31 Sunday Aug 2014
Posted in Harts, Lincoln County Feud
Tags
Ann Brumfield, Appalachia, Blood in West Virginia, Dorothy Brumfield, feud, genealogy, history, John Brumfield, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Paris Brumfield, photos
John Brumfield, son of Paris and Ann (Toney) Brumfield, c.1898. John was a key participant in the Lincoln County Feud. Courtesy of Dorothy (Roberts) Brumfield.
25 Monday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, John Hartford, Lincoln County Feud
Tags
archaeology, Brandon Kirk, Haley-McCoy grave, Harts Creek, history, John Hartford, Lincoln County, photos, Smithsonian Institution, U.S. South, West Fork, West Virginia
John Hartford at the Haley-McCoy grave, West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV, May 1998
23 Saturday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek
Tags
Bill Thompson, Bob Dingess, Chapman Adkins, Charles Curry, Ed Brumfield, Garnett Brumfield, genealogy, George H. Adkins, Harts Creek, history, Ira Tomblin, Josephine Robinson, Lincoln County, Logan Banner, Mattie Carter, Minerva Tomblin, Robert Robinson, Tom Brumfield, West Virginia
“Forget Me Not,” an unnamed local correspondent from Harts Creek in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on Friday, November 30, 1923:
Mr. George H. Adkins is still driving Charley Curry’s mules for him.
Miss Nervie Tomblin and Bill Thompson were guests at Chas. Curry’s Sunday.
Wonder why Mr. Ira Tomblin is visiting the home of Mr. Curry’s so much.
Mattie Carter and Garnett Brumfield were out looking for their boys Sunday.
Mr. Tom Brumfield and Ed. Brumfield are giving out Preacher Curry’s appointment for him.
Chapman Adkins is clerking in Robt. Robinson’s store.
Robert Dingess was calling on Josephine Robinson, Sunday.
23 Saturday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Culture of Honor, Ed Haley, Harts, Lincoln County Feud
Tags
Appalachia, archaeology, Brandon Kirk, Haley-McCoy grave, history, John Hartford, Lincoln County, Malcolm Richardson, Smithsonian Institution, West Fork, West Virginia
Just before Christmas, Brandon and I received a letter from Rich, at the Smithsonian, which provided us with some preliminary information on the gravesite:
The burial surface is a large shallow depression in the soil located on a steep slope. The depression is approximately one foot deep. The western side of the burial depression, presumably the head, is marked by two small rock cairns that feature natural upright stone slabs projecting from the tops. The opposite end (foot) is marked by two small rock cairns.
The burial appears to be shallow when probing in the deepest part of the depression, with the burial shaft floor located at a depth of approximately 2 feet.
The shaft is of sufficient size to have accommodated two persons lying side-by-side. It is very shallow, but this may have been due to haste during excavation of the burial pit, or it could have resulted from termination of the efforts of the grave diggers when they encountered the underlying siltstone strata.
Two items that could effect bone preservation were noted: oak trees are in the vicinity of the burial, and the tannin from these leaves can elevate the acid content of the soil; and the presence of some white clay also indicates soil acidity. However, the burial is on a steep slope and located high up near the brow of the ridge. The slope and wind action at that elevation could retard a significant accumulation of leaves. The slope also prevents any significant amount of water from collecting in the burial depression.
The remoteness of the burial site will make it necessary to complete the disinterment in a single day or else provide overnight guards.
21 Thursday Aug 2014
Posted in Barboursville, Big Creek, Big Ugly Creek, Gill, Sand Creek
Tags
Ada Sperry, Barboursville, Big Creek, Brad Gill, Bradyville, Cesco Messinger, coal, education, Elmer Fry, Fay Gill, genealogy, Gill, Hager, Harvey May, history, Huntington, Lee Adkins, Lincoln County, Lincoln Republican, M. Nelson, Maggie Sperry, Maud Gill, Parker Lucas, preacher, Sand Creek, singing schools, W.M. Sperry, West Virginia
An unnamed local correspondent from Gill in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, June 28, 1923:
Miss Fay Gill begins her school here on the 6th of August.
M. Nelson, of Barboursville, preached an able sermon at Gill last Sunday.
Parker Lucas preached a fine sermon here last Sunday night.
Prof. Lee Adkins, of Hager has completed a fine singing school at Sand Creek. He has taught three at Gill, and will teach another one in the near future.
Mr. and Mrs. W.M. Sperry, of Gill, were visiting relatives and friends at Hager last week. They were accompanied by their small daughters, Misses Ada and Maggie.
Miss Maud Gill began teaching the Bradyville school on last Monday.
Brad Gill was a recent visitor in Huntington.
Cesco Messinger caught a 15-pound fish one day last week.
Elmer Fry has been getting our coal bank ties during the past week.
Uncle Harve May was visiting relatives at Big Creek the latter part of last week.
Did you ever notice that when people hear of some little talk that doesn’t amount to anything, how it goes over the country; and then when they hear of anything that amounts to a great deal you hardly ever hear it mentioned?
20 Wednesday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Culture of Honor, Harts, Lincoln County Feud, Timber
Tags
Appalachia, archaeology, Brandon Kirk, Haley-McCoy grave, Harts Creek, history, John Hartford, John Imlay, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, logging, Malcolm Richardson, photos, Smithsonian Institution, Steve Haley, timbering, West Fork, West Virginia
John Hartford and Steve Haley at the Haley-McCoy grave, West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV, 1997
John Hartford and Steve Haley with the Smithsonian crew, West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV, 1997
John Imlay and Malcolm Richardson of the Smithsonian Institution probing the Haley-McCoy grave, 1997
New timber road near the Haley-McCoy grave, West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV, 1997
19 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in Ferrellsburg
Tags
Ferrellsburg, Frank Davis, history, life, Lincoln County, photos, U.S. South, West Virginia, World War I
Frank Davis, World War veteran and resident of Ferrellsburg, Lincoln County, WV
19 Tuesday Aug 2014
Tags
Arkansas, Arkansas Traveler, Ashland, banjo, Brandon Kirk, Ed Haley, Ella Haley, fiddle, fiddler, fiddling, Grayson, Harts, history, Holden, Jim Tackett, John Hartford, John Tackett, Kentucky, Lincoln County, Logan County, Logan Court House, music, Ohio, Portsmouth, Red River, Reece Tackett, Trace Fork, West Fork, writing
The next day, Brandon and I visited Reece Tackett, a banjo-picker who lived in a nice yellow house just up West Fork. Reece was born in 1909 and raised around Grayson in eastern Kentucky. His grandfather, Jim Tackett, was a fiddler from the Red River area of Arkansas who played for square dances in large farmhouses. He taught Reece’s father, John Tackett, how to play the fiddle. Reece said his father played “the old way — not flashy.” He used a homemade fiddle and “had to go to pine trees to get rosin.” He moved to a farm about nine miles from Grayson, where he made fiddles and played close to home, never as far away as Portsmouth, Ohio.
Reece said he moved to Holden in Logan County when he was sixteen to work with his uncle and brother in the coalmines. He used to watch Ed Haley and his wife play “beautiful” tunes like “Arkansas Traveler” on weekends at the Logan Courthouse. He said Ed wasn’t a big man and had fingers “about like a lead pencil.” His wife played the mandolin.
“She was pretty good on her singing,” Reece said. “She was dressed like the real old ladies. She had the long dress on and the apron.”
Ella kept a cup fastened to herself somehow.
“I’ve tossed many a nickel and dime in their cup,” Reece said.
Sometimes, people would pretend to put money in their cup and then steal from it.
Ed was usually paid about ten or fifteen cents per tune. There were no dollars and most of the coal miners were paid in company script.
Reece said he moved to Harts in 1946 and had no idea that Ed was from Trace Fork or even lived in Ashland.
19 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Ugly Creek, Gill, Harts, Leet
Tags
Big Ugly Creek, Brad Gill, Brooks Hager, C&O Railroad, Cassie Hager, genealogy, Gill, Gill School House, Golden Hager, Hager, Harts, history, John Sperry, Lee Adkins, Lee Spears, Leet, life, Lincoln County, Lincoln Republican, measles, Midkiff, Peacha Hager, Philip Sperry, Price, Spears, Ward Spears, West Virginia, William Sperry
“Reporter,” a local correspondent from Gill in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, June 21, 1923:
A large engine with six cars were wrecked on the track at Harts one day last week, but no one was injured.
John Sperry will preach at Gill, Saturday night before the third Sunday in July. Everybody is invited.
Lee Adkins of Hager, will conduct a singing school at the Gill school house beginning the first Sunday in July.
Sons, Brooks, Golden, Peacha and Cassie Hager, of Spears, John Sperry and sons of Price, Lee Spears, and Philip Sperry of Gill, attended the big Lodge celebration at Midkiff last Sunday.
Ward Spears, of this place, attended the baptizing at Leet last Sunday.
Brad Gill has purchased a new camera.
Wm. Sperry and family have recovered from the measles.
17 Sunday Aug 2014
Posted in Harts, Lincoln County Feud, Timber
Tags
Al Brumfield, Blood in West Virginia, feud, feuds, Harts, history, life, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Paris Brumfield, photos, timbering, West Virginia
Allen “Al” Brumfield, son of Paris, resident of Harts, Lincoln County, WV, 1890s
17 Sunday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Ugly Creek, Coal, Gill, Logan, Sand Creek
Tags
Andy Cyfers, Big Ugly Creek, Billy Sunday, C.M. Adkins, cancer, coal, Earn Cooper, Elmer Fry, farming, Ferguson Evans, Gill, Hager, Hal Cyfers, Hubball, J.E. Gore, Janie Thompson, Lincoln County, Lincoln Republican, Logan, Madison, measles, moonshining, Nancy Cyfers, Sand Creek, W.M. Sperry, Ward Spears, Wayne County, West Virginia, Will Cyfers
“Reporter,” a local correspondent from Gill in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, June 14, 1923:
Miss Janie Thompson was the weekend guest of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Sperry, and also assisted them while ill with the measles.
Earn Cooper, of Hager, was the guest of his sister, Mrs. W.M. Sperry, and also Mr. and Mrs. Ward Spears, the latter part of last week.
Elmer Fry has been hauling bank posts and ties the past week.
Hal Cyphers has been working at Omar the past week.
Quite a number of people from this section have been going to Logan to hear Billy Sunday preach.
W.M. Sperry and Andy Cyphers attended meeting at Sand Creek last Sunday.
J.E. Gore, Cancer Specialist of Madison, was here recently.
Ferguson Evans has moved to Hubball, where he will have employment in the mines.
The loafers, rats and moonshiners are not so thick around Gill at present as they have been.
Our Ticket Agent, C.M. Adkins, remains on the job at this place and knows business when he sees it.
Will Cyphers, of Wayne county, was the over Sunday guest of Mr. and Mrs. A. Cyphers. He reports the crops in Wayne good.
17 Sunday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Culture of Honor, Harts, Lincoln County Feud
Tags
Ben Adams, Ben Walker, Bill Fowler, Billy Adkins, Brandon Kirk, Cat Fry, Chapmanville High School, Charley Davis, Ed Haley, French Bryant, Fry, Green McCoy, Harts Creek, Henderson Dingess, history, Iris Williams, James Davis, John Brumfield, John Hartford, John W Runyon, Kentucky, Lincoln County, miller, Milt Haley, Spring Branch, West Fork, West Virginia, writing
That evening, Brandon and I met up with Billy Adkins and went to see James Davis on West Fork. James lived on Spring Branch of West Fork, a little hollow just across the creek from Iris Williams. A few years back, his older brother Charlie had told Brandon about seeing Ed win a twenty dollar gold piece in a contest at the old Chapmanville High School.
We found the eighty-something-year-old James laying on the couch with a little fuzzy dog crawling all over him like a monkey. He said he didn’t remember Ed, so I mentioned how he was Milt Haley’s son, which got an immediate reaction. He had heard the story of Milt’s death from Cat Fry, although he didn’t immediately offer up any details. Actually, James was hesitant to talk about the 1889 murders — almost as if the participants were still around and living next door. His answers to our questions were very evasive.
We learned from James that it was Bill Fowler (not John Runyon or Ben Adams) who hired Milt and Green to ambush Al. It was all over competition between businesses. Fowler was a saloon operator and a gristmill operator, while Brumfield ran a log boom.
“They was all there making money,” he said. “You know how that stirs up trouble. Some a making a little more money than others. They was bucking one another, like money men does.”
Milt and Green ambushed Al and Hollena one Sunday as they rode down the creek on a single horse after a visit with Henderson Dingess. In the attack, Mr. Brumfield was shot through the arm, while his wife was shot in the face. Milt and Green were soon captured in Kentucky by the Adkinses and Brumfields, who held them them at Fry. Neither man would admit to anything so John Brumfield shot one of them in the head. He reputedly put his toe at the hole and said, “I put a bullet right there.”
Brumfield was himself shot in the head a few years later.
French Bryant, “who was pretty hard to handle,” was also involved in the killings.
Afterwards, people were afraid to touch Milt’s and Green’s bodies until Ben Walker allowed them to be buried on his property. The whole event “shook people up pretty bad.” Fowler sold out at the mouth of Harts and moved away.
16 Saturday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Ugly Creek, Gill, Leet, Logan
Tags
Big Ugly Creek, Buck Lick, C&O Railroad, Coon Adkins, Frank Cooper, genealogy, Gill, Hamlin, history, James "Bud" Tipton, Leet, life, Lincoln County, Lincoln Republican, Logan, measles, Nine Mile Creek, Parsner Creek, Philip Sperry, singing schools, teacher, W.M. Sperry, Ward Spears, West Hamlin, West Virginia
“Reporter,” a local correspondent from Gill in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, June 7, 1923:
Ward Spears, Coon Adkins, and Frank Cooper attended prayer meeting at Leet Friday night.
Frank Cooper who has been walking track for the C. & O. at Logan was here the latter part of last week.
There is a number of cases of measles in this section. The entire family of W.M. Sperry has been ill with them.
W.M. Sperry has been teaching a singing school at Buck Lick with good success. Large crowds are attending.
Philip Sperry returned home the latter part of last week from a visit on Parsner Creek, Nine Mile, Hamlin and West Hamlin.
The wages of the section men in this section were raised to $3.20 per day on May 16th. Mr. Tipton is foreman and is okay for the business.
08 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Wewanta
Tags
Cain Lucas, Emmett Frazier, farming, Fourteen Mile Creek, genealogy, history, Lincoln County, Lincoln Republican, religion, West Virginia, Wewanta
“Red Jacket,” a local correspondent from Wewanta in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, May 10, 1923:
The farmers in this section are very busy planting corn.
Mr. Emmett Frazier, a prominent young citizen of this place is suffering from a wound in the knee, which resulted from an accident with an ax. Although Mr. Frazier’s wound did not seem serious at first, it is now giving him considerable trouble.
Mr. E.C. Lucas and others are conducting Sunday school classes here, with large attendance. Appointment has also been made for preaching services here on the fourth Sunday in May. Arrangements are being made for free dinner and other activities on that day.
08 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Harts, Women's History
Tags
education, family, genealogy, Harts Creek District, history, life, Lincoln County, Mae Brumfield, photos, teacher, West Virginia
Mae Caines Brumfield (with children), a teacher in Harts Creek District, Lincoln County, WV
07 Thursday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Lincoln County Feud
Tags
Blood in West Virginia, Haley-McCoy grave, Harts Creek, Jimmy McCoy, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, photos, West Fork, West Virginia
Jimmy McCoy with son at the Haley-McCoy grave on West Fork of Harts Creek, Lincoln County, WV, 1997
05 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Ugly Creek, Cemeteries, Leet
Tags
Appalachia, Big Ugly Creek, cemeteries, genealogy, Hamilton Fry, Hamilton Fry Family Cemetery, history, Lincoln County, West Virginia
Hamilton Fry grave, located at Brumfield Branch of Big Ugly Creek, Lincoln County, WV, 2011
05 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Ugly Creek, Coal, Gill, Timber
Tags
Alkol, Allen, Andrew Adkins, Bach Linville, Bernie, Big Ugly Creek, Brad Gill, Bruce Walls, Cassie Hager, Clark Collins, coal, Democrats, Dick Aldridge, Emery Fry, fishing, Gill, Grant Cremeans, Griffithsville, Guyandotte River, Hamlin, Hattie Gill, Henon Smith, history, Huntington, James A. Hughes, Jupiter Fry, Lattin, Lee Adkins, Lincoln County, Lincoln Republican, Logan County, measles, mumps, Omar, Peacha Hager, Philip Hager, Philip Sperry, Sherman Linville, Tom Mullins, West Virginia, Westmoreland, Wilburn Scragg
“Two Brothers,” local correspondents from Gill in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, May 3, 1923:
Grant Cremeans, of Hamlin, Sherman Linville, of Alkol, Bruce Walls, of Griffithsville, and Bach Linville, of Bernie, were recent business visitors at this place.
Louis Fry caught a fish one day this week that weighed five pounds.
There is a number of cases of measles in this section.
Philip Spery, Hainen Smith and others loaded thirty-two thousand feet of lumber for Philip Hager one day last week. The lumber was shipped to Jas. A. Hughes, West Moreland, W.Va.
Prof. Lee Adkins’ singing school at this place closed Wednesday night. A large crowd heard the instrumental music rendered by Misses Peacha and Cassie Hager, which was enjoyed by all.
The coal traffic on Guyan is becoming enormous. Everything seems to be on the boom in the Guyan Valley.
Wilburn Scragg, of Allen, was a recent Gill visitor.
Brad Gill is recovering from the mumps and is able to be out again.
Miss Hattie Gill has the mumps.
Emery Fry and Dick Aldridge have been hauling telephone poles the past week.
The mining operations at Lattin have been having trouble securing cars the past few weeks.
Hainen Smith has gone to Omar, where he will cook for a mining crew.
Mrs. Tom Mullins and Mrs. Andrew Adkins were shopping at Gill one day the past week.
Clark Collins was a recent business visitor in Huntington.
You can’t fool all the people all the time. Neither can you please half the people half the time.
Democrats can’t forgive prosperity for coming back when they are out.
05 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in Cemeteries, Harts, Lincoln County Feud
Tags
Blood in West Virginia, Brandon Kirk, cemetery, Charles Brumfield Family Cemetery, Charley Brumfield, genealogy, Harts, history, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, photos, West Virginia
Charles Brumfield headstone, located at Harts, Lincoln County, WV, 2014
Charles Brumfield footstone, located in Harts, Lincoln County, WV, 2014
02 Saturday Aug 2014
Posted in Ed Haley
Tags
Ben Walker, Blood in West Virginia, Chapmanville, Ed Haley, Green McCoy, Green Shoal, Grimes Music Store, Harts Creek, history, John Hartford, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Logan, Logan County, Low Gap, Milt Haley, music, Nashville, Robert Ellis, Walker Family Cemetery, West Virginia, writing
That night, I left Harts and headed toward Nashville, where I soon called Robert Ellis, a Logan County man who supposedly had some Haley records.
“Ed used to play some music with my oldest brother that passed away in January,” Robert said. “He’d been to our house a lot of times, where we lived here in Chapmanville, and I’d heard him play a lot on the streets in Logan and around through the county here in different places. He was a good fiddler. One of the best.”
I asked Robert if he was a musician and he said he used to be but gave it up after a hand injury during World War II. He was pretty sure he had some of Ed’s records.
“I believe I do,” he said. “One or two of his records. My grandmother used to buy them here in Logan at the old Grimes Music Store in Logan.”
I never heard anything about Ed selling records like that…but who knows?
Robert surprised me when he started talking about Milt Haley’s murder.
“About where Milt and Green McCoy were buried down there at Harts Creek, a feller told me some time ago that it was there at Low Gap,” he said. “How come me to know about that, we used to do military funerals a lot and we had a flag-raising at that Walker Cemetery there. I asked this feller if we were close to where those men were buried. He said, ‘Yeah, right back up yonder those fellers are buried.’ And this Carver that was with us that day, his grandfather was in with the ones that buried these people.”
Robert heard about the Haley-McCoy murders from his grandmother.
“These Brumfields, they killed these fellers and left them in a big two-story house there at the mouth of Green Shoal,” Robert said. “That two-story house is torn down now. Somebody was supposed to be left to guard them and they all got drunk and carousing around, so someone slipped in — so my grandmother told me — and chopped the boys up with an axe. Some of them found out about it and they said, ‘These men’s gotta be buried.’ So some of the Brumfields — at that time they was a lot of them down in there and they were tough — and they said, ‘Leave them where they’re at.’ This Carver, his grandfather said, ‘We’re gonna bury them. That’s all I’m gonna say and I’ve told you we’re gonna bury them.’ So them Brumfields evidently knew him and wouldn’t bother him and they went up there and buried those boys.”
Writings from my travels and experiences. High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water. Mark Twain
This site is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and promotion of history and culture in Appalachia.
Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond
A site about one of the most beautiful, interesting, tallented, outrageous and colorful personalities of the 20th Century
Brandon Ray Kirk 