John Mitchell, and as was Samuel Gompers.

Wife of Logan Banner Editor George A. Dean Disappears (1912-1913)

20 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Huntington, Logan, Matewan, Tazewell County

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Albermarle, Appalachia, Bluefield, Buchanan, Collier's Weekly, Dry Fork, genealogy, George A. Dean, Henry Clay Ragland, Herald-Dispatch, history, Huntington, Iaeger, Imperial Order of Redmen, J.B. ellison, Jefferson Hotel, Kentucky, Keyes Sisters, LaRoy Stock Company, Lena Boyd Nelson, Lena Gross, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Logan Democrat, Logan Nest 1442, Matewan, Modern Maccabees, Norfolk and Western Railroad, North Carolina, Order of Owls, Sayersville, Silver Cloud Tribe 138, Tazewell County, Virginia, W.L. Richardson, West Virginia, Williamson

In 1912, Logan Banner editor George A. Dean married the former Lena Gross, who soon thereafter disappeared. Here are a few stories about the event:

Editor Dean Married

On Monday, Nov. 11 in the minister’s study, Geo. A. Dean and Miss Lena Gross of Virginia, were united in marriage by Rev. W.L. Richardson.

Mr. Dean is the hustling editor of the Logan Banner and is well-known in this city and surrounding country as a man of push and energy, while the bride was one of the charming dining room girls at the Hotel Jefferson.

Mr. and Mrs. Dean will be at home to their friends after Nov. 18.

Source: Logan (WV) Democrat, 14 November 1912.

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George A. Dean Logan Banner LB 01.24.1913.JPG

Logan (WV) Banner, 24 January 1913.

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Editor of “Most Fearless Weekly” on the Trail

West Virginia editors who have failed to receive the Logan Banner on their exchange tables during the past three weeks, no doubt, marveled at its absence. But there is a reason–a tragic, gnawing reason which has caused the editor, Geo. A. Dean to suspend temporarily editorial duties and to embark upon a quest which means more to him than journalistic honors or the mere touch of hollow gold.

Readers of the Banner will remember that there appeared graven upon its front page four months ago Mr. Dean’s and his wife’s own announcement of their marriage. The paragraph attracted more than usual attention, partly because of its unique construction and partly because of the unusual manner of its presentation, but more than all because Mr. Dean was very prominently in the editorial limelight because of recent rather prominent mention in Collier’s Weekly. But that is history, and in mere prelude to the situation which now confronts him: to-wit: that of a married man, wifeless, disconsolate, yearning for the things that were.

Mr. Dean, who has been in Huntington and vicinity for two days seeking a trace of his evanished spouse, speaks frankly of his bereavement, and is importunate that the home-loving public shall, if possible, assist him in finding and restoring his lost treasure. In brief, Lena Boyd Nelson Dean has gone away and, some fear, forever departed. She went without the tender formality of a farewell husband’s kiss. She went away surreptitiously, mysteriously. She went, and Mr. Dean, who has sounded the very depths of heaven and earth, is no whit the wiser whither. Descriptive circulars, telling her height, weight, complexion, color of eyes and hair, manner of dress, and all that pertains to accurate and dependable description have been scattered broadcast all over the territory in which it might be surmised that she would be obscuring herself from the eyes of love and yearning. Mr. Dean stated last night, in conversation with the Herald-Dispatch, that he had absolutely no heart for business, that he had known no rest, no surcease from the terrible heart-longing that had seized upon him and held with tenacious grip from the morning of his wife’s departure. He has searched high and low. He has communicated with every known relative of his wife, without being able to get even the shadow of a clue tending to lead to the discovery of her whereabouts. He gives the following verbal photograph, which is almost as good as the ordinary studio product, and much better than a tintype:

Lena Boyd Nelson Dean, formerly of Williamson and Matewan and Bluefield. Four months ago she served as waitress, cook, and house girl at Logan, W.Va. Last seen at Kenova on Sunday morning, March 2. Physical description: Age 26. Height 5 ft. 2. Coal-black eyes given to starry twinkle. Raven black hair. Rather full lips. Gold filling in front teeth. Deep, well modulated musical voice, with a tendency to coarseness in time of cold. Can not read or write much as her early education was neglected. Her costume is described as being strict in the style of today. Raincoat, drab-colored; blue-serge, two piece coat suit. Beaver hat, embellished with four black ostrich plumes. Leather suitcase, canvass trunk and gold-headed umbrella.

Mr. Dean feels that his wife may have returned to one of the three occupations ascribed to her in the opening paragraphs.

He has important mail for her, both registered and ordinary, and is awaiting anxiously any news of her, and his arms are open to her return. The Logan editor’s plight is positively pitiful. He has grown emaciated, hollow-eyed, faded, wan. The tireless vigil, the ceaseless search, the anxious waiting hours, have all played their part in preying upon his splendid vitality. He is discouraged but not defeated, and will continue the search as long as human endurance will permit, or else sooner find the partner of his joys and immediate cause of his great and overpowering grief. His plight has elicited much sympathy. For what is life without a partner?

Source: Huntington (WV) Herald-Dispatch via Logan (WV) Democrat, 13 March 1913.

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George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 1

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 2

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 3

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 4

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 5

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 6

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

Coal Company Set to Build New Town in Logan County, WV (1927)

25 Monday Dec 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Coal

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Appalachia, C&O Railroad, coal, Guyandotte River, Herald-Dispatch, history, Holden, Holden No. 22, Island Creek Coal Company, J.D. Francis, Logan County, Omar, Peytona Lumber Company, Tug Fork, West Virginia, Wiatt Smith, Y.M.C.A.

From a 1927 story printed in the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this interesting bit of history about Holden No. 22:

Island Creek Co. Plans Building of New Town

Contracts Will Be Let Within 30 Days For Houses, Highways and Also Tipple For Largest Mine In West Virginia, Says Vice President–May Spend $2,000,000.

Within the next year there will arise in one of the remote and hitherto inaccessible regions of Logan county, a new town. It will have a population approximating 2,000. It will have a Y.M.C.A., a community church, modern homes, paved streets, its own water system, electric lights–in fact, all of the modern conveniences. It will be connected by hard road with Logan, Holden and the great world beyond the mountains. At present, it has not even a name, writes Wiatt Smith for the Huntington Herald-Dispatch.

The new town is to arise at operation No. 22 of the Island Creek Coal Company.

Within the next 30 days, J.D. Francis, vice-president of the Island Creek Co., said Tuesday, contracts will be let for the erection of tipples, the building of houses, the paving of streets and the hard surfacing of seven miles of road which will connect the new community with Holden.

Operation No. 22 will represent when completed an additional investment on the part of Island Creek, ranging well beyond a million dollars, perhaps reaching two million, though Mr. Francis refused to hazard an estimate of definite figures.

For a number of months preparations for the opening of a new mine, which will be the largest in southern West Virginia, have been going forward. The two 400 foot shafts which will serve the mine are now nearly complete. The Chesapeake & Ohio is rapidly completing the four mile extension of the Pine creek branch which will provide an outlet for the coal produced. The Island Creek company is completing three miles of siding. Pete Minotti, the contractor, has finished grading the road from Holden to the mine.

By October, it is expected, the road will be surfaced, the town well under way and the great mine in operation. Output at the beginning will be small, as the number of workmen will be necessarily limited until the underground workings have been expanded by the removal of coal. The area to be worked is underlaid, experts say, with 50 or 60 million tons and the mining of the coal will, under normal conditions, require 50 years.

Work at the mine site in advance of the completion of the railroads has been made possible, Mr. Francis explained, by the use of the tram road of the Peytona Lumber company over which many thousands of tons of sand, gravel and supplies have been shipped. The completion of the railroad is awaited for the installation of the bulkier machinery and equipment.

The new rail extension will connect with the Chesapeake & Ohio’s Logan division main lines via Omar. The contact of the operative officials and the workers with the Island Creek center at Holden will be by means of the hard road, the construction of which, in itself represents something like an engineering adventure. For some three miles it follows the ridge that marks the crest of the watershed between the valleys of Guyandotte and Tug Rivers. Then it drops sharply to follow mountain side, hollow and creek valley to the mine operation.

Persons who have traveled the now graded road say that at points on the ridge it affords magnificent views which compare favorably with the most famous in the state. The road was graded and will be hard surfaced entirely at the expense of the coal company, which, in the preparations for its new development has followed the policy adopted many years ago when, upon the opening of its original operations, it established in Holden a mining community which was pointed out as a model throughout the United States.

Island Creek operation No. 22 will be the fifth shaft mine in West Virginia.

Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 25 March 1927.

Writers Can Read Open Mic Night at Empire Books in Huntington, WV (2017)

22 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Huntington, Lincoln County Feud

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Appalachia, author, authors, Blood in West Virginia, Boney Lucas, book, books, Brandon Kirk, Dave Lavender, Diana Pishner Walker, Eliot Parker, Empire Books, Herald-Dispatch, history, Hollywood Book Festival Honorable Mention, Huntington, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Marshall University, Paris Brumfield, Pelican Publishing Company, Readers' Favorite International Book Award, Silver Mom's Choice Award, Southern California Book Festival, West Virginia, Writers Can Read Open Mic NIght

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Many thanks to Eliot Parker for inviting me to appear as a featured author and read from Blood in West Virginia: Brumfield v. McCoy at the Writers Can Read Open Mic Night at Empire Books in Huntington, WV. I dedicated my reading to the feudists and their descendants. Paris Brumfield and Boney Lucas descendants were among the listeners–thrilling! I met some really great folks and enjoyed the event. 18 December 2017.

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As always, thanks to Dave Lavender for promoting the event in the Herald-Dispatch. http://www.herald-dispatch.com/features_entertainment/empire-books-hosting-writers-can-read/article_02abde5d-bb75-55bb-8a0d-d9451c00b8e2.html

Republicans Driven from Logan County by Gunmen (1914)

01 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in African American History, Logan

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African-Americans, Appalachia, coal, Con Chafin, crime, Democratic Party, deputy sheriff, Don Chafin, E.T. England, guitar, Guyandotte River, Herald-Dispatch, history, Huntington, Ira P. Hager, John B. Wilkinson, Ku Klux Klan, lawyers, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, mine guards, O.J. Deegan, politics, prosecuting attorney, Republican Party, sheriff, timbering, W.C. Lawrence Jr., West Virginia

From the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, WV, comes this story printed by the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, dated October 30, 1914:

Republican Voters Driven from Co. by Gunmen

Deputy Sheriffs, Acting as Mine Guards, Are the Law and Enforcement Thereof.

Many Believe Martial Law Will be Sequel to Rule of Thugs.

Democratic schemes for the intimidation of Republican voters, for the prevention of a Republican victory in the state next Tuesday, whether by fair means or foul, have reached their climax in Logan county. If there is a place in West Virginia where lawlessness has succeeded law and order, where the persons chosen to enforce the law have initiated a system of rule by force and intimidation, a rule by force of clubs and pistols, a rule by thugs and gunmen, that place is Logan county.

A thorough investigation of conditions in Logan county today proves that the Ku Klux Klan in the south were mere pikers. There are men in Logan county who could beat them blindfolded.

The man, woman or child who would enjoy life–aye, who are willing to accept life or pass through Logan county, must be careful not to cross the paths of Sheriff Don Chafin and his force of about two hundred armed deputies.

And it can be truthfully said that the paths of these men extend to every nook and corner of the county. And several newly-made graves along the banks of the Guyandotte river and its tributaries shows who is the law and the enforcement thereof.

Several men have been shot, two negroes fatally, others have been clubbed and driven out of the county, women and children have been forced to flee clad only in their night-clothes, upon order of the Chafin deputies.

And all this because some Republicans desired to be registered in order that they might cast their votes for the Republican candidates next Tuesday.

Logan county is about to throw off the yoke of Democracy. The coal and lumber industries are rapidly being developed, and, as is always the case in progressive communities, the Republicans are making large gains.

If the voters of Logan county are allowed to cast their ballots as they desire, and those ballots are counted as cast, the Republican candidates will be elected.

If the conspiracy which has been formed by and in the interest of the Democrats is allowed to be carried out, the Democrats will continue in control of the county, the enforcement of law will be a mere joke and there will be probably a score added to the newly made graves along Old Guyan after next Tuesday.

Opinions vary as to what the outcome will be. Some believe that only martial law will prove a solution. Others are of the opinion that conditions will grow gradually worse and that the enforcement of law and order in Logan county will be a subject for investigation by the next legislature which convenes in January. Most certainly, if the threats of the Democrats are carried out, the Republicans are driven from the polls next Tuesday, the legislature will be asked to make a sweeping investigation and their findings will reveal conditions incredible in a civilized state.

Don Chafin is high sheriff of Logan county. His cousin, Con Chafin is prosecuting attorney. All the county officials are Democrats. Circuit Judge Wilkinson is a Democrat, though a man who wants the law enforced.

Sheriff Chafin, it is estimated, has about two hundred deputies. When he was elected, a part of his platform was that he would drive out the Baldwin mine guards from Logan county. No Baldwin men are known to be in this county now but these deputy sheriffs are known as mine guards. All of them are supposed to be armed with pistols, black-jacks and the usual weapons of gunmen. But few of them are licensed to carry such weapons and there is no trouble to find evidence that they have these weapons in violation of the law. Some of them are known to be ex-convicts and as such would not be licensed to carry revolvers, etc.

They shoot, club, slug and thug at will. But they are not arrested and imprisoned. For they are the law and the enforcement thereof.

Events of the past few weeks show the effectiveness of this organization of deputies and the way in which they operate. When the registrars were on their rounds registering the voters some of the deputies were on hand and even the Democratic registrars were afraid not to obey their orders. To go back further, they were on hand at the Democratic primaries and the Democratic nominees were the men of their choice and of that of their chief.

The Democratic registrars refused to register many Republicans, especially among the colored voters. When the county commissioners met to canvass the registration, four Republican lawyers State Senator E.T. England, Ira P. Hager, W.C. Lawrence, Jr., and O.J. Deegan, the latter being Republican county chairman, took the lead to see that Republicans entitled to vote were registered. One hundred colored voters were brought into Logan for examination and registration.

Threats have been made by deputies against the journeying of negroes to the court house, there to demand their rights, and the republican leaders realized there was danger.

The work before the county court was slow, as the democratic leaders challenged every step of the republicans. But eleven men were passed upon the first day, five of whom were registered, six turned down. That night the apparent cause for delay came. A colored family lived at Monitor, a mile from the court house. It was supposed that some of the negroes awaiting registration were there. This gave the conspirators a chance and the gunmen got busy.

Soon after dark a band of armed men raided the house, shot out the windows, fired bullets into bodies of two colored men, beat up others and drove a woman and child into the hills without giving them time to dress. The raiders said they were looking for “strange niggers.” As the result of that raid one colored man lies in an unmarked grave on the hillside and another is likely to join him soon. No “strange niggers” were in that house.

A colored man owned a cleaning and pressing establishment within a couple of squares of the court house. His windows were demolished and his place of business next morning looked as though a German siege gun had been turned on it.

A score of colored men awaiting registration were quartered for the night in the office of Senator England, and adjoining offices. About 11:30 o’clock at night some of the negroes were awakened by noises in the hallways and a sensation of not being able to breathe. They rushed to the windows and threw them open, but met with a shower of stones from the outside.

Piled on Senator England’s desk can be seen the stones hurled with force as is shown by the scars on the walls. Some of the stones were thrown from the court house steps.

No arrests were made. A grand jury was in session and Judge Wilkinson instructed the jurors to ferret out the dastardly assault and bring the miscreants to justice. But not an indictment resulted. It is no mystery in Logan as to who committed the deed. Any citizen not afraid to talk, and they are few, will name half a dozen deputy sheriffs as being in the party.

A telephone exchange girl next door to where some of the negroes were attacked made an outcry and was told that she would not be hurt if she kept still. She knows who told her to keep quiet, but would hardly give his name, probably not if she faced a jail sentence for contempt of court. It is not safe to talk in Logan county. “Don’t mention my name,” is what they all say when discussing the outrages.

A short distance from Logan is a construction camp. A large crowd of deputies raided the camp. One negro was playing the guitar and singing. No “strange niggers” were found there, but the one negro sang his last song. He, too, lies in an unmarked grave along the banks of Old Guyan. “Resisting arrest” was the excuse given.

Such depredations naturally drove many colored voters away and they will not vote.

Though threats have been made against the life of Senator England and his followers, they are putting up a game fight. By agreement the county court was to hold a night session to get through with the registration. England was later notified that nothing further would be done that night but the work would be taken up the next day he was amazed to find the court was no longer sitting. He went before Judge Wilkinson, mandamused the county court to sit again, and got ninety-eight colored voters registered.

The democrats were beaten in that game. “What’s the difference,” said a deputy when the court reconvened. “We will get them election day.” It has been openly boasted by the democrats that in many precincts the republicans, especially the colored voters, will not be allowed at the polls next Tuesday.

The sheriff and his deputies form an organization with unlimited power. Every little town or village, every public works, has the deputies. By intimidation and force in most instances and by favors in others, these deputies can run things to suit themselves. Infractions of the law by supporters of the organization can easily be overlooked, while on the other hand, the slightest technical violation can be punished to the full extent of the law.

The high-handed way in which the Democratic county organization is running things has caused a ruction in the Democratic ranks and many of them will quietly vote the Republican ticket. Many members of the old-time militant Democracy, some of them ex-Confederate soldiers, have assured the Republican leaders that they can no longer approve the Democratic methods employed in Logan County and will record their votes against it.

Empire Books & News (2016)

26 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Huntington, Lincoln County Feud

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author, authors, Blood in West Virginia, book, books, Brandon Kirk, Dave Lavender, Empire Books, Herald-Dispatch, Huntington, Lincoln County Feud, West Virginia

The book and I will appear at Empire Books & News in Huntington, WV, on Saturday, April 30, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Our last appearance in September was a sellout venue…and we met many amazing people. If you are local to the Tri-State area, come and see us this Saturday! (We will be joined by over 25 regional authors.) For information about our last visit to the store, follow this link: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/features_entertainment/author-to-sign-new-book-at-empire-on-saturday/article_dcf95a5c-13eb-5ecf-aeca-713a131626c5.html

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Blood in West Virginia (2015)

04 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, John Hartford, Lincoln County Feud

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Appalachia, Ashland, Ashland Daily Independent, Blood in West Virginia, books, Brandon Kirk, Dave Lavender, Ed Haley, Ed Haley Memorial Fiddle Contest, Empire Books, fiddlers, fiddling, Goldenseal, Greenup, Hannibal H. Holbrook, Harts Creek, Herald-Dispatch, history, Huntington, John Hartford, Kentucky, music, Poage Landing Days, Steve Haley, The Kentucky Explorer, U.S. South, West Virginia, writing

The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, WV, and the Ashland (KY) Daily Independent have recently provided great coverage of the book and related research projects. Many thanks to these newspapers for supporting regional history. Here are the links to the stories:

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/features_entertainment/author-to-sign-new-book-at-empire-on-saturday/article_dcf95a5c-13eb-5ecf-aeca-713a131626c5.html

http://www.dailyindependent.com/gallery/haley-grandson-talks-about-upcoming-release-of-rare-recordings/article_6fcc7b5e-5f49-11e5-b1a3-e79acc5be00b.html

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/features_entertainment/skating-fiddles-and-more-highlight-poage-landing-days/article_10db3396-7b50-5c6c-90c4-913007417462.html

I am honored that some of my writing will appear in forthcoming issues of Goldenseal and The Kentucky Explorer, two of my absolute favorite magazines. The Winter issue of Goldenseal will feature a story about Ed Haley’s background on Harts Creek and his later visits to the community. A smaller story details John Hartford’s search for Ed Haley in the Harts Creek area. The December issue of The Kentucky Explorer will feature a story about Ed Haley’s friendship with Dr. H.H. Holbrook of Ashland and Greenup.

http://www.wvculture.org/goldenseal/

https://www.kentuckyexplorer.com/

Little Harts Creek News 11.3.1910

13 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Atenville, Little Harts Creek, Timber

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Appalachia, Hamlin, Herald-Dispatch, history, Huntington, life, Lincoln County, Lincoln Republican, Little Aaron Adkins, Little Harts Creek, Ohio, Rockwood, surveying, timber, U.S. South, West Virginia

In a story titled “Alarm Among Property Owners,” dated Thursday, November 3, 1910, the Lincoln Republican of Hamlin, West Virginia, offered this story:

The property owners along Little Harts Creek in Lincoln county, are greatly exercised over the action of some one who has sent a surveying party into their midst, and they fear that the move is for the purpose of objecting them from their possessions. The surveyors who are from this city do not know or refuse to tell who the work is being done for, and for a time the residents were incensed at them for making the survey and they only secured lodging place with difficulty, but the people are now waiting to see what is coming. The land is owned mostly by Mr. Brammer, a timber man of near Rockwood, Ohio, Aaron Adkins, and fifteen others and they are preparing to make a fight for their rights as soon as the unknown parties who have ordered the survey show their hand.

The story originally appeared in the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, West Virginia, on Sunday, October 30.

In Search of Ed Haley 64

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ashland, Big Sandy Valley, Ed Haley, Music

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Ashland, Big Sandy River, Blackberry Blossom, Blaze Starr, Bluegrass Meadows, Boyd County, Clark Kessinger, Dave Peyton, Delbarton, Duke Williamson, Ed Haley, fiddle, fiddler, fiddlers, fiddling, Georgia Slim Rutland, Grand Ole Opry, Hank Williams, Herald-Dispatch, history, Huntington, Jennies Creek, John Fleming, John Hartford, Kentucky, Lawrence Haley, Lynn Davis, McVeigh, Mingo County, Minnie Pearl, Molly O Day, Molly O'Day, music, Parkersburg Landing, Pike County, Pond Creek, Short Tail Fork, Shove That Hog's Foot, Skeets Williamson, Snake Chapman, Texas, West Virginia, Williamson

Early that summer, I was back at Lawrence Haley’s in Ashland with plans to visit Lynn Davis in Huntington, West Virginia. Lynn had been mentioned in the Parkersburg Landing liner notes as a source for Haley’s biographical sketch and was the widower of Molly O’Day, the famous country singer. Snake Chapman had told me that Molly and her family were close friends to Haley, who visited their home regularly in Pike County, Kentucky. I was sure Lynn would have a lot of great stories to tell about Ed. At our arrival, he was incredibly friendly — almost overwhelming us with the “welcome mat.” All we had to do was mention Ed’s name and he started telling us how he and Molly used to pick him up in Ashland and drive him up the Big Sandy Valley to see Molly’s father in southeastern Kentucky.

“That was back in the early forties,” he said. “We’d come to Ashland and get him at his home up on Winchester about 37th Street. They was a market there or something you turned up by and we’d go there and pick him up and take him up to Molly’s dad and mother up in Pond Creek, Kentucky — above Williamson. There’s an old log house up there — it’s been boarded up and sort of a thing built around it so people couldn’t get in and tear it up or something — but it’s falling down. He’d stay up there with Molly’s dad and mother for several days. They’d take him to Delbarton, a coal town over there from Williamson, and they’d just drive him around, buddy. Now Molly’s brother, he really loved Ed’s fiddling.”

Lynn was referencing Skeets Williamson, Molly’s older brother and a good fiddler by all accounts. Lynn showed me an album titled Fiddlin’ Skeets Williamson (c.1977), which referenced him as “one of country music’s more skilled fiddlers during the 1940’s — one of the best in his day.”

Skeets was born in 1920 at McVeigh, Kentucky, meaning he was approximately 35 years younger than Haley. As a child, he played music with Molly and his older brother Duke Williamson, as well as Snake Chapman. “During these years, the famous fiddler of Eastern Kentucky, Blind Ed Haley, became a tremendous influence on him,” the album liner notes proclaimed. “Skeets (along with Clark Kessinger) still contend that Haley was the greatest fiddler who ever played.” During a brief stint on Texas radio, Skeets met Georgia Slim Rutland, the famous radio fiddler who spent a year listening to Haley in Ashland.

I asked Lynn more about his trips to Haley’s home on 37th Street.

“We used to go down to his house and Molly’d say, ‘Uncle Ed, I’d just love to hear you play me a tune.’ Well he’d be sitting on the couch and he’d just reach over behind the couch — that’s where he kept his fiddle. He always had it in hand reach. So he would get it out of there, man, and fiddle.”

Sometimes Lynn and Molly would join in, but they mostly just sat back in awe.

“You’ve seen people get under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, John,” Lynn said. “Well now, that’s the way he played. I mean, I’ve seen him be playing a tune and man just shake, you know. It was hitting him. I mean, it was vibrating right in his very spirit. Molly always said, ‘I believe that fiddlers get anointed to the fiddle just like a preacher gets anointed to preach.’ They feel it. Man, he’d rock that fiddle. He’d get with rocking it what a lot of people get with bowing. It was something else. But he got into it man. He moved all over.”

Lynn said Ed was a “great artist” but had no specific memories of his technique. He didn’t comment on Ed’s bowing, fingering or even his fiddle positioning but did say that he mostly played in standard tuning. Only occasionally did Ed “play some weird stuff” in other tunings.

Lynn’s memories of Haley’s tunes seemed limited.

“Well, he played one called ‘Bluegrass Meadows’,” he said. “He had some great names for them. Of course one of his specials was ‘Blackberry Blossoms’. He liked that real good, and he’d tell real stories. He would be a sawing his fiddle a little while he was telling the story, and everybody naturally was just quiet as a mouse. You know, they didn’t want to miss nothing.”

What kind of stories?

“Well, I know about the hog’s foot thing. He said they went someplace to play and they didn’t have anything to eat and those boys went out and stole a hog and said they brought it in and butchered it and heard somebody coming. It was the law. They run in and put that hog in the bed and covered it up like it was somebody sleeping. And Ed was sitting there fiddling and somebody whispered to him, said, ‘Ed, that hog’s foot’s stickin’ out from under the cover there.’ So he started fiddling and singing, ‘Shove that hog’s foot further under the cover…’ He made it up as he went.”

The next thing I knew, Lynn was telling me about his musical career. He’d been acquainted with everybody from country great Hank Williams to Opry star Minnie Pearl. We knew a lot of the same people — a source of “bonding” — and it wasn’t long until he started handing me tapes and records of Molly O’Day and Georgia Slim Rutland. He said he had a wire recording of Ed and Ella somewhere, but couldn’t find it. He promised me though, “When I find this wire — and I will find it — it’s yours.”

Sometime later, he called Dave Peyton, a reporter-friend from the Huntington Herald-Dispatch, to come over for an interview. With Peyton’s arrival, Lynn (ever the showman) spun some big tales.

“Now, Molly’s grandfather on her mother’s side was the king of the moonshiners in West Virginia and he was known as ‘Twelve-Toed John Fleming’,” Lynn said. “He had six toes on each foot. Man, he was a rounder. Little short fella, little handlebar mustache — barefooted. He was from the Short Tail Fork of Jenny’s Creek. And the reason they called it that, those boys didn’t have any britches and they wore those big long night shirts till they was twelve or fourteen years old.”

Lynn was on a roll.

“I preached Molly’s uncle’s funeral. Her uncle is the father of Blaze Starr — the stripper. That’s Molly’s first cousin. In her book, she said she would walk seven miles through the woods to somebody that had a radio so she could hear her pretty cousin Molly sing. She was here in town about three or four months ago. We had breakfast a couple times together. She’s not stripping anymore. She makes jewelry and sells it. She’s about 60 right now.”

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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