11 Thursday Dec 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Culture of Honor, Shively
Tags
Appalachia, Cecil Brumfield, genealogy, Harriet Brumfield, Harts Creek, history, John Brumfield, Logan County, photos, Smokehouse Fork, West Virginia
Cecil Brumfield, son of John and Harriet (Dingess) Brumfield, resident of Smokehouse Fork of Harts Creek, Logan County, WV. Courtesy of Kathy Adams.
11 Thursday Dec 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Holden, Whirlwind
Tags
Burtie Riddell, Charles W. Mullins, Clara Bell Adams, Dennie Tomblin, Dingess, Dorca Smith, Florence Adams, Frances Baisden, Frank Adams, Frank James Sias, Frank Sias, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Jackson Workman, James Mullins, Logan Banner, Logan County, Malinda Smith, Martha J. Tomblin, Moses Tomblin, Mullins & Riddell, Peter Mullins, Sol Riddell, spinal meningitis, Trace Fork, West Virginia, Whirlwind, William Carter, William H. Carter
An unnamed local correspondent at Whirlwind in Upper Hart, Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on Friday, June 9, 1911:
C.W. Mullins was visiting this place Monday.
S. Riddell made a business trip to Dingess Friday.
The recent rain did considerable good in this section.
Quite a crowd attended the box supper Saturday night.
Mrs. Frances Baisden was shopping in Whirlwind Wednesday.
Frank Adams made a flying trip to Whirlwind store Thursday.
Miss Burtie Riddell was visiting at Whirlwind last Tuesday.
Quite a number attended church at C.W. Mullins’ last Sunday.
The Misses Dorca and Malinda Smith left Monday for Holden.
Mullins & Riddell are having their business enlarged to some extent.
Mrs. Jackson Workman died at her home on Trace Wednesday of last week.
The Misses ____ Vanderpool and Phoebe Marcum were here Wednesday.
Moses Tomblin made a business trip to the forks of Hart last week Tuesday.
James Mullins and Frank Sias made a brief visit to William H. Mullins last Monday.
Mrs. Florence Adams and Clara Bell Adams were shopping in S. Riddell’s Thursday last.
Peter Mullins and William Carter have been working for Mullins & Riddell the past week.
Little Dennie, son of Mr. and Mrs. M. Tomblin, of Whirlwind, died Tuesday, June 5th, of spinal meningitis, after only a few days illness.
07 Sunday Sep 2014
Posted in Chapmanville, Civil War
Tags
19th Kentucky Infantry, 1st Cavalry State Line, 1st Kentucky Infantry, 5th Virginia infantry, 7th West Virginia Cavalry, 9th Virginia Infantry, Allen K.M. Browning, Anna Woody, Barney Carter, Becky Aurelia Murray, Big Creek, Bryon Kelley, Chapmanville District, Charlotte Handy, civil war, Confederacy, David Thomas, doctor, Edwin F. Mitchell, Francis Murray, genealogy, Hannah Osborne, Harts, Harts Creek, Hiram Murray, history, Hoover Fork, Jane Riffe, Jim Vanderpool, John Rose, Kentucky, Lincoln County, Logan County, Logan District, Magnolia District, Mahulda Carter, Main Harts Creek Fire Department, Margaret Thomas, Marshall Kelley, Martha Thomas, Mary Ann Mullins, Nancy Branham, North Carolina, Parline Rose, Patterson Riffe, Peter Riffe, Pike County, Robert Vanderpool, Sally Ann Handy, Sarah Jane Carter, Sarah Vanderpool, Sidney Woody, Tazewell County, Tennessee, Union Army, Van Prince, Virginia, Warren, West Virginia, William Handy, William Kelley, Wise, Wise County, writing
During the War Between the States, the Chapmanville area of what is today Logan County, West Virginia, strongly supported the Confederacy. Logan County’s loyalty to the Confederacy was quite overwhelming. Its citizens supported secession and opposed the creation of West Virginia. Well over ninety-percent of all local veterans were Confederates. A few local men, however, did serve in the Union Army. At least seven Yankee soldiers lived in Chapmanville District after the war.
In June of 1890, Edwin F. Mitchell, enumerator of the federal census, made his way through Chapmanville District gathering information about local residents who had served in the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps during the late war. He ultimately compiled a short list of residents who had served the Union cause: Sidney T. Woody, Patterson Riffe, Martin Van Buren Prince, William Kelley, Robert Vanderpool, John Rose, and Allen K.M. Browning. It was a mixed bag of Yankees with hard-to-read loyalties. At least four of them were post-war settlers of the Chapmanville area, having served in Tennessee or Kentucky units. One of these migrants was an unenthusiastic Yankee who had been pressed into service by Federal troops. And of the two pre-war Logan County residents — Riffe and Prince — one served in both Confederate and Union military units. Regardless, these seven men reflected a very small percentage of the local population. In 1880, according to census schedules, Logan County had a population of 6,170 male residents and 1,795 families.
Sidney T. Woody, the first veteran listed by Mitchell in the 1890 census, was born around 1852 to Sidney and Anna (Tyree) Woody in North Carolina. During the war, from 1864-1865, he served as a private in a Tennessee regiment. By 1870, he was a resident of Logan District with his parents. In 1874, he married Sally Ann Handy, a daughter of William and Charlotte (Doss) Handy, in Logan County. They were the parents of at least ten children. Woody initially lived in Logan District with his family but spent his last years in the Chapmanville area.
Patterson Riffe, the second veteran identified in the 1890 census, was born on April 18, 1844 to Peter and Jane (Perry) Riffe in Logan County. In 1867, he married Martha B. Thomas, a daughter of David and Margaret (Mullins) Thomas, in Chapmanville. They were the parents of at least eight children. Early in the Civil War, Riffe served in Company A of the 1st Cavalry State Line (Confederate). In the latter part, from April 15, 1862 until August 8, 1865, he was a private with Company I of the 7th West Virginia Cavalry (Union). According to military records, Riffe was six feet tall with a fair complexion, gray eyes, and brown hair. He suffered a war-related injury caused by a horse falling on his leg. Riffe and his family were listed in the 1870, 1880, and 1900 censuses as occupants of Chapmanville District. He died on January 31, 1920 at Big Creek in Logan County.
Martin Van Buren Prince, the third person listed in the 1890 census, was born around 1835. Around 1856, he married Sarah Jane Carter, a daughter of Barney and Mahulda (Mullins) Carter, residents of the Hoover Fork of Harts Creek. Carter was a well-known Confederate officer in the war. During the war, Prince served as a private in Company F of the 5th Virginia Infantry. His dates of service were from August 10, 1861 until June 26, 1863. In 1884, Prince was listed in a business directory as “Van B. Prince, physician,” at Warren, a post office on Harts Creek in Lincoln County.
William Kelley, the fourth veteran in the 1890 census, was born around 1820 to Bryon Kelley in Wise or Tazewell County, Virginia. Around 1841, he married Hannah Osborne, with whom he had at least eight children. In 1850, he was a resident of Tazewell County. During the war, from November 4, 1862 until August 15, 1865, Kelley served in Company C of the 19th Kentucky Infantry. According to family tradition, Kelley was pressed into service by Yankees. “A bunch of Yankee recruiters came to Grandpa’s home and forced him to join up,” said the late Marshall Kelley of Harts. “He said he had to take his son with him because the rebels might come and kill him. Harvey was only about fifteen so they didn’t want him to go. But he went with Grandpa and was with him the whole time. He didn’t do any fighting. He just worked in the camp.” In 1870, Kelley was a resident of Pike County, Kentucky. Throughout the 1870s and early 1880s, Kelley fathered five or more children by different women before marrying Nancy Branham. They were the parents of at least five children. In the late 1880s, around 1888, Kelley sold his farm near Wise, Virginia and moved to the present-day site of the Main Harts Creek Fire Department. In 1890 or 1891, he sold out there to Tom Farley, his son-in-law, and moved back to Kentucky. Kelley died in February of 1902 in Cumberland, Kentucky or Clintwood, Virginia.
Robert Lee Vanderpool, the fifth Union man listed in the 1890 census, was born around 1849 to Jim and Sally (Beverly) Vanderpool. During the war, from May 1, 1864 until March 11, 1865, Vanderpool was a sergeant in Company G of the 1st Kentucky Infantry. Around 1871, Vanderpool married Becky Aurelia Murray, a daughter of Hiram and Francis (Thornsberry) Murray. He and Becky made their home in the Chapmanville District, where they reared at least seven children.
John Rose, the sixth person in the 1890 census, enlisted in Company G of the 1st Kentucky Infantry on the same day as Vanderpool. He was a private and was killed in battle during the war. In the 1880 census, Rose’s widow, Parline, was listed in the Chapmanville District of Logan County with four children. In 1890, Parline was still a widow and living at Warren. By 1900, no Roses lived in Logan County.
The last Union veteran listed in Mitchell’s 1890 enumeration was Allen K.M. Browning. During the war, Allen was a private in Company C of the 9th Virginia Infantry. He enlisted on January 15, 1862. He claimed some type of rupture as a war-related injury. In 1870, no one by Browning’s name lived in Logan County; in 1880, however, two local men appear by the name of “A.M. Browning.” One, aged 56, lived in the Logan District and was married with four children. The other, aged 45, lived in the Magnolia District and was married with six children. By 1900, there were no A.M. Brownings in Logan County census records.
29 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Lincoln County Feud
Tags
art, Blood in West Virginia, drawing, genealogy, Harve Dingess, history, Hugh Dingess, John Hartford, Lincoln County Feud, Logan County, Maude Dingess, Smokehouse Fork, West Virginia
Hugh Dingess home, sketched by John Hartford based on the memories of Harve and Maude Dingess of Smokehouse Fork of Harts Creek, Logan County, WV, Oct 1995
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 Harts Creek, Lincoln County Feud, Spottswood, Warren
Tags
Alice Dingess, Appalachia, Dave Dingess, genealogy, Harts Creek, Hattie Adams, history, Logan County, Major Adams, photos, U.S. South, West Virginia
Dave Dingess (second from left) with Adams family members, Harts Creek, Logan County, WV, 1890s
17 Sunday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Timber
Tags
Appalachia, culture, Harts Creek, history, life, Logan County, logging, photos, timbering, U.S. South, West Virginia
Harts Creek timber scene, Logan County, WV
16 Saturday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Music
Tags
Appalachia, culture, genealogy, guitars, Harts Creek, history, life, Logan County, music, photos, U.S. South, West Virginia
Harts Creek men with guitars, Logan County, WV
16 Saturday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Lincoln County Feud, Shively, Warren
Tags
Appalachia, Blood in West Virginia, Harts Creek, Henderson Dingess, history, Lincoln County Feud, Logan County, photos, Smokehouse Fork, U.S. South, West Virginia
Henderson Dingess residence, Smokehouse Fork of Harts Creek, Logan County, WV
11 Monday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Music, Shively, Women's History
Tags
Annie Dingess, culture, genealogy, guitar, Harts Creek, history, life, Logan County, music, photos, Rose Dingess, Shively, Smokehouse Fork, West Virginia
Annie and Rose Dingess, residents of Shively, Smokehouse Fork of Harts Creek, Logan County, WV
11 Monday Aug 2014
Tags
Alta Gill, Big Creek, Bill Vance, Brad Toney, Charleston, Dr. Whithill, genealogy, Georgia Lilly, Guyan Valley Hospital, Hazel Toney, history, Huntington, J. Green McNeely, Jesse Toney, Kentucky, Leet, Lincoln Republican, Logan, Logan County, Logan Sheriff's Office, Louisville, Mayhill Ferrell, measles, Opal Hager, Spears, Toney, Wayne B. Toney, Wealthy Lambert, West Virginia, Willie Harmon
An unnamed local correspondent from Big Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, May 24, 1923:
The Operetta given Saturday night by the Glee Club was enjoyed by many citizens of Big Creek. The Operetta was a great success and shows great talent among the girls of this place.
Miss Mayhill Ferrell spent the weekend with relatives in Logan.
Mr. Bill Vance made a business trip to Huntington Thursday.
Miss Hazel Toney has returned to her position in the Sheriff’s office in Logan, after a visit to home folks here.
Mr. Willie Harmon is in Charleston on business.
Dr. Whithill was called to Leet recently to see Miss Wealthy Lambert, who is very ill with measles.
Miss Opal Hager is spending the week with relatives at Spears.
Uncle Brad Toney, of Toney, was the recent guest of relatives here.
Miss Georgia Lilly, who has been ill for some time, was removed to the Guyan Valley Hospital Sunday.
Rev. J. Green McNeely, of Logan, was a visitor here Sunday.
Mr. W.B. Toney motored to Logan Sunday to see the big ball game.
Jessie Toney, of this place is in Louisville, Ky., attending the dental college.
Mrs. Alta Gill was a Huntington visitor Sunday.
10 Sunday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Culture of Honor, Harts, Lincoln County Feud
Tags
Blood in West Virginia, book, books, Brandon Kirk, Harts Creek, Lincoln County Feud, Logan County, Lucian Kirk Family Reunion, Piney, Piney Community Church, West Fork, West Virginia, writing
Here I am signing books for family members at the Piney Community Church, West Fork of Harts Creek, Logan County, WV
10 Sunday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Ed Haley, John Hartford, Music
Tags
blind, Brandon Kirk, Cacklin Hen, Cas Baisden, Clyde Haley, Ed Haley, Ella Haley, Ewell Mullins, fiddling, Harts, Harts Creek, history, John Hartford, Logan County, music, Peter Mullins, Robert Martin, Trace Fork, West Virginia, World War II, writing
Early the next morning, Brandon and I arrived on the bus in Harts and drove to see Cas Baisden, who we spotted in a porch swing up main Harts Creek, just above the mouth of Smoke House Fork. It was a pastoral scene: a somewhat old farmhouse, several chickens in the yard and a few cattle in the distance who’d done a marvelous job of clearing the mountainside just back of the place. As we pulled up to the house, I realized that it was built fairly high off of the ground — probably as a precaution against flooding. Cas just kind of stared down at us as we unloaded from the car.
Once he figured out who we were, he invited us in to the living room. There we learned that Cas was eighty-seven years old and had spent his whole life on Harts Creek.
“I was born in 1910,” he said. “The only five years I was gone from here was when I was in the Army. I left here the second day of April ’42. I spent five year in the Air Force. Never was off the ground.”
Wow — I had to ask, “What is the secret to living so long?”
“Working, working, buddy,” Cas said. “I work ever day a little bit. I wish you’d a seen the coal and stuff I packed in this morning. I got two calves down there and chickens and cats and dogs. I live on tobacco, Cheerios, and milk.”
Ever drink any whiskey?
“Barrels of it,” he said. “It’s been ten or twelve years since I quit fooling with drinking. Yeah, I went up here and joined the church and things. A fella never knows what he misses when he gets in a church. I used to be rougher’n a cob.”
Cas was partly raised by Uncle Peter Mullins, so he remembered Ed Haley well.
“He’d come up there to Peter’s and just go from house to house playing music and eating,” he said. “He used to go up to Ewell’s — I guess where he was raised — and come down that road just a running and hollering and whooping and cutting the awfulest shine that ever was and you wouldn’t a thought he could a stayed in that road. I don’t know how he done it, but he’d take spells like that. If he got a hold of you with a knife, though, he was dangerous. Hang on you and cut as long as they’s a thread on you. Him and that old woman, they’d get drunk and they’d fight up there. You know, it’s a wonder they hadn’t a killed one another. I believe they did try to cut one another up there at old man Peter’s one time.”
What about the Haley kids?
“Why them young’ns would do anything,” Cas said. “Clyde went out here where Robert Martin used to live on that mountain and went down in the well and they had a time a getting him out. And up here a little bit was a big sycamore and he was up in there and we’d throw rocks at him, son, and if we’d a hit him and knocked him out of there he’d been killed. I believe Clyde was the meanest one among them, I don’t know.”
I asked Cas if he ever played music and he said, “Nah, I done well to call hogs. But now Ed was about as good a fiddler as they was. Nobody could play better than Ed. He could play anything on earth he wanted to play.”
Cas had memories of Ed playing at Uncle Peter’s, either outside for small crowds or inside for “big dances” before “they finally broke up and quit.” The old dances started about the “edge of dark” and people would just “jump around — most people never could dance” – until sun-up. There was no trouble — just “fiddle, dance, drink” — although a person had to watch out for what Cas called the “old hedgehogs.”
I asked him if Ed ever drank much at the dances and he said, “Sure. He’d get to drinking and have more fun than the one’s a dancing.”
When Ed wasn’t around to play dances on Trace, Robert Martin would show up and fiddle tunes like “Cacklin’ Hen”. Martin had the first radio “that was ever in this country” so people went to his house “out on the mountain” and listened to it until “way late in the night.”
08 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Shively, Timber
Tags
Appalachia, Cecil Brumfield, Harriet Brumfield, history, John Brumfield, Logan County, logging, photos, timbering, U.S. South, West Virginia
Cecil Brumfield, son of John and Harriet (Dingess) Brumfield, stands atop logs, Logan County, WV
08 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Chapmanville, Ed Haley, John Hartford, Music
Tags
Ashland, Brandon Kirk, California, Catlettsburg, Catlettsburg Stock Yard, Chapmanville, Clyde Haley, Ed Haley, Ella Haley, genealogy, Halbert Street, history, Horse Branch, Jack Haley, Jean Thomas, John Hartford, Junius Martin, Kenny Smith, Kentucky, Lawrence Haley, Logan County, Mona Haley, music, Ohio, Pat Haley, Patsy Haley, Ralph Haley, Ralph Mullins, Rosie Day, San Quentin, South Point, Wee House in the Wood, West Virginia, Wilson Mullins, writing
The next day, Brandon and I got Mona to ride around town and show us some of the places where Ed played, as well as where he’d made the home recordings on 17th Street. In the car, she tried to recount the places the family had lived since her birth at Horse Branch in 1930.
The first place she remembered was an old brown house built on a slope at Halbert Street. This was the place where Ralph built the trap door.
When Mona was seven or eight years old, the family moved to 337 37th Street.
When she was about thirteen, they moved to 105 17th Street. She lived there in 1944 when she married Wilson Mullins and moved away to Chapmanville, near Harts. After her divorce, she moved back to 17th Street. At that time, Ed was separated from Ella and living in West Virginia.
For a brief spell, the Haleys lived at 5210 45th Street. Rosie Day lived nearby in a basement apartment.
Around 1948, the family moved to 1040 Greenup Avenue. Mona lived there when she married Kenny Smith and moved to South Point, Ohio.
Around 1950, Ed, Ella, Lawrence, Pat, and little Ralph moved to 2144 Greenup Avenue. Jack and Patsy lived there for a while because Patsy — who was pregnant with twins — wanted to be near the hospital. It was there that Ed passed away in February of 1951.
Thereafter, Ella stayed intermittently with Lawrence and Pat in Ashland or with Jack and Patsy in Cleveland until her death in 1954.
Brandon and I drove Mona around town later and she pointed out the sight of the Catlettsburg stock sale, where she remembered Ed making “good money” around 1935-36. She also directed us to at least three different locations of Jean Thomas’ “Wee House in the Wood.” One was remodeled into an office building and used by the county board of education, while another was out in what seemed like the middle of nowhere on a wooden stage in a valley surrounded by tall grass. Brandon and I thought this latter location was almost surreal, like something out of a weird dream.
Later at dinner, Mona told us what happened to her records.
“I sent Clyde some records when he was in San Quentin, California but he never brought them back with him,” she said.
I told her that some guy named Junius Martin had brought Lawrence some of Ed’s recordings and she said, “Seems like Junius Martin was one of Pop’s drinking buddies. I thought his name was Julius.”
07 Thursday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Culture of Honor
Tags
Appalachia, culture, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, life, Logan County, U.S. South, West Virginia
Harts Creek, Logan County, WV
06 Wednesday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Creek, Big Ugly Creek, Coal, Dollie, Logan
Tags
A.S. Christian, Banco, Big Creek, Big Creek Coal Company, Brad Ferrell, Bruce Dial, C.W. Lucas, Dollie, drug store, E.E. Gill, Ed Harmon, Eunice Chafin, Ferguson & Stone, Frank Toney, genealogy, Harmon & Toney, history, Hunt-Forbes Construction Company, Huntington, Ida Lucas, J.E. Whithill, J.J. Toney, John Hainer, L.D. Adkins, Logan, Logan County, Marshall College, measles, Opal Hager, Peter M. Toney, studebaker, Susie Harmon, T.B. Stone, teacher, Virgie May, W.B. Toney, West Virginia, Will H. Harmon
An unnamed local correspondent from Big Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, May 3, 1923:
The Sunday school at this place will open May 1st, and everybody is invited to attend.
Dr. J.E. Whithill has purchased from Harmon & Toney a new Studebaker touring car.
Virgie May, the small daughter of Mr. Edd Harmon, is suffering, from the measles.
Mr. P.M. Toney spent Sunday with his family in Huntington.
Miss Sarah Lilly returned to her home in Ashland, Ky., Monday.
Mr. John Hayner, of Dollie, was in the city recently purchasing farming implements.
A.S. Christian, of Logan, was a recent business visitor here.
Miss Ida Lucas, of Banco, took the teachers’ examination at Logan last Thursday and Friday.
Mr. Brad Ferrell spent Saturday and Sunday the guest of his sister in Huntington.
The Big Creek Coal Co. reports business better than it has been during the past five years.
Miss Opal Hager was a Huntington visitor Saturday.
Mr. L.D. Adkins, foreman for the Hunt-Forbes Const. Co., was a business visitor in town Monday.
Ferguson & Stone have sold their drug store and soda fountain to Will H. Harmon and W.B. Toney. The consideration was $3250.
Miss Eunice Chafin, of Logan, was the guest of friends here Sunday.
Bruce Dial has received a fine lot of Saddle horses and is doing some trading.
J.J. Toney, of Huntington, has accepted a position as clerk in the Fountain Drug Store at this place.
Mr. E.E. Gill is on the sick list.
Miss Susie Harmon left Monday for Huntington, where she will enter Marshall College.
T.B. Stone was a recent business visitor in Logan.
C.W. Lucas is constructing a new garage which will be occupied by Harmon & Toney.
Frank Toney, of Marshall College is visiting friends in the city.
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.
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.”
02 Saturday Aug 2014
Posted in Big Creek, Big Ugly Creek, Chapmanville, Coal, Gill, Ranger
Tags
Bernie, Big Creek, Big Ugly Coal Company, Big Ugly Creek, Brad Gill, C&O Railroad, Chapmanville, Ernest Sperry, forest fires, genealogy, Genil Messinger, Gill, history, Houston Elkins, I.E. Tipton, Lee Adkins, Lincoln County, Lincoln Republican, Logan County, mumps, Philip Sperry, Ranger, Sam Sperry, singing schools, W.M. Sperry, West Virginia
“Reporter,” a local correspondent from Gill in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, April 26, 1923:
We are having fine weather for farming.
The Sunday school is progressing nicely at this place.
Prof. Lee Adkins is teaching a singing school at this place. The young folks seem to be taking a great interest, and are learning to sing nicely.
A number of the Ranger boys visited our singing school Sunday.
I.E. Tipton, our section foreman, has a very sick child.
Sam and Ernest Sperry, of Bernie, were visiting their brothers, W.M. and Philip Sperry, of Gill, Saturday, and Sunday.
Brad Gill has been suffering from the mumps the past week or two.
The Big Ugly Coal Co., has ceased operation here and their property will sell on April 30th to pay off their indebtedness, and will probably go into the hands of new operators.
Genil Messinger has moved down from Big Creek, Logan County, to Gill.
Forest fires were raging in this section last Sunday. Houston Elkins came very near losing his barn, horses and cows.
Fourteen coal cars were derailed at Chapmansville one day last week. No one was injured in the wreck.
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 