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Tag Archives: Native Americans

Aracoma (Part 4)

04 Sunday Dec 2022

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Logan, Native American History, Women's History

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American Primitive, Appalachia, Aracoma, Battle of Point Pleasant, Camp Charlotte, Chief Cornstalk, Chief Logan, Circleville Elm, genealogy, history, Horn Papers, James Logan, John Breckenridge, Lawnsville, Logan, Lord Dunmore, Michael Cresap, Native American History, Native Americans, surveyor, Tahgahinte, The Aracoma Story, Thomas Dunn English, Thomas Patterson, West Virginia, West Virginia Women, William Madison, William Penn, William Preston

Doris Miller (1903-1993), a longtime educator, historian, writer, and poet operating in the area of Huntington, West Virginia, composed this biography of Aracoma, a well-known Native American figure who lived in present-day Logan, West Virginia. This is Part 4 of her composition.

One other detail of the legend, not generally known but occasionally heard, is the story that Aracoma was Cornstalk’s daughter by adoption, that her mother was a sister of Cornstalk who had married Chief Logan and died soon after Aracoma’s birth. For this reason, the infant was taken into the lodge of Chief Cornstalk, where there were squaws to rear her, and this kinship by marriage and common interest in Aracoma was the secret of the alliance between the two famous Indian leaders who joined forces at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. There is nothing in Aracoma’s dying words to refute this claim—she still would have considered Cornstalk her father and have been the last of his line, through a niece. But Logan’s words do carry a refutation.

At the time Logan made this speech under the Circleville Elm, and it was written down to be dispatched to Lord Dunmore at Camp Charlotte, where peace was being negotiated, he could not have said, “There runs not a drop of my blood in any living creature” if Aracoma had been his daughter.

Some historians have discounted Logan’s speech, but it is fully in keeping with the man pictured by his contemporaries in the Horn Papers and other sourcebooks of American history. Scottish Lord Dunmore must have [p. 10] accepted it as authentic, when it was brought to him wrapped in a wampum belt by a man he had sent to fetch Logan.

Logan had been friendly to white settlers of Virginia and Pennsylvania. As a boy, he lived in the home of James Logan, former secretary of William Penn, who educated the youth, a son of a friendly Indian chief. Thereafter Logan bore the name of his foster-father instead of Tahgahinte, his Indian name. Chief Logan remained friendly to the settlers until his family was treacherously murdered by white men. Later it was established that Colonel Cresap was not a party to the deed, though Logan thought so for a long time.

Colonel Madison who led the Virginians against Aracoma’s settlement, is said to have been a son-in-law of Colonel William Preston, a noted Virginia surveyor. Some of the earliest land surveys in present Logan County were recorded in names of members of the Preston, Madison and Breckenridge families, and it is quite likely others went to men who served under Madison and Breckenridge of the Battle of the Island, or members of their families. So the Legend of Aracoma came into the Guyandotte Valley in the memories of the white settlers who came first after her, and in their imaginations.

Another reason for discounting the story that Aracoma was the daughter of Logan is her name. Cornflower seems the logical name of a daughter of Cornstalk.

The residents of the Guyandotte Valley have treasured their legend and have honored the name of Aracoma in many ways. In the early 1800s, the town which grew up in the area of Aracoma’s settlement and grave was known as Lawnsville. During the 1850s, Thomas Dunn English, a physician and poet who was the first mayor of the town, insisted on changing the name to Aracoma, which it remained until its incorporation as a city in 1907. The change then may have been due to men’s custom of referring to the town as “Logan Courthouse” rather than by its true name. Since that time, the name of Aracoma has been given to a smaller community in the county.

When Logan County observed its Centennial in 1952, Thomas Patterson, the author of American Primitive and other well known plays, was commissioned to write a drama based on the legend of Princess Aracoma. The pageant was produced on successive days of the celebration and was considered one of the highlights. [p. 11]

Source: West Virginia Women, Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock (1974), p. 11.

For more about Doris Miller, go here: https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1284&context=sc_finding_aids

Aracoma (Part 3)

03 Saturday Dec 2022

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in American Revolutionary War, Guyandotte River, Logan, Man, Montgomery County, Native American History, Women's History

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Appalachia, Aracoma, Blue Feather, Bluestone River, Boling Baker, Doris Miller, Guyandotte River, history, HorsepenCreek, Huntington, Jim Comstock, John Breckenridge, Little Black Bear, Logan, Logan County, Man, Montgomery County, Native American History, Native Americans, Ohio, Raindrop, Running Deer, Snow Lily, Virginia, Waulalisippi, West Virginia, West Virginia Women, William Ingles, William Madison

Doris Miller (1903-1993), a longtime educator, historian, writer, and poet operating in the area of Huntington, West Virginia, composed this biography of Aracoma, a well-known Native American figure who lived in present-day Logan, West Virginia. This is Part 3 of her composition.

Aracoma has been described as an Indian maiden of exceptional grace and beauty. Perhaps the Virginians she impressed deeply in her dying hours may have believed she had great beauty in youth. Boling Baker is said to have had a fine physique and courageous bearing, which would have given his Indian captors reason for adopting him into the tribe. He is given credit for artful courtship of his love, and it seems likely he must have been skillful to win her away from other suitors the sachem’s daughter must have had.

The long history of their wedding, an elaborate ceremony her father accompanied them to the Guyandotte to perform, is less credible, but not impossible. More stress has been given to Aracoma’s royal estate than Indian customs warranted, but the English settlers had their own traditions of royal pomp and ceremony as patterns to draw from.

The carefree life credited to the Indians in the Guyandotte valley before 1776 reflects the wishful thinking of people whose own lives were filled with toil. Certainly the Indians must have lived stremuous lives, though they may have had an interlude of unusual peace and happiness before family life was saddened by the scourge which overtook them in 1776.

According to the story-tellers, Aracoma and Boling Baker had six children. Their names were Waulalisippi, or Laughing Waters, Snow Lily, Raindrop, Running Deer, Little Black Bear and Blue Feather.

It is said that Baker became despondent and bitter after the death of his children and during the hardships undergone by the colony after disease had reduced its strength. Doubtless the ones who added this detail had seen similar results in other men’s lives. They deduce that it was his desire to recoup the fortunes of the tribe that led him to attempt a bold exploit which resulted in disaster for his settlement.

Legendary history tells us that in the spring of 1780, a stranger appeared at a white settlement on Bluestone River, a man with a woe-begone countenance who recited sorrowful accounts of hardships he had undergone as a captive among the Indians in Ohio. He stayed for several days, familiarizing himself with everything about the settlement, then departed for the east (he said) in the hope of being reunited with his aged parents. The man was Boling Baker, who merely circled back to Flat Top Mountain, where he had left a band of his braves. On a dark rainy night in April, they stole quietly into the settlement and left with every horse there without disturbing a single sleeper.

The outraged settlers realized their recent visitor must have led the raid. Without horses to follow, they could only send for help from the mounted guard at Montgomery, seat of government for Montgomery County, Virginia, in which this entire area was then located. Colonel William Ingles, sheriff of the county, dispatched Colonel Madison and a deputy sheriff, John Breckenridge, with [p. 10] the party which massacred Aracoma’s village a few days later. Her paleface husband was one of the party absent on a hunt that day.

Little is known of Boling Baker after the death of Aracoma. It is said that for many a year afterward, men could read a couplet carved on beech trees in the area: ‘Boling Baker—his hand and knife, He can’t find a horse to save his life.’ Whether the words were carved by Baker or were a gibe directed at him by another, none can say.

The story is told that years later, an aged stranger came wandering up the Guyandotte River, asking questions of those he met. After standing a long time weeping on the mountainside opposite the island where Aracoma had lived, he went on past Horsepen Creek and eventually found lodging for a night in a home near Man. That night he told briefly some of the experiences of his life, which later were recognized to match the known story of Boling Baker. Next morning he was found dead in bed.

Source: West Virginia Women, Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock (1974), p. 10-11.

For more about Doris Miller, go here: https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1284&context=sc_finding_aids

Aracoma (Part 2)

14 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in American Revolutionary War, Logan, Native American History, Women's History

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American Revolution, Aracoma, Battle of Point Pleasant, Boling Baker, Chief Cornstalk, Circleville, Doris Miller, Edward Braddock, Fort Randolph, French and Indian War, Horsepen Creek, Horsepen Mountain, Huntington, Jim Comstock, Logan, Matthew Arbuckle, Native American History, Native Americans, Ohio, Pickaway Plain, Point Pleasant, Revolutionary War, Shawnee, Treaty of Camp Charlotte, West Virginia, West Virginian Women

Doris Miller (1903-1993), a longtime educator, historian, writer, and poet operating in the area of Huntington, West Virginia, composed this biography of Aracoma, a well-known Native American figure who lived in present-day Logan, West Virginia. This is Part 2 of her composition.

The father whose death was mentioned by Aracoma was the noted Shawnee sachem, Cornstalk, leader at the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774. After the treaty of Camp Charlotte was signed following that battle, Cornstalk appears to have been constant in keeping his promise to be a friend to the border Virginians. The American Revolution was then in progress, and Tory colonists strongly entrenched in Canada were using every influence they could bring to bear on the Indians to persuade them to harry western settlements of the colonies that were banded together in rebellion. In September, 1777, Cornstalk went to Fort Randolph, on the site of Point Pleasant, to warn the commander of the garrison, Colonel Arbuckle, of impending hostitlies from other Shawnees, incited by the British.

As a reward for his warning, Cornstalk was held with two companions as hostages. While Colonel Arbuckle waited for a messenger to reach the governor of Virginia and a reply to be received, two men from the fort crossed the Ohio to hunt venison and were waylaid by hostile Indians. One of the men was killed and scalped. Members of the garrison were so enraged that they killed Cornstalk and his companions in vengeance, defying officers who sought to restrain them from an act in violation of military ethics.

Aracoma’s husband was Boling (or Bowling) Baker, an English soldier who had come to America with General Braddock’s army. Though he had been called a deserter, he may have been captured by Indians lurking along the path of Braddock’s march or in the route which followed the English army’s disastrous engagement with the French and Indians on July 9, 1755.

Apparently Baker had been taken to Cornstalk’s town at Pickaway Plain, near Circleville, O., and had been made a member of the tribe. There he met the sachem’s young daughter and at some later time became her husband. Together they were leaders of the Indian settlement in present Logan County.

In addition to the town located on the island at Logan, the Indians apparently had a camping place on Horsepen Creek where the braves sometimes camped with whatever horses they might possess. The animals could be walled in here by steep mountain sides and with hickory withes wound from tree to tree. Still today Horsepen Creek and Horsepen Mountain bear the names first white settlers gave them for their connections with the earlier inhabitants.

At this time, land-hungry white settlers were pressing continually westward from eastern Virginia. it is said that scouting parties sent out after crops were gathered in the fall of 1779 found Indians encamped with a strong force on Horsepen Fork of Gilbert’s Creek and on Ben Creek and returned home to wait until after spring crops had been planted for another visit. Also, Indian depredations and the occasional massacre of a white settler’s family by stray bands of Indian hunters far from home kept the frontiersmen alert and distrustful of all Indians, however peaceful and friendly.

Tradition says that they Indians on the Guyandotte prospered until 1776, when their settlement was stricken by a great scourge. The pestilence may have been smallpox, measles, dysentery, or even some lighter disorder, for Indians have no immunity built up against diseases which beset the white men. Among the many who died were the children of Aracoma and Boling Baker.

As repeated countless times, the Aracoma legend varies in details. Some begin the story by telling of Boling Baker’s arrival as a captive in the Shawnee village. They say that Aracoma interceded with her father when the young Englishman was about to be made to run the gauntlet, just as Pocahontas protected John Smith. Though doubtless based on surmise, the story could be true, for captives who escaped from the Indian villages in Ohio told of having been forced to run the gauntlet. Some romanticists believe Baker’s love for the Indian maiden began with his gratitude that day, and that also could be true.

Source: West Virginia Women, Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock (1974), p. 7-9.

For more about Doris Miller, go here: https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1284&context=sc_finding_aids

Aracoma (Part 1)

11 Friday Nov 2022

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Huntington, Logan, Native American History, Women's History

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Aracoma, Doris Miller, Guyandotte River, Henry Clay Ragland, history, Huntington, Jim Comstock, Logan, Logan County, Logan High School, Native Americans, West Virginia, West Virginia Women, William Madison

Doris Miller (1903-1993), a longtime educator, historian, writer, and poet operating in the area of Huntington, West Virginia, composed this biography of Aracoma, a well-known Native American figure who lived in present-day Logan, West Virginia. This is Part 1 of her composition.

West Virginians can lay claim to one of America’s most romantic legends, the story of Aracoma which has grown in Logan County around the meager authentic details of an incident in the history of the region which occurred some 200 years ago.

It is a legend of romance and tragedy about an Indian Princess who lies buried in the city of Logan. The story tells of her love for a white man taken captive by her tribe, of their happy life together as leaders of a settlement of her people on the Guyandotte River until tragedy wiped out their children and many others of their tribe, and of his depredations which led to her death.

Legends are stories built by folklore on a foundation of historic fact. Folklore is history preserved by tradition by people searching for the heroic. Such is the Logan County legend, a story of a courageous woman whose death brought her to the attention of ancestors of many of the people now living in Logan County, with details added by the romantic imaginations of residents of the region who have preserved and added to the legend.

Aracoma, an Indian word said to mean “corn blossom,” was the name given Colonel (later General) William Madison by a dying Indian woman who appeared to be the leader of a settlement of Indians located on the island where Logan High School now stands. She had been mortally wounded in combat between her people and a party of 90 Virginians led by Colonel Madison, in which all of the Indians were massacred except some braves strong and fast enough to escape when they saw the tide of battle had turned against them and a party of hunters absent when the Virginians made their surprise attack.

In later accounts, Aracoma was described as a woman of dignity and courage who appeared to be about 40 years old. The Virginians had been reared in a culture that still remembered the old chivalric tradition of reverence for women. They quickly forgot their animosity in concern for this woman of noble bearing, and treated their wounded captive with compassion and respect.

Tradition says that for several hours the woman resisted every effort to get her to talk. She lay with closed eyes, stoically awaiting her fate. Then, apparently realizing her life was ebbing away and there was no hope for recapture by her people she asked for their leader.

“My name is Aracoma and I am the last of a mighty line,” she told Colonel Madison. “My father was a great chief and friend of your people. He was murdered in cold blood by your people when he had come to them as a friend to give them warning. I am the wife of a paleface who came across the great waters to make war on our people, but came to us instead and was made one of us. Many moons since, a great plague carried off my children with a great number of my people and they lie buried just above the bend of the river. Bury me with them with my face toward the setting sun that I may see my people in their march toward the happy hunting grounds. For your kindness, I warn you to make haste in returning to your homes, for my people are still powerful and will return to avenge my death.”

It was told that the battle occurred in the afternoon of a spring day in 1780 and that Aracoma died before daybreak of the following morning. After burying her in the place and manner she had requested, the Virginians soon departed to return to their homes.

This story of Aracoma’s death differed but slightly in detail as it was repeated around countless firesides for a century before the late Henry Clay Ragland wrote it into the History of Logan County. It seems to be a reasonably accurate account, authenticated by certain details of historic record.

Source: West Virginia Women, Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock (1974), p. 6-7.

For more about Doris Miller, go here: https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1284&context=sc_finding_aids

Sunset Mound in South Charleston, WV (2021)

12 Wednesday May 2021

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Native American History

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Appalachia, history, Kanawha County, Native American History, Native Americans, South Charleston, Sunset Mound, West Virginia

Sunset Mound, South Charleston, WV. 15 April 2021

John Breckinridge Once Owned Logan, WV (1937)

23 Saturday Feb 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in American Revolutionary War, Logan, Native American History

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Andrew Lewis, Appalachia, Aracoma, Battle of the Island, Big Creek, Boling Baker, Coal River, Dingess Run, Elizabeth Madison, George Booth, Gilbert Creek, Guyandotte River, Hatfield Island, history, Island Creek, John Breckinridge, Kentucky, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Mingo County, Montgomery County, Native American History, Native Americans, Spruce Fork, Thomas Madison, Virginia, Washington County, West Virginia

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of information about Logan’s early history printed on April 26, 1937:

Land On Which City Of Logan Now Stands First Owned by Breckinridge

The tract of land on which the city of Logan now stands and the Island–now “Hatfield’s Island”–once belonged to John Breckinridge, scion of an old Kentucky family and leader of the attacking party which broke the control of the Shawnee Indians in the Guyandotte valleys in the “Battle of the Islands.”

Princess Aracoma was killed in this battle and Boling Baker, her renegade white husband, was banished forever from the lush river valley where he had spent his days since his desertion from the English forces in Virginia.

Captain Breckenridge led the attack which made the valley safe for white settlers, and, in appreciation of his services, the new government allowed him 300 acres at the mouth of Island creek.

The land grant was made early in the 1780s along with a few others on Island Creek, Dingess Run, Gilbert Creek, Big Creek and the Spruce Fork of Cole River.

Surveying parties from Montgomery and Washington county, Virginia, braved the wilderness and apportioned the land in Guyan Valley and vicinity to early Indian fighters who had contributed their services to opening the valley for white settlement.

Included in the surveys made by deputy surveyors from Montgomery county were grants apportioning much of Island Creek, Spruce Fork, and Dingess Run to persons whose names are still remembered in the county has holders of much of this county’s land.

In these early surveys Andrew Lewis was given 3000 acres on Island Creek along with 2000 acres on Big Creek, and 3000 acres on Gilbert Creek.

Thomas Madison was given 2000 acres on Spruce Fork, 1000 acres on Dingess Run, and 2000 acres on Gilbert Creek.

Others who figured in this early allocation of land were Elizabeth Madison, who was given much of Spruce Fork; George Booth, who was awarded several thousand acres along Guyan River and on Island Creek; and George Booth [same name listed twice in this story], who received much of the land along Island Creek.

Later in the waning years of the 19th century other grants were made by the new government with the stipulation that settlement be made immediately, but these early grants were rewards for work well done in opening the valley of the Guyandotte for settlement.

Stephen Hart: Origins of Harts Creek (1896/1937)

07 Thursday Feb 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Boone County, Crawley Creek, Native American History, Roane County

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Appalachia, Boone County, Crawley Creek, Dick Johnson, Elizabeth Hart, Fred B. Lambert, genealogy, Harts Creek, Henderson Dingess, Henry Clay Ragland, history, Jacob Stollings, James Hart, John Baker, Lincoln County, Little Harts Creek, Logan Banner, Logan County, Logan County Banner, Mud River, Native Americans, Roane County, Smokehouse Fork, Stephen Hart, West Virginia

From the Logan County Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history written by amateur historian Henry Clay Ragland relating to Stephen Hart and the naming of Harts Creek in Lincoln and Logan counties, West Virginia, dated 1896:

Stephen Hart Ragland LCB 04.08.1896.JPG

Logan County (WV) Banner, 8 April 1896.

***

On 13 April 1937, the Logan Banner printed another story about Hart and his relationship to Harts Creek. This latter story was generally derived from Ragland’s 1896 history.

Harts Creek Named After Stephen Hart—A Wanderer And Famous Deer Hunter

Much has been told about Harts Creek in late years, but little is known about the first settler who built his home in the long hollow and gave it a name.

Stephen Hart built a cabin on the farm which Henderson Dingess later owned at the forks of Hart’s Creek. He cared nothing for the soil, but spent his time hunting deer and curing the meat. He didn’t stay long in one place.

Near his cabin he built a house in which to store his cured venison between his infrequent trips to the settlements down the river and was altogether self-sufficient. His neighbors knew little about the man. There is no record of a family reared by him and he told neighbors little of his past history.

His was a roaming nature. He, like the Arabs, pitched his tent where the water was clearest, the game gamest, and the soil most fertile.

To commemorate his short stay at the forks of Harts, neighbors named the creek for him after he had loaded his gun, food stores and skins on a pack mule, and started west.

His few friends heard no more about him, but they remembered him as a “quiet man, a good shot, and a good neighbor.”

Just “around the bend and over the ridge,” Jacob Stollings, John Baker, and Dick Johnson brought their families and built their homes. From descendants of this family comes much of the record of Stephen Hart who gave the creek a name.

Hart’s venison was known for miles around as the tenderest, the most delicately cured meat in the Hart’s section and Stollings, Baker, and Johnson always put in a small supply of Hart’s meat for the winter, sometimes to take an unusually large supply off the hunter’s hands but most times just because they liked the venison.

John Baker married a daughter of Jacob Stollings, and Dick Johnson married a sister of Baker’s. Both men reared large families whose names are familiar in the county’s history.

But Hart left only the name of his beloved deer hunting grounds as a reminder that he had first set foot on Hart’s Creek.

MY NOTE: Of importance, much confusion remains regarding the source for the naming of Harts Creek, essentially relating to the fact that Stephen Hart was born too late to have inspired the naming of the stream. I first attempted to unravel this story when I published a profile of Stephen Hart in a Lincoln County newspaper in 1995/6. Stephen Hart, son of James and Elizabeth Hart, was born c.1810 in North Carolina; Harts Creek appears on a map printed prior to 1824 (Hart was still quite young). In the early 1900s, amateur historian Fred B. Lambert noted that Hart’s father had been killed by Native Americans at the mouth of present-day Little Harts Creek (according to a Hart descendant). Possibly it is Mr. Hart’s father who inspired the naming of the local stream. Problematic to this possibility is the fact that, based on Stephen Hart’s estimated year of birth, his father would have been killed in 1809-1811, which is about fifteen to twenty years too late for an Indian attack in the Guyandotte Valley. Stephen Hart did settle locally. He may well have squatted on Harts Creek land, as Ragland reported in 1896. Based on documentary evidence, he acquired 50 acres on Crawley Creek in 1839. He appears in the 1840 Logan County Census and the 1850 Boone County Census. By 1860, he had settled in Roane County, where he died in 1896–the same year that Ragland published his history. He also left plenty of local descendants in the Mud River section of Lincoln County. How did Ragland garble this section of his history so badly? For those who wish to avoid sorting out this confusing tale, consider this version: at least one early account states the creek was named “hart” due to the prevalence of stags in its vicinity.

Chief Logan (1937)

01 Friday Feb 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in American Revolutionary War, Guyandotte River, Native American History

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American Revolution, Andrew Lewis, Appalachia, Battle of Point Pleasant, Cayuga, Chief Cornstalk, Chief Logan, Daniel Greathouse, England, governor, Guyandotte Valley, history, Iroquois, James Logan, John Murray, Lord Dunmore, Michael Cresap, Mingo, Native American History, Native Americans, Ohio, Oneida, Pennsylvania, Six Nations, Susquehanna

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history for Chief Logan, printed in 1937:

Family of Chief Logan Was Brutally Murdered After Battle of Pt. Pleasant

Chief Logan, the Cayuga Indian leader who was an important figure in the Indian Confederation in the early days of the Revolutionary war and for whom the city of Logan was named, was an instrument in the hands of Governor Dunmore, appointed by the English Parliament to conduct the affairs of the 13 colonies.

The family of Chief Logan was brutally murdered soon after the battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774, in order to incite to new acts of murder and rapine the Indians whose order for fighting the courageous white settler was beginning to wane.

In the Battle of Point Pleasant the Indian Confederacy, commanded by Chief Cornstalk faced the white settlers under General Andrew Lewis and got a taste of the treatment they might expect in event England and the Colonies went to war with themselves on the side of the mother country.

Dr. Connelly, a deputy of Governor Dunmore, realized that the Indian desire for white scalps was somewhat satiated by the battle of Point Pleasant and the tribes were once gain becoming interested in their everyday life of hunting and shing. In order to offset this feeling of contentment, Dr. Connelly employed the English trader named Greathouse to incite the Indians to new acts of bloodshed.

Trader Greathouse knew of the popularity of the Cayuga chief Logan and rightly judged that an injustice done him would be an injustice to the majority of the tribes of the Confederacy.

Greathouse well-versed in the Indian situation west of the Alleghenies set out to the greatest harm to the Indians in the shortest time and chose the family of Chief Logan as the best possible victims of a white man’s outrage, knowing full well that Dr. Connelly had chosen a colonist well-known to the Indians to hold the “bag.”

The trader, posing as a representative of the English government, gained admittance to Chief Logan’s camp deep in the wilds of the Alleghenies while the latter was away on a hunting expedition. At an opportune moment when he knew that he would not be detected, Greathouse entered Chief Logan’s family circle of tepees and murdered the squaw and the Chief’s favorite children.

When the outrage was discovered by the braves, Greathouse, by instruction from Connelly, told of seeing a white Army officer’s horse near the camp that night before but though it to be of a courier. The unsuspecting braves took the explanation as good and allowed Greathouse to leave soon afterward.

Chief Logan returned from his hunting trip, found his family murdered and demanded retribution from the English.

Dr. Connelly definitely fixed the murder on a Captain Cresap, who at the time of the slaying was at his home in Maryland.

This, however, was enough for Chief Logan. A colonist, a member of the paleface band with whom a treaty had been made following the battle of Point Pleasant, had violated the trust. He returned to his Confederacy and began the work that Governor had anticipated.

The Indian tribes began new raids on the white settlers homes in the West and sufficiently retarded organization of a settlers’ regiment to allow Dunmore to make new inroads on the angry colonists in the East who were laying plans which culminated in the rebellion in 1776.

Dunmore’s strategy triumphed and probably held up the Revolution for at least a year.

Logan (WV) Banner, 19 April 1937

***

Life of Chief Logan Is An Interesting Narrative

Indian Chief Was Peaceful Until Massacre Of Family At Pt. Pleasant Changed Him To A Veritable Devil; Father Was French

Logan, chief of the Mingos, stands out as a romantic figure in the history of Indian warfare of this section.

His was a tragic role player on the shifting stage of border warfare between the white settlers who were attempting to penetrate the “wilderness” and the Indian tribes who were attempting to cling to their priority rights in this section before being pushed farther westward to the plains.

Logan was his place in history as an orator as well as a famed Indian warrior.

He was a true friend of the white man until, through the machinations of the English in an effort to incite the Indians to further bloodshed, his family was killed by a treacherous white trader named Greathouse.

Logan’s father was a French child who was captured by the Indians and adopted by the Oneida tribe that inhabited Eastern Pennsylvania and Western New York.

When he grew to manhood, he was possessed not only of a commanding stature, but of all the arts, wiles, traits, and characteristics endowed by nature and intellect to an Indian warrior.

By virtue of these he became chief of the tribe of the Susquehannas, who made their home in the Susquehanna valley of Pennsylvania.

The mother of Logan was a Mingo, or Cayuga, which tribe was a derelict branch of the Iroquois and the Six Great Nations.

It is believed that the influence of Logan’s mother on her son caused him to have attitude of tolerance and friendship toward the whites. Whether he husband influenced her sentiments for the whites is not definitely known.

As a matter of fact it was she who christened her son, the great and mighty warrior, “Logan,” in honor of James Logan, who was then secretary for Pennsylvania.

Logan’s Indian name was Tah-gah-jute, meaning “the young and mighty warrior.”

He was after a time chosen chief of the Mingo tribe of this section. As chief of the Mingos he was slow to anger, indulgent, considerate, and dealing in a kindly manner with those who dealt kindly with him.

Chief Logan married an Indian maiden whose name is not recorded. He reared a family in territory of the Guyandotte watershed and was relatively happy, living at peace, with man, until the English changed him from a peaceful Indian to a veritable devil by having massacred his family at a camp in the Ohio.

The stories of Chief Logan’s campaign against the white man after the atrocious murder of his family is recorded in history and tradition.

He lived to see his beloved hunting grounds desecrated by the white man and died a broken-hearted old chieftain somewhere in a camp on the Ohio.

A bronze replica of the mighty warrior has been erected in front of the courthouse at Williamson in memory of the Mingo chief. Logan and Logan county has honored his name by taking it for themselves.

Logan (WV) Banner, 1 May 1937

Early Anglo Settlers of Logan, WV (1937)

10 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Guyandotte River, Logan, Native American History, Tazewell County

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Appalachia, Aracoma, Bluestone Valley, Boling Baker, Deskins Addition, Guyandotte River, Hatfield Island, Henry Mitchell, history, Island Creek, John Breckinridge, John Dempsey, John Dingess, Joseph Workman, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Montgomery County, Nancy McNeely, Native American History, Native Americans, Nimrod Workman, Peter Dingess, Shawnee, Tazewell County, Virginia, West Virginia, William Dingess, Wythe County

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history about Logan’s earliest Anglo settlers in a story printed April 1, 1937:

First White Settler To Make His Home In Logan Lived on Hatfield Island

The first white settler to make his home near Logan was James Workman who was with the force of men who struck the blow that broke the power of the Shawnee in the valley of the Guyandotte.

He was a member of the group of white settlers who pursued Boling Baker from a settlement in the Bluestone valley to the island that is now known as “Hatfield Island” and there burned an Indian village and mortally wounded Princess Aracoma. Boling Baker escaped.

After Workman had a glimpse of the beautiful lush valley of the Guyandotte, it took little persuasion by John Breckinridge, who had been granted much of the valley after the battle of the Islands to get Workman and his two brothers Joseph and Nimrod to make settlement there, Breckinridge was forced to settle the land by the law of 1792 in order to hold title to it.

Workman and his two brothers came to the island in 1794 and built a cabin and planted a few acres of corn. In 1795 and 1796 the brothers planted the same land and James, who was a man of family, brought his wife and children from their old home in Wythe (now Tazewell) county, Virginia, where they continued to live until about the year 1800 when they moved to a farm nearby which was later owned by Henry Mitchell.

The first recorded permanent settlement was made by William Dingess, son of Peter Dingess, a German. Dingess was the oldest in a family of eleven children.

He was born in Montgomery county in 1770 and married Nancy McNeely. He purchased a survey of 300 acres, which covers the present site of the courthouse and a portion of the land across the river which is now Deskins addition.

Dingess moved to his survey in 1799 and made his home. John Dempsey came with him and built a cabin on the island, but afterwards moved to Island Creek.

William Dingess was said to be almost a giant in strength, but so peaceable that no one could induce him to fight. He was a relentless Indian fighter in the Guyan Valley, however. A story is told that he was with a force of whites who pursued a band of Indian marauders as far as the falls of the Guyan where they killed several braves.

Dingess cut a portion of the skin from a forearm of one of the braves and tanned it using it for a razor strop until his death.

The first settler had no children by his first wife. In 1800, Peter Dingess and John Dingess joined him and built their homes in the fertile land on each side of the river near the islands. Other settlers followed in time and the little settlement grew to a thriving frontier town.

Boling Baker and Princess Aracoma (1937)

06 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Gilbert, Logan, Native American History, Women's History

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Abner Vance, Appalachia, Aracoma, Ben Stewart, Ben White, Bluestone River, Boling Baker, Buffalo Creek, Charles Hull, Clear Fork, Dingess Run, Elias Harman, Flat Top Mountain, genealogy, George Berry, Gilbert Creek, Guyandotte River, Henry Clay Ragland, history, Horse Pen Mountain, Huff Creek, Island Creek, James Hensley, James Hines, James White, John Breckinridge, John Carter, John Cook, Joseph Workman, Kentucky, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Logan County Banner, Mallory, Native American History, Native Americans, Oceana, Peter Huff, Rockcastle Creek, Shawnee, West Virginia, William Dingess, William S. Madison

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history concerning Boling Baker and Princess Aracoma, dated March 23, 1937:

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Historical marker on Horse Pen Mountain near Gilbert, Mingo County, WV. 25 April 2015.

Dying Words of Princess Aracoma Related In Story Taken From Banner Files

Though much has been written on the history of Logan county, just as much has been forgotten about its early development.

One of the county’s first historians, Henry Clay Ragland, mayor of the city, church worker and editor of the Logan County Banner, recorded some of the high spots of the development of Logan county in a series of articles which he ran in his newspaper during 1896.

It is from this series of articles that the following story of the early settlement of Logan county is taken.

Records show that a large number of white men first set foot in what is now Logan county in the spring of 1777, when Captain Charles Hull with 20 men pursued a band of marauding Shawnees to the site where Oceana was later built. They lost the trail at Oceana and had to turn back. The Shawnees had raided a white settlement near the falls of New River one spring night and had stolen thirty head of horses. The army captain and his men set out in pursuit but the redskins had too great a start.

Huff Creek was given its name on this expedition in honor of Peter Huff who was killed in a skirmish on the banks of the stream as the men returned home. Huff was buried near the spot where he was killed, which is believed to have been near where the town of Mallory now stands.

Other men on this expedition and who returned to the valley of the Guyandotte later and built homes were John Cook, James Hines, William Dingess and James Hensley.

The first white man really to be identified with what is now Logan county was Boling Baker, a renegade white, but the old-timers would not give him credit for being a white man. They said: “He lived with the Injins and that makes him an Injin.” Baker, however dastardly he was, was indirectly responsible for the settlement of Logan county in 1780-85.

The renegade had one great weakness. A weakness that they hung men for in those days. He was a horse thief. He would take a party of Indians a hundred miles through the mountain passes of Logan county to raid a white settlement in order to steal 20 or 30 horses.

Baker had gone into the business on a large scale. At the head of Gilbert Creek, on Horse Pen Mountain, where the mountain rises abruptly with almost cliff-like sharpness, he had stripped bark from hickory trees and stretched it from tree to tree making a pen in which to keep his stolen stock.

Old settlers of the county who have had the story passed down to them from their great-grandfathers say that the pen was somewhere in the hollow below the road which leads to the fire tower on Horsepen Mountain. It was from this improvised corral of Boling Baker that the mountain was named.

But, back to how Baker was responsible for the settlement of the county.

He left his Indian camps on the Guyan river in the fall of 1780 and visited the white settlements in the Bluestone valley in the Flat Top mountain territory. There he told the settlers a story of how he had been captured by the Indians when he was a young man and had learned their ways. He said he had just escaped from the Shawnee tribe known to be hunting in the Guyandotte valley and was on his way back east to see his father and mother who lived in Boston. Shrewd chap, this Baker!

The settlers were taken in by his story and allowed him to remain with them for several weeks during which time he got the location of all the settlers barns well in mind and after a time departed “back east.”

Soon after the renegade left the Bluestone settlement the whites awoke one rainy morning late in autumn and found every barn empty. The Indians had come with the storm which lashed the valley and had gone without arousing a person. Thirty horses from the settlement went with them.

An expedition headed by Wm. S. Madison and John Breckinridge—son of the Breckinridges who settled much of Kentucky—was made up in a neighboring settlement and set out in pursuit of the thieving Shawnees.

They trailed the party over Flat Top Mountain and southwest to the headwaters of the Guyan River by way of Rockcastle creek and Clear Fork. Trail marks showed that the band had gone down the river, up Gilbert Creek to Baker’s pen and thence over the mountain.

Madison and his 75 men did not follow the Indian trail over the mountain but the redskins probably brought their herd of 50 or 75 horses down Island Creek to the Guyan.

The white expedition chose to follow the Guyan in a hope that they would find the party encamped somewhere along its banks. Scouts had reported that a large tribe of Indians used the Guyan valley as its hunting grounds.

Madison’s party followed the river down to Buffalo Creek—named because the white men found such a large number of buffalo grazing in its bottoms—crossed Rum Creek and pitched camp for a night at the mouth of Dingess Run because “Guyan” Green and John Carter, scouts sent ahead to reconnoiter, had reported finding ten Indian lodges in the canebrakes of an island formed by the joining of a large creek and the Guyan river.

The men rested on their guns for the night and the following morning divided into two parties and attacked the encampment from the front and rear.

In the furious fighting that followed, nine of the thirty Indians in the camp were killed and ten or twelve wounded. Only a few escaped the slaughter of the white men. Among those captured was an old squaw 50 or 60 years old, who by her bearing, was obviously leader of the party. She was wounded but refused to talk.

Near midnight, however, following the massacre of the camp the old squaw felt death creeping upon her and called Madison to her quarters, and told him in broken English the following:

“I am the wife of a pale face who came across the great waters to make war on my people, but came to us and became one of us. A great plague many moons ago carried off my children with a great number of my people, and they lay buried just above the bend in the river. Bury me with them with my face to the setting sun that I may see my people in their march to the happy hunting ground. For your kindness I warn you to make haste in returning to your homes, for my people are still powerful, and will return to avenge my death.”

The proud princess died before morning and the white men buried her “near the bend in the river.” The Indian captives were all killed.

Four days later the men returned to the valley of the Bluestone.

Among those who helped Wm. S. Madison rout the Shawnees and who vowed to possess the valley of the Guyandotte for themselves and their children were George Booth, George Berry, Elias Harman, Ben Stewart, Abner Vance, Joseph Workman, Ben White and James White. All these names are familiar in the county today.

After the Indians were pushed to the west, surveyors allotted the land to the first settlers who had dared, with Madison, to come into the wilderness of the Guyandotte and open it up for the white man.

Madison owned several thousand acres of land on Island Creek, Gilbert Creek and Dingess Run. Other fighters were given like parcels of land.

Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 23 March 1937

Origin of Place Names in Logan County, WV (1937)

12 Friday Oct 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Chapmanville, Coal, Gilbert, Guyandotte River, Logan, Man, Native American History

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Appalachia, Aracoma, Barnabus, Barnabus Curry, Boling Baker, Buffalo Creek, Cham, Chapmanville, Chauncey, Chauncey Browning, coal, Crystal Block, Curry, D.E. Hue, Dehue, Dingess Run, Edward O'Toole, Gilbert Creek, Guyandotte River, history, Horse Pen Mountain, Huff Creek, Island Creek, Jim Gilbert, Litz-Smith Coal Company, Logan Banner, Logan County, Main Island Creek Coal Company, Mallory, Micco, Mountain View Inn, Native American History, Native Americans, Omar, Omar Cole, Peter Huff, Rum Creek, Sarah Ann, Sarah Ann O'Toole, Stirrat, Twisted Gun Lick, West Virginia, William Dingess, William S. Madison

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history about Logan County place names:

Naming of Logan County Towns and Creeks Related By Logan Banner Reporter

While the first white settlers who entered the county near the middle of the 18th century had to have names for the creeks and runs in order to locate their homes, the children of these first settlers had to have names for each large settlement in order to have their mail delivered to them. Both groups used interesting methods of naming the landmarks.

Early Indian fighters who had contact with Boling Baker and his horse-thieving found little trouble naming the mountain which rises behind Mountain View Inn at the head of Island Creek. Because of the renegade’s custom of using one of the steep hollows for a corral, Captain William S. Madison, an early pioneer, named the mountain Horse Pen. Likewise, Gilbert Creek was named for Jim Gilbert, an Indian scout, who was killed in an Indian skirmish on that tributary of the Guyandotte. Near the place where he was killed there is an old salt lick which is named “Twisted Gun Lick.” The story is told that Gilbert, before he died, hit his gun barrel against a tree to keep the Indians from using it on his comrades. His friends, coming to the lick several hours later, found Gilbert scalped and the twisted firearm lying nearby.

Huff Creek was similarly named for a Peter Huff, whose scouting party was ambushed by a roving band of redskins and Huff was killed in the ensuing battle. They buried Huff on the banks of the creek near the present town of Mallory.

Buffalo Creek, however, received its name in an entirely different manner. The first settlers who hunted in the valley of the Guyandotte found buffalo herds so plentiful on this creek that they called it Buffalo Creek.

Dingess Run was named for a pioneer family of Dingesses which settled in its broad bottoms. William Dingess was the patriarchal head of the family and his children named the run in memory of him.

Island Creek received its name from the Indians who were awed by the beauty of a large creek flowing into the Guyandotte with such force as to cut an entirely separate bed, thus forming an island in the middle of the river. Old timers say that in the early days of the county Island Creek entered the Guyan river at the upper limits of Aracoma. Only during flood time did the creek meet the river at its present point.

As for the towns which have sprung up in the county since coal became king, many were named for prominent people living in them at one time or another or for pioneer families who lived in the towns when the coal companies first came in.

A unique method was used, however, in naming Micco. It received its name from the first letters of the Main Island Creek Coal Co., which formerly operated the mines there.

Omar was named for Omar Cole who was closely associated with the development of the town. The Cole family held, and still holds, extensive mining leases in the vicinity of that mining town.

Sarah Ann acquired its name from the wife of Colonel Edward O’Toole, who was manager of the coal company when the town applied to the government for a post office. The town is generally known as Crystal Block.

Barnabus received its name from Barnabus Curry, a pioneer settler whose home was near the town.

Stirrat was named for Colonel Stirrat, who was manager of the Main Island Creek Coal Company at one time.

Chauncey was named for Chauncey Browning, well-known son of a pioneer family who owned much of the land near that town. For many years the town of Chauncey was not large enough to be made a post office, but after the Litz-Smith Coal Company opened its mines there the town grew to proportions large enough to warrant a post office.

Dehue was given its name in honor of D.E. Hue, the first superintendent who operated the mines there.

Cham, a small place about two and one-half miles above Dehue, got its name from a Chambers family who lived on Rum Creek.

Chapmanville was named for the Chapmans, Curry for the Curry family and Aracoma for the famous Indian princess.

Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 25 March 1937

Jackson’s Mill (2015)

27 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in American Revolutionary War, Civil War, Lincoln County Feud, Native American History

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American Legion Mountaineer Boys State, American Revolution, Appalachia, Battle of Chancellorsville, Beverly, Blake G. Woodson, Blood in West Virginia, books, Brandon Kirk, civil war, Confederate Army, Edward Jackson, First Battle of Manassas, George Conrad, Harpers Ferry, Henry McWhorter, history, Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Academy, Jackson's Mill, Jonathan Arnold, Jonathan Jackson, Julia Beckwith Neale Jackson Woodson, Laura Ann jackson, Lewis County, Lincoln County Feud, log cabin, Mary Conrad, Mexican War, Native American History, Native Americans, New Jersey, Pelican Publishing Company, photos, Phyllis Kirk, Revolutionary War, Rutherford B. Hayes, Stonewall Jackson, U.S. Military Academy, Union Army, Virginia Military Institute, West Point, West Virginia, West Virginia 4-H Camp, West Virginia University Archives, William McKinley, William Rohrbough

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Years ago, I attended Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Academy (10th grade) and the American Legion Mountaineer Boys State (11th grade) here at Jackson’s Mill in Lewis County, WV. 29 August 2015. Photo by Mom.

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Jackson’s Mill is the boyhood home of Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. 29 August 2015.

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Jackson’s Mill. Original owned by West Virginia University Archives.

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Jackson’s Mill Historic Area Map. 29 August 2015.

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Mary Conrad Cabin/The General’s Store. William Rohrbough constructed the front in 1845; George Conrad constructed the back after 1855. 29 August 2015.

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Mary Conrad Cabin/The General’s Store. Future U.S. presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and William McKinley reportedly visited the cabin at its original location. 29 August 2015.

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Mary Conrad Cabin/The General’s Store. Dove tail notching. 29 August 2015.

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Mary Conrad Cabin/The General’s Store. Love the dogtrot feature! 29 August 2015.

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Mary Conrad Cabin/The General’s Store. BOOK MEETS LOG CABIN. I enjoy seeing the book with logs. 29 August 2015.

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McWhorter Cabin. Built after 1793 by Revolutionary War veteran Henry McWhorter of New Jersey, this 18′ X 24′ cabin offers an internal chimney as protection from attacks by Native Americans. It was used as a home, church, school, and post office. 29 August 2015.

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McWhorter Cabin. Note the square notching. 29 August 2015.

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McWhorter Cabin. 1793 pioneer cabin meets 1889 feud history. 29 August 2015. Photo by Mom.

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Jackson’s Mill. 29 August 2015.

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Jackson’s Mill, 1837. 29 August 2015.

Aracoma Memorial in Logan, WV (1936)

22 Saturday Sep 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in American Revolutionary War, Logan, Native American History

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American Revolution, Appalachia, Aracoma, Aracoma Hotel, Bluestone River, Boling Baker, C.A. Davis, Cornstalk, Daughters of the American Revolution, Edwin Goodwin, Elmer McDonald, Harris Funeral Home, history, Jimmy Browning, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Lyle Burdette, M.R. Atkinson, Montgomery County, Native American History, Native Americans, photos, sheriff, Virginia, W.C. Turley, West Virginia

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Aracoma Memorial at the Logan Courthouse, Logan, WV. 18 May 2017.

Princess Aracoma Memorial Given to the Public by D.A.R. Chapter is Formally Unveiled and Dedicated

The monument to Princess Aracoma was dedicated yesterday afternoon by the local chapter of the D.A.R. which bears her name, with a brief ceremony in which the romantic history of the chief of the first tribe known to have settled in this vicinity was reviewed.

The dedication service took place at 4:30 o’clock at the northeast corner of the courthouse, and was opened with an assembly bugle call by Boy Scout Edwin Goodwin. Rev. M.R. Atkinson led in prayer and Jimmy Browning gave the salute to the flag.

Mrs. S. Elmer McDonald, regent of Aracoma chapter, presided, saying, “We have gathered here to honor Princess Aracoma, an Indian princess who with her tribe first settled in this valley.”

W.C. Turley, whom Mrs. McDonald introduced as the descendant of one of the oldest families of the county gave a talk reviewing the traditional settling of the Indians in this vicinity.

“I think it striking evidence of patriotism for your Princess Aracoma chapter to place this monument in memory of Princess Aracoma,” he said.

Mr. Turley said that Princess Aracoma was born somewhere between 1740 and 1745, the daughter of Cornstalk, chief of the Shawnee Indians, who was killed in the first land battle of the Revolution.

“When the princess was a young girl she interceded in behalf of Boling Baker, a white soldier who had deserted from the British army and had been captured by her tribe. Through her plea his life was spared and he was initiated into the tribe.

“According to the Indian custom, when Princess Aracoma became of age she was given a portion of the tribe to settle under her leadership in new hunting grounds, and chose the island first settled in this territory. Shortly after settling in their new home, the Princess and Boling Baker were married at a large ceremony attended by Cornstalk and other chiefs.

“The tribe lived happily and prospered until, in 1776, a plague struck them taking many of their members including all of the children of the princess and her white husband.

“Baker, seeking to replenish the goods of the tribe went with some scouts to a settlement on the Bluestone river, where, posing as an escaped captive, he gained the confidence of the settlers. Then one night he led his scouts in a raid on the camp, stealing their horses and provisions.

“The sheriff of Montgomery county, of which Logan was then a part, designated Col. Breckenridge and Gen. Madison to lead a force of 90 men to seek revenge on the Indians. In the ensuing battle, which took place near where the power plant now stands, Princess Aracoma was killed.

“According to tradition, she was buried somewhere in the vicinity where the Aracoma Hotel and Harris Funeral Home now stand. Skeletons and Indian burial pieces were unearthed when the excavation for these buildings was made.”

At the close of Mr. Turley’s address, the monument was unveiled by Mrs. Lyle Burdette and Mrs. C.A. Davis.

Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 28 October 1936.

NOTE: This article incorrectly references the Battle of Point Pleasant as part of the American Revolutionary War.

Museum and Log Cabin at Breaks Interstate Park in Breaks, VA (2018)

17 Monday Sep 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Civil War, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Native American History, Timber

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Appalachia, Battle of Middle Creek, Brandon Kirk, Breaks, Breaks Canyon, Breaks Interstate Park, civil war, fossils, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, James A Garfield, Kentucky, Marion, moonshine, moonshining, Native American History, Native Americans, photos, Phyllis Kirk, rafting, Saltville, Union Army, Virginia

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Video showcasing regional history. 25 August 2018.

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Hammerstone and Polishing Stone. 25 August 2018.

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Fully Grooved Axe. 25 August 2018.

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Lt. James A. Garfield, Union hero at the Battle of Middle Creek, KY. 25 August 2018.

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Rafting through Breaks Canyon, c.1885. 25 August 2018.

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This photo is labeled: “A Confrontation Between the Hatfields and the McCoys.”

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Moonshine still. 25 August 2018.

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Seed fern fossil, 305 million years old. 25 August 2018.

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Native wildlife. 25 August 2018.

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Log cabin. 25 August 2018.

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Log cabin. 25 August 2018.

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Log cabin. 25 August 2018.

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Log cabin. 25 August 2018.

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Log cabin. 25 August 2018.

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Mom at the cabin. 25 August 2018.

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Moonshine still showing cap, thumping keg, and worm. 25 August 2018.

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Salt kettle cast at Marion, VA, about 1860 and buried to conceal it from Union troops at Saltville, VA, in 1864. 25 August 2018.

History for Wyoming County, WV (1927-1928)

23 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Coal, Native American History, Wyoming County

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A.F. Wysong, Appalachia, architecture, Baileysville District, Barkers Ridge District, Center District, Charleston, Clear Fork District, coal, crime, Early Brothers, Gertrude of Wyoming, Guyan Heating and Plumbing Company, history, Huff's Creek District, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Maughwaiwama, Mingo County, Mullens, Native American History, Native Americans, Oceana, Oceana District, Pineville, Princeton, Slab Fork District, Thomas Campbell, West Virginia, Wyoming County, Wysong & Bengston

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history about Wyoming County, dated 1927 and 1928:

Wyoming County In the Public Eye

Now that three railroads are contesting for the authority to build a branch line across Wyoming county, increased interest is shown in the probable early development in that bailiwick.

Wyoming has coal resources equal to those of any other county in the state, it is said, and it has wide valleys of fine farming land, and an unusually picturesque mountain country. Like Mingo, it was carved out of Logan territory, its formation having been authorized by an act of the general assembly passed January 26, 1850. With an area of 507.30 square miles it is more than 50 miles larger than this county, yet its population in 1920 was only 15,180.

That county’s valuation for taxation purposes exceeded $28,000,000 last year.

Wyoming county is divided into seven magisterial districts, as follows: Baileysville, Barkers Ridge, Center, Clear Fork, Huff’s Creek, Oceana and Slab Fork districts.

Wyoming county was stricken off from the older county of Logan, which took its name from a celebrated Indian chief. Another county was formed from Logan, many years later, and to this was given the name of Mingo, the tribe to which Logan belonged. Logan, Mingo and Wyoming are the three counties in West Virginia whose names are derived from the original settlers.

Wyoming county bears the name of an Indian tribe, and this tribe was later honored by having its name adopted by one of our great western States. While the derivation of the name, in its application to the county, seems to be clear, the origin of the name itself is veiled in obscurity. By some authorities it is said to be a corruption of the Indian Maughwaiwama, signifying a plain, or open space. Others assert that it is a creation of Thomas Campbell, the poet, and author, of “Gertrude of Wyoming.”

Pineville, the present county seat, is located near the center of the county. It has an elevation of 1,323 feet above the level of the sea and had a population of 304 in 1920. Later estimates do not greatly increase this figure. Pineville became the county seat years ago, having secured the removal of the seat of justice from the older town of Oceana.

Mullens, a prosperous town and center of the coal industry, had a population of 1,425 in 1920.

Oceana, long the county seat before its removal to Pineville, had at the last census a population of 90.

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

***

WYOMING COUNTY HAS NEW JAIL–NATIVE STONE USED–COST $150,000

Wyoming county’s new jail at Pineville has been accepted by the architects and will be formally turned over within the next few days.

Erected at a cost of approximately $150,000, the new bastille is perhaps one of the finest buildings of its kind in the southern part of the state. It is built of native stone throughout, and is a most imposing and beautiful building and one of which the county may well pride itself, says the Mullins Advocate.

It is three full stories high above the basements, heated by vapor, containing room for 70 prisoners with comfort, and can accommodate twice that number, if necessary. The cells and jail construction is of tool proof steel, equipped with the latest locking devices. A prisoner when confined in a cell, must go through three sets of tool proof steel bars to make an escape.

The building contains a large and comfortable residence for the jailer, including a large, well furnished and equipped kitchen, is supplied with hot and cold water throughout, including shower baths on the inside corridors of the jail, padded cells for the insane, hospitals for the sick and detention rooms for juveniles of both sexes.

In the basement there is an incinerator, together with a laundry and large supply rooms.

The building was formally approved on January 9th by A.F. Wysong of the firm of Wysong & Bengston architects, of Charleston, who had the construction of this building in charge. Early Brothers, of Mullens, contractors, constructed the building, while the heating system was installed by the Guyan Heating and Plumbing company, of Mullens. The plumbing was done by Wickline of Princeton. Mr. Wysong, after going over the jail carefully, approved the construction and recommended payment of the balance due on the several contracts.

Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 17 January 1928.

Charleston, WV: One Century Ago (1927)

25 Friday May 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Coal, Giles County, Native American History, Tazewell County

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Alex W. Quarrier, Andrew Donnally, Benjamin F. Morris, C&O Railroad, Cabell County, Charles Droddy, Charles Page, Charleston, Clendenin, coal, Coal River, Coalsmouth, Daniel Boone, David Ruffner, Davis Creek, Donnally's Fort, Ebenezer Oakes, Elk River, Fleming Cobb, Fort Tackett, genealogy, Giles County, Greenbrier County, Henry Ruffner, Herbert P. Gaines, history, John P. Huddleston, John Young, Josiah Hughes, Kanawha County, Kanawha Court House, Kanawha Salines, Kanawha Valley, L.H. Oakes, Leonard Morris, Logan Banner, Logan County, Malden, Marmet, Mason Campbell, Mercer Academy, Michael Newhouse, Native Americans, Owen Jarrett, Point Pleasant, Roy J. Morris, salt, South Charleston, St. Albans, Tazewell County, The Western Virginian, Walton, West Virginia, William Cobb

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, in a story titled “Conditions Century Ago: Charleston Educator Tells of Settlement of Kanawha County Which Embraced Part of What Is Now Logan–With 550 Population Charleston Was Metropolis of Kanawha Valley,” comes this bit of history for the city of Charleston dated October 14, 1927:

Josiah Hughes, principal of the South Charleston graded schools, has written a sketch of Kanawha county, telling of the activities of a century and more ago. It is of interest here, because Logan county was created in 1824 from parts of Kanawha, Cabell, Giles and Tazewell, and because some of the pioneers he names have descendants in Logan. Kanawha county was formed Oct. 5, 1789. His article in part follows.

Charleston was the largest town in the valley, and had a population of approximately 550. It had its stores, its schools, its court house, its jail, its pillory, and its whipping post.

The postoffice at Charleston was “Kanawha C.H.” established under that name in 1801, and was so called until late in 1879. Among those who received their mail here one century ago were the following: Leonard Morris (an ancestor of Roy J. Morris, who is in the local C. & O. ticket office), probably the earliest of the pioneers of the valley; Fleming Cobb, the noted Indian scout, who lies buried near the mouth of Davis Creek; John P. Huddleston, who hunted and trapped with Daniel Boone; Alex W. Quarrier, who was many years clerk of the courts of Kanawha county; Herbert P. Gaines, founder of the first newspaper in Charleston; John Young, whose father saved him and his mother from death by Indians when Fort Tackett at the mouth of Coal River was destroyed about 1789; Dr. William Cobb, the first physician in this valley and the ancestor of the Cobb family near Clendenin; Michael Newhouse, a noted pioneer of Elk river; Ebenezer Oakes, a near ancestor of our townsman, L.H. Oakes; Charles Droddy, the first settler at Walton; Owen Jarrett, noted ancestor of the Jarrett family in Kanawha county; Col. David Ruffner, the noted business man whose enterprise made possible the establishment of Mercer Academy in Charleston one hundred and ten years ago; Benjamin Morris, a noted pioneer and near ancestor of Benjamin F. Morris of Marmet; Col. Andrew Donnally, whose father built Donnally’s Fort in Greenbrier county.

During the years 1825-1829. “The Western Virginian,” as it was called, was the only newspaper published in Charleston. Mason Campbell was editor.

50 Salt Furnaces

The first great industry in the Great Kanawha Valley was the manufacturing of salt. One hundred years ago more than fifty salt furnaces were in active operation. A few years later the annual production of salt reached upwards of 3,000,000 bushels.

Kanawha Salines, now Malden, was the center of the great industrial area. The salt companies had greater stores than could be found in Charleston and many of the citizens of Charleston went to Kanawha Salines to do their trading.

One hundred years ago only a few coal mines had been opened up. Wood was the principal fuel used at the salt furnaces. Prior to 1830 but little coal was used by the salt makers. The coal industry in this valley was of comparatively small value until the opening of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad in 1873.

By 1827 three steamboats had succeeded in reaching Charleston. In 1830 the first towboat on the Kanawha reached Charleston.

Before the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth century missionaries of various churches had visited the valley and preached in the homes of the pioneers. The Protestant Episcopal church established parishes in Kanawha valley about 1821. The Rev. Charles Page was the preacher for the churches at Point Pleasant, Charleston and Coalsmouth (St. Albans). But the Presbyterian church was probably the pioneer in the valley, although small congregations of communicants of the Baptist and Methodist churches may have worshiped in the homes of some of the pioneers. Dr. Henry Ruffner organized the first Presbyterian church in Kanawha county in 1818. The church was organized in Charleston.

Salt Rock Petroglyphs (2018)

23 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Native American History, Salt Rock

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Appalachia, Billy Adkins, Brandon Kirk, Cabell County, Dave Vance, Fraulein Adkins, history, Native American History, Native Americans, petroglyphs, photos, Salt Rock Petroglyphs, West Virginia

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Petroglyphs…down below! Salt Rock, Cabell County, WV. 18 March 2018. For more information about West Virginia petroglpyhs, follow this link: https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1844

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Making our way down to the petroglyphs… 18 March 2018.

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Billy Adkins carefully exploring the petroglyphs. 18 March 2018. For more info, follow this link: https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=22877

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Billy Adkins looking over the petroglyphs. 18 March 2018.

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“Alien” petroglyph. 18 March 2018.

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“Alien” petroglyph. 18 March 2018.

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Petroglyphs just below me. 18 March 2018. Photo by Fraulein Adkins.

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These petroglyphs are one of the most impressive Native American sites located in southwestern West Virginia. 18 March 2018. Photo by Fraulein Adkins.

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Billy Adkins. 18 March 2018.

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My favorite: the “alien” petroglyph. 18 March 2018. Photo by Fraulein Adkins.

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Petroglyph crew: Dave Vance, Billy Adkins, and Fraulein Adkins. 18 March 2018.

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Our guide: Dave Vance. 18 March 2018.

 

Dingess Petroglyphs (2018)

15 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Dingess, Native American History

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Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, Dingess, Dingess Petroglyphs, history, Laurel Lake Wildlife Management Area, Mingo County, Native American History, Native Americans, petroglyphs, photos, Phyllis Kirk, West Virginia

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Dingess Petroglyphs, Laurel Lake Wildlife Management Area, Dingess, WV. 10 March 2018.

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Dingess Petroglyphs, Laurel Lake Wildlife Management Area, Dingess, WV. 10 March 2018.

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Dingess Petroglyphs, Laurel Lake Wildlife Management Area, Dingess, WV. 10 March 2018. Photo by Mom.

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Dingess Petroglyphs, Laurel Lake Wildlife Management Area, Dingess, WV. 10 March 2018.

George T. Swain to Write Logan County History (1927)

04 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Battle of Blair Mountain, Coal, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Logan, Native American History

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Appalachia, Aracoma, books, coal, feuds, genealogy, George T. Swain, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Kingsport, Logan, Logan Banner, Mine Wars, Native American History, Native Americans, Tennessee, West Virginia, Woodland Press

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this item about George T. Swain’s effort to write a history of Logan County dated May 27, 1927:

New Logan County History is Written

G.T. Swain, the Author, Says It May Be Ready For Distribution In 60 Days.

Announcement was made yesterday by G.T. Swain that his manuscript, on which he has been working for the past several years, of a complete history of Logan county, is practically completed and he plans to leave here within the next ten days for Kingsport, Tenn., where he will place it in the hands of a publisher.

It is understood the book will be published with cloth binding, the cover title to be printed in gold letters, and the work will cover approximately 400 pages. It will give traditions and legends of the tribe of Indians that inhabited this valley, details of the invasion and battle here when Aracoma was killed, the early life of the pioneers and who they were, as well as incidents occurring here during the early years.

It will contain a full history of the Hatfield-McCoy feud which occurred partly on Logan soil and a full and complete account of the mine war. Organizations of the coal companies that developed the valley will be given in full and even the names of the first white male and female child born in the valley will be recorded.

In addition to the historical data which have been obtained after laborious work the book will contain biographical sketches and pictures of approximately fifty prominent men who helped in the development of the great Guyan valley coal field. The completed book is expected to be ready for distribution within 60 days.

NOTE: To order a reprint of Swain’s history book, go here: http://www.woodlandpress.com/book/local-history/history-logan-county-west-virginia

NOTE: It’s very important for local newspapers to promote works by historians/writers!

One-Armed Indian Doctor Visits Huntington, WV (1886)

08 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Huntington, Native American History

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Appalachia, Cabell County, Gallipolis, history, Huntington, Huntington Advertiser, Indian, King of Pain, medicine, medicine man, Native American History, Native Americans, Ohio, Queen of the Valley, Utawaun, West Virginia

From the Huntington Advertiser of Huntington, WV, come these interesting historical items about a Native American visitor to town in 1886:

The one-armed Indian doctor, who pulls teeth for the love of his species and sells compounds known as the “King of Pain” and the “Queen of the Valley” for a livelihood, is in the town. The crowds that nightly surround his wagon demonstrate that the American people have queer ideas of entertainment. Many people take advantage of the aborigine’s gratuitous services, and as he tosses in the air black and crumbling snags and molars with hideous roots, the crowd manifests its pleasure by generous applause. The doctor will remain as long as the harvest of snags holds out, the crowd remains appreciative, and last but not least, as long as the sale of the “King” and “Queen” does not lag.

Source: Huntington (WV) Advertiser, 15 May 1886.

***

U-ta-wa-un, the Indian medicine man and lightning tooth-puller, visited this city this week and pulled an astonishing number of decayed teeth, lectured on temperance and dispensed the King of Pain and the Queen of the Valley to the eager populace. On Thursday the aborigine departed for Gallipolis.

Source: Huntington (WV) Advertiser, 3 July 1886.

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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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Feud Poll 2

Do you think Milt Haley and Green McCoy committed the ambush on Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

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Feud Poll 3

Who do you think organized the ambush of Al and Hollene Brumfield in 1889?

Recent Posts

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Ed Haley Poll 1

What do you think caused Ed Haley to lose his sight when he was three years old?

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Writings from my travels and experiences. High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water. Mark Twain

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