Tag Archives: Laurel Creek

Regional Place Names

20 Saturday Jun 2020

Posted by in Banco, Big Creek, Big Harts Creek, Big Sandy Valley, Boone County, Chapmanville, Crawley Creek, Gilbert, Giles County, Green Shoal, Guyandotte River, Harts, Logan, Matewan, Meador, Twelve Pole Creek, Wharncliffe

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The following list of regional place names of streams is derived from Surveyors Record Book A at the Logan County Clerk’s Office in Logan, WV. Each document generally lists three dates for the survey; I chose to identify the earliest (Treasury warrant date) and the latest date (survey completion date). The purpose of this list is to document the earliest usage and spelling of a place name in my region. Logan County was extremely large in the 1820s and has since been partitioned to create new counties, so many of these places are not located in Logan County today. This list will be updated periodically.

Beech, a branch of Tug Fork (24 May 1825, 12 October 1825, p. 64)

Ben (26 July 1826, 13 October 1826, p. 89)

Bend of Guyandotte (30 April 1823, 3 March 1831, p. 129)

Big and Clear Fork of Guyandotte River (1 October 1818, 26 June 1826, p. 79)

Big Bottom Fork of Guyandotte (12 February 1823, 25 October 1827, p. 100)

Big Creek (11 December 1817, 25 October 1824, p. 34)

Big Fork of Guyandotte River (18 July 1825, 17 February 1826, p. 73)

Big Island [Logan] (16 February 1825, 17 January 1827, p. 94)

Bluff Mountain (1 October 1818, 21 February 1825, p. 37)

Bone Lick Bottom, New River (19 January 1824, 31 July 1830, p. 123)

Breckenridge’s forks of Cole River (31 January 1825, 27 February 1827, p. 100)

Buffalo (10 February 1825, 6 February 1827, p. 99)

Coal Branch of Guyandotte River (17 December 1824, 31 March 1825, p. 42)

Cow Creek of Island Creek (13 December 1823, 11 October 1826, p. 87-88)

Crawley (10 June 1824, 8 July 1825, p. 47)

Crawleys Creek (16 February 1825, 17 January 1827, p. 95)

Crooked Creek (16 February 1825, 1 April 1825, p. 43-44)

Defeats Branch on Little Huffs Creek (7 October 1830, 27 July 1831, p. 131)

Double Camp Branch of Clear Fork (1 June 1821, 29 December 1825, p. 69)

Drew’s Creek, one of the forks of Peech Tree, a branch of Marsh Fork of Cole River (22 July 1826, 15 October 1828, p. 109)

Elk, a branch of Guyandotte (14 January 1830, 22 November 1830, p. 127)

Elk, a branch of Pigeon (16 February 1825, 18 August 1825, p. 51)

Elkhorn Branch of Tug Fork (30 April 1825, 12 November 1826, p. 93)

Elkhorn River (30 April 1825, 1 November 1825, p. 65)

Flat Top Mountain (22 November 1824, 14 February 1826, p. 72)

Gilbert (14 January 1830, 26 August 1830, p. 121)

Grapevine, a small branch called Grapevine (8 July 1825, 14 October 1825, p. 63)

Green Shoal Creek (15 March 1826, 10 October 1826, p. 86-87)

Harts Creek (17 February 1824, 10 October 1826, p. 87)

Hewetts Creek, a branch of Spruce Fork of Coal River (20 May 1813, 11 April 1825, p. 44)

Horse Creek (10 February 1825, 22 July 1826, p. 92)

Horsepen Creek, a fork of Gilbert (14 January 1830, 26 August 1830, p. 121)

Huff Creek (11 December 1822, 11 March 1825, p. 40)

Huffs Creek (18 July 1825, 14 March 1828, p. 104-105)

Indian Creek (22 July 1826, 8 February 1827, p. 99)

Ingrams Branch, New River (6 October 1829, 4 December 1829, p. 117)

Island of Guyandotte [Logan] (17 December 1824, 18 January 1827, p. 96)

Island tract [Logan] (4 May 1826, 12 May 1830, p. 120)

Jacks Branch of Clear Fork (6 January 1824, 16 December 1825, p. 66)

Laurel Fork of Guyandotte River (17 February 1824, 27 August 1830, p. 122)

Left Fork of Island Creek (4 February 1817, 28 October 1824, p. 35)

Left Hand Fork of Ben, waters of Tug Fork (13 December 1823, 11 October 1826, p. 88)

Laurel Creek and Crooked Run, New River (10 May 1825, 25 August 1825, p. 56)

Laurel Fork of Pigeon Creek (17 December 1824, 10 October 1826, p. 85)

Laurel Fork of Twelve Pole (3 November 1813, 19 March 1825, p. 40)

Lick Branch (24 May 1825, 10 October 1826, p. 85)

Little Huff’s Creek (4 May 1826, 27 May 1829, p. 116)

Loop of New River (20 February 1821, 26 February 1825, p. 90)

Main Right Hand Fork of Big Creek (24 May 1825, 8 September 1825, p. 54)

Marsh Fork of Cole River (17 February 1823, 9 March 1825, p. 39)

Marshes of Cole River (30 April 1825, 3 February 1830, p. 118)

Mate, a branch of the Tug Fork of Sandy (8 July 1825, 11 October 1825, p. 62)

Mazzel, Little Huffs Creek (12 February 1825, 18 September 1829, p. 116)

Mill Creek, a branch of Guyandotte (18 July 1825, 28 January 1831, p. 128)

Mill Creek of Island Creek (10 January 1823, 29 October 1824, p. 36)

Millers Branch of Tug Fork (4 May 1826, 16 September 1826, p. 81)

North Branch of Big Creek (18 July 1825, 7 September 1825, p. 52-53)

North Fork of Big Creek (4 April 1825, 9 September 1825, p. 54)

Old Island survey [Logan] (22 July 1826, 17 January 1827, p. 95)

Peach Tree, a small branch called the Peach Tree (24 May 1824, 7 October 1825, p. 60)

Pete Huff’s Creek (18 July 1825, 27 August 1830, p. 125)

Peter Huffs Creek (13 December 1823, 12 November 1825, p. 66)

Pigeon Creek (16 February 1825, 15 October 1825, p. 63)

Pine Creek of Island Creek (4 February 1817, 27 October 1824, p. 35)

Pond Fork of Cole River (8 March 1826, 13 November 1828, p. 112-113)

Rock Creek (22 July 1826, 11 August 1828, p. 106)

Rock House Fork of Middle Fork of Island Creek (17 February 1824, 5 October 1825, p. 59)

Rock House Fork of Pigeon (6 February 1825, 22 March 1825, p. 41)

Rum Creek (23 November 1824, 17 July 1828, p. 105)

Sand Lick Fork of Cole River (14 May 1826, 31 January 1827, p. 97)

Shannon branches, Tug Fork (6 December 1828, 2 September 1830, p. 125-126)

Skin Fork of Cole River (12 February 1825, 29 October 1828, p. 111)

Spruce Fork of Coal River (16 February 1825, 22 April 1825, p. 45)

Tonies Fork of Big Cole and Horse Creek (10 February 1825, 22 July 1826, p. 92)

Trace Fork of Big Creek (16 February 1825, 8 September 1825, p. 52)

Tug Fork of Sandy River (10 March 1825, 24 March 1825, p. 42)

Turtle Creek, a branch of Little Coal River (13 December 1824, 12 April 1825, p. 45)

West Fork of Cole River (12 February 1825, 10 November 1828, p. 111-112)

Wolf Pen Creek, branch of New River (10 May 1825, 25 August 1825, p. 56)

Wolf Pen Creek at mouth of Rattlesnake Branch (10 February 1825, 11 January 1826, p. 71)

In Search of Ed Haley 303

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Ed Haley, Lincoln County Feud, Music, Stiltner

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After the feud, Cain Adkins settled on Laurel Creek in Wayne County and never returned to Harts. Not long afterward, he began suffering from some type of lingering illness.

“Grandpaw, he played a fiddle,” Daisy said. “They had him to play the fiddle on his deathbed. Somebody came in and they wanted to hear a song and he played it for him. He said, ‘They ain’t no harm in a fiddle. If they’s any harm, it’s when no one plays it.’ I’ve heard Mom tell the last song he played, but I don’t know what it was he played. Mom said it made him feel better.”

Cain died of Brights Disease in 1896.

His widow Mariah lived many more years.

“Grandmaw was a good person — she went to church every Sunday. The last ten years she went blind and stayed with Mom. Mom waited on her.”

She died in 1931.

It took Spicie years to forgive the Brumfields for killing Green. Even after remarrying Goble Fry (her first cousin) in 1893, she was unable to cope with Green’s death and always cried when recounting the tale of his murder. For years, her bitterness kept her from joining the church.

“She felt like he hadn’t done nothing to be killed for ’cause she loved him better than anything,” Daisy said. “Before she was baptized, my brother Sherman had went off to work — him and a bunch of boys — and they was all telling what church their mother belonged to and Sherman said to Mom, ‘Mom, I had to tell them you didn’t belong to the church.’ ‘Well,’ she said, ‘I can’t forgive the Brumfields.’ He said, ‘You can’t forget it, but you got to forgive them or you’ll go to the same place where they did.’ I heard him say that. I was a young woman.”

These were apparently inspiring words, because Spicie was baptized soon afterwards and formed a gospel quartet, “The McCoy Time Singers.” Her son, Sherman McCoy, was a key member.

“Brother Sherman could play any kind of instrument, but banjo is what he played mostly,” Daisy said. “He played all kinds of pretty tunes on the banjo that wasn’t gospel. And when he was on WCMI he wanted people to write in and tell him to play the gospel music, but he had to play the one that got the most requests and he didn’t get very much requests for the gospel. But Mom and Sherman sung them gospel songs on there. They had a program on WCMI one time.”

Daisy said the only known recordings of the McCoy Time Singers had been destroyed years ago.

“They made records of their quartet singing and they peeled up. Got damp. Monroe, my brother, got some and even wrapped them in cloth and they still peeled.”

I wanted to know more about Sherman McCoy, so I got out my banjo and played a little bit for Daisy. She said he played a lot with his uncle, Winchester Adkins (one of the best fiddlers in Wayne County), and a guitar player named Oscar Osborne.

“Brother Sherman was one of the best banjo players I ever heard,” Daisy said. “I’ve heard them on television but I’ve never heard anything to beat Brother Sherman. He played a guitar and taught music lessons. He played all kinds of jigs. Did you ever play ‘The Indian Girl’? He didn’t like to play that one very much because he had to tune it different but that was the prettiest tune I ever heard on the banjo. It sounded like he had more than ten fingers.”

I asked Daisy about Sherman playing with Ed Haley and she said, “He played music with Ed Haley and they played in Catlettsburg.”

That’s all she knew about it but I wondered just how well they actually knew each other. Was it possible that Ed named his oldest child Sherman Luther Haley after Sherman McCoy? I could just picture them loafing together as young bachelors.

Daisy said Green McCoy’s other son, Green Jr., was a singing instructor. She remembered the first time he came into contact with a guitar.

“Uncle Cain, he played a guitar,” she said. “He come down one time and wanted Green to see his guitar. Green only seen that guitar one time and worked a week and got him a guitar and tuned it up and was playing on it. He was gifted.”

What happened to him?

Faye said, “Uncle Green, he hadn’t been dead but I’d say about eight or ten years. He played a guitar good.”

Daisy said Green’s son Luther plays the guitar on the radio in the Columbus-Chillicothe area.

“Uncle Green said he was absolutely the best he ever heard,” she said.

She didn’t know much about Luther or have any recordings of him but had a videocassette tape of Green Jr. picking the guitar and singing in 1975. (I couldn’t help but note that Green Jr. and Ed Haley both had sons named Luther.)

Spicie’s children by Goble Fry also were talented musicians, hinting at a musical strain in her genetics as well.

“Uncle Monroe was a Fry — that was Mom’s brother — and Harkins — they both played music,” Faye said. “But now, Uncle Monroe could play, I guess, about any type of instrument. I remember him playing ‘Salty Dog’ one time.”

Daisy really bragged on her brother Harkins Fry, a music teacher and songwriter. He wrote one gospel song called “Time Has Made A Change”, which Daisy and Faye sang for us:

Time has made a change in the old homeplace.

Many of my friends have gone away,

Some never more in this life I shall see.

Time has made a change in me.

Time has made a change in the old homeplace.

Time has made a change in each smiling face,

And I know my friends can plainly see

Time has made a change in me.

In my childhood days I was well and strong.

I could climb the hillside all day long,

But I’m not today what I used to be.

Time has made a change in me.

When I reach my home in that land so fair.

Meet my friends awaiting me over there.

Free from toil and pain I shall ever be.

Time has made a change in me.

In Search of Ed Haley 302

04 Sunday May 2014

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

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I asked Daisy again about her mother’s escape from Harts Creek.

“Grandpaw and the oldest boy had to come on out and come down into Wayne County to save their lives,” she said.

This seeming abandonment of his family in such a dark time appeared to be a blemish on Cain’s otherwise “spotless record.” I thought about that and said, “Seems to me like the safest way to get everybody out was to get the menfolk out first. And also, too, the menfolk could have got out of there quicker without the womenfolk.”

Faye said, “Well, I remember Grandmaw saying the Brumfields said they’d kill everything from the housecat up. I guess that’s why Grandpaw left, but I still wonder why he left the womenfolk. I can’t help it if it is my great-grandpaw.”

Not long after Cain left Harts, Daisy’s grandmother, Mariah Adkins, killed twelve sheep and some hogs and stored the meat in barrels, then loaded the barrels and all of the other family possessions onto a rented push-boat.

“They couldn’t get nobody to row the boat,” Daisy said. “Grandmaw tried to hire a colored man and he said he would, but he said, ‘I know they’d kill me.’ So they had to do it all theirselves. And Mom and Sissy done the rowing.”

“It was a pretty big size boat cause they had all the stuff they had in their house and their barrels of meat all in there,” Daisy said. “But they couldn’t get nobody to row the boat. Grandmaw tried to hire a colored man and he said he would but he said, ‘I know they’d kill me.’ So they had to do it all theirselves. And Mom and Sissy done the rowing.”

Those on the boat were 46-year-old Mariah Adkins, 23-year-old Spicie McCoy, 18-year-old Mittie Adkins, 13-year-old Lena Adkins, 13-year-old Liza Adkins, nine-year-old Cain Adkins, Jr., and one-year-old Sherman McCoy. Daisy wasn’t sure if Aunt Angeline (aged 28) was on the boat with her six kids, including a newborn.

“I don’t know whether she was already down here or not,” she said. “She didn’t come on the boat with them, I don’t think. She come down and married Lee Adams and lived out on the Napier Ridge.”

Daisy gave a chilling account of the ride down-river.

“Mom was about four months along with my brother Green and she had that little baby. Sherman was about a year and a half old — and it was raining and cold. 8th day of January. They come down through there and the peach trees was in full bloom, she said. Had been kind of a warm spell and the peach trees bloomed out that year. Mom said she was cold; she was numb.”

As they crept out of Harts, little Sherman McCoy pulled a long hair pin from his mother’s hair and stuck it repeatedly in her breast. She was afraid to take it from him because he might cry and alert the Brumfields of their exodus.

“He’d take that straight pin and poke it in her breast and pull it out,” Daisy said. “She knowed she was gonna be drowned every minute, so she wouldn’t scold him for it. She said, ‘It didn’t hurt and he had fun at it.’ He was just a little fella.”

It was the beginning of a rough ride: Mariah almost tipped the boat twice before allowing her daughter Mittie to pilot it.

The Adkinses spent the night at Ranger where they stored their goods at a local home. The next day, they got off the boat at Branchland and crossed over a mountain to Laurel Creek in Wayne County.

“Then they got Bill Frazier from Stiltner to go back up there to Ranger in a wagon — he was a young man then — and haul whatever they had stored down there,” Daisy said. “By the time he got there, the hams and meat didn’t have much meat on them.”

This story about the Adkins family’s exodus constituted one of those unforgettable tales in our search. Hearing about the Brumfield threat to kill “everything from the housecat up” caused Brandon to feel horrible that his ancestors would’ve perhaps harmed innocent women and children. Things had apparently come to that in Harts. Women shot from ambush. Young widows. Orphans. The entire community seemed to be coming undone. Of course, the determination of the women and children to survive their horrible ordeal was both inspiring and awesome, especially considering they weren’t the strong, raw-boned mountaineer women which one imagines them to have been. (Spicie McCoy only weighed about 91 pounds.)

In Search of Ed Haley 274

27 Thursday Mar 2014

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

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Excitedly, I next called Spicie McCoy’s daughter Daisy Ross who lived in Kenova, a small city near Huntington, West Virginia. Daisy’s voice was weak — she said she’d been down sick with a cold for the past week. I told her that we were trying to find out about Green McCoy’s death and she said, “My mother married Green McCoy and he was murdered. She married Goble Fry after he died. My mother was Spicie. She talked about Milt Haley. She just said they played music together, him and Green McCoy. They were good friends. I don’t know whether he was rough or not. I never heard Mom say nothing against Milt Haley.”

To our surprise, Daisy had no idea why Milt and Green were killed by the Brumfields.

“The Brumfields was rough: they had a mob,” she said. “The Brumfields first killed Grandpa’s son-in-law Boney Lucas, and when Mom married Green McCoy they said they had another’n they was gonna kill. Said they were gonna kill everything from the housecat up. They was just kindly mean people, I reckon.”

Daisy said Milt and Green tried to hide out from the Brumfields somewhere in Eden, Kentucky. She wasn’t sure where that was, but knew why they went there.

“Green McCoy had been married and had his wife and two children down there,” she said. “Yeah, Mommy didn’t know that, you see. Just before she got married, she got news that he had a wife and two children down there. He had told her that he had divorced her and Grandma said that hurt her awful bad and she couldn’t make Mommy understand it. Said Mom loved him so good she went ahead and married him anyhow.”

It didn’t take long for the Brumfields to locate Milt and Green.

“They went down and got them,” Daisy said. “The law was afraid of them, you know. They killed them there at Fry. And when the Brumfields killed them, they wasn’t satisfied with that. They took a pole-axe and beat their brains out and their brains splattered up on the door, Mom said. That hurt Mom so bad.”

I was chilled to the bone.

After Milt’s and Green’s murder, Daisy’s mother and family fled Harts Creek.

“The murder was in October and Grandpa and Uncle Winchester, his son, had to get out to Wayne County because they said they was gonna kill everything from the housecat up, the Brumfields did,” she said. “Grandma and Mom and the girls rented a boat and put all their household stuff and barrels of meat and come down on the river in January to Laurel Creek here in Wayne County. It was in January, but the peach trees was in full bloom, Mom said. Come a little warm spell and they all budded out in bloom. They didn’t have no menfolks to row the boat; the women had to do it. Mom said they was looking every minute to be drowned ’cause they was all kinds of stuff on the river. It was up from bank to bank.”

I asked Daisy if she knew Ed Haley and she said, “Yeah that’s the one played music with my brother, Sherman McCoy. My brother, he played the banjo. That was Green McCoy’s son you know and that was my half-brother. Ed Haley and Sherman McCoy — they was good friends. They got together and played music together down in Kentucky somewhere. I guess maybe in Catlettsburg or maybe in Ashland. He was Milt Haley’s son. And they said their fathers was killed together.”