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Brandon Ray Kirk

Tag Archives: Norfolk and Western Railroad

Hatfield Tunnel at Sprigg, WV (2022)

03 Saturday Dec 2022

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Sandy Valley, Matewan

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Allen River Wall Hatfield, Appalachia, Ben Patterson, Bend of the River, Brandon Kirk, Catlettsburg, Greenway Hatfield, Hatfield Tunnel, John Wallace Hatfield, Kentucky, Mingo County, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Phyllis Kirk, Pike County, Sprigg, West Virginia

A video from the 1990s features commentary from two sons of Allen “River Wall” Hatfield (1892-1978), who lived in Pike County, Kentucky. Scenes include Hatfield Tunnel, the Allen Hatfield farm, and the John Wallace Hatfield Family Cemetery. One person who is shown in the video died in 1997, so the video dates to 1990-1997.

Scene 1

…other side over there at the end of the bridge is West Virginia. And over on this side is Kentucky. My dad [Allen “River Allen” Hatfield, son of John Wallace Hatfield] walked up those beams and carried water—he was a water boy—while they were putting in this bridge here. This is a bridge that goes through the mountain that cuts off where the river makes a circle called the Bend of the River. And the Bend of the River is where the Hatfields lived. And over here is the tunnel. Hatfield Tunnel. And I have walked through this tunnel. You walk through this tunnel. There was man-holes through this tunnel and you could walk through here and… Step on the side when you hear a train coming. My dad and Ben Patterson who used to be the tunnel watchman here took a handcar and went over to Sprigg and put a self-playing piano on a handcar, brought it through the tunnel and took it across the river here and we unloaded it and hauled it down to our house, which was the Greenway Hatfield farm. Ben Patterson and my dad were very close friends. This is the tunnel and place where the Hatfields used to go down to Catlettsburg and they used to go down to Catlettsburg and as they took rafts down by the river and get at Catlettsburg and they’d buy whisky. The way they brought it back they brought a casket and put the whisky in a casket and put the casket in the coach car like there was somebody had died. So they’d get the train to stop right here at this tunnel and let the corpse off, you know. So they could get by with bringing in whisky from Catlettsburg.

Hatfield Tunnel, erected in 1914. Sprigg, Mingo County, WV. October 2022
Hatfield Tunnel, erected in 1914. Sprigg, Mingo County, WV. October 2022
Hatfield Tunnel, erected in 1914. Sprigg, Mingo County, WV. October 2022. Photo by Mom.

Wharncliffe, Mingo County, WV (2020)

24 Wednesday Jun 2020

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Sandy Valley, Wharncliffe

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Tags

Appalachia, Ben Creek, Big Sandy River, Mingo County, Norfolk and Western Railroad, photos, Tug Fork, West Virginia, Wharncliffe

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The old railroad town of Wharncliffe is gone. 30 May 2020

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Mouth of Ben Creek, Mingo County, WV. 30 May 2020

Big Coal Deals for Logan County, WV (1917)

11 Tuesday Jun 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Boone County, Coal, Huntington, Logan

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Tags

A.H. Land, Al Litz, attorney, B.L. Holland, Bengal Coal Company, Billy Aldredge, Boone County, Cleveland and Western Coal and Coke Company, coal, coal operators, Cora Mining Company, E.H. Butts, Ethel, Ethel Coal Company, Flynn-Haislip Coal Company, Fred Haislip, George Aldredge, H.T. Proctor, history, Hotel Frederick, Huntington, Island Creek Colliery Company, J.J. Ross, Jack Dalton, Logan County, Logan Democrat, Loma Mining Company, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Riley Lilly, Tom Wilson, Washington D.C., West Virginia

From the Logan Democrat of Logan, WV, comes this bit of information relating to coal companies in Logan County, printed on May 17, 1917:

BIG DEALS FOR COAL IN LOGAN ARE BEING MADE

Public Service Corporation Buying Huge Prices for Local Properties

Public service corporations which must have coal whether school keeps or not are becoming big investors in Logan county coal and many big deals are about to be made. Most of the business is being done at the Frederick hotel, Huntington, which at this time is swarming with Logan county operators and representatives of big interests.

So far, the following companies are as good as sold.

Loma Mining Company.

Cora Mining Company.

Island Creek Colliery Company.

The following companies have been optioned and are regarded as good as sold:

Ethel Coal Company.

Flynn-Haislip Coal Company.

Bengal Coal Company.

The Loma Mining Company and the Cora Mining Co., are reported to have been sold to Cleveland and Western Coal and Coke Company for $250,000 apiece. The Loma Mining company was capitalized at $100,000 while the Cora Mining company was capitalized at $50,000 so the investors in both corporations will clear up a handsome profit on their investment.

Deposit $100,000

In the case of the Loma Mining company $100,000 already has been deposited in a Huntington bank to insure the deal so there is no chance of it falling through. The final papers in the Cora Mining company may not be signed for a few days yet but it is regarded as good as sold as it is a valuable property for any public service to own. Both companies have well developed seams of coal and are capable of great productivity. Island Creek Colliery sold for $475,000.

The Ethel Coal Mining company at Ethel, W.Va., is working on three operations. It is reported to have been optioned at $1,250,000 and the company notified by those holding the option that they intend to exercise their rights in the near future. It was not possible to get the amount of the proposed sale of the Flynn-Haislip company.

A.H. Land, the well known coal operator of Logan county, at present is in Washington, D.C. It is said that he is there on a big deal but it is not possible to give details.

Among the operators from this county who have been in the throng at the hotel Frederick during the last few days are Jack Dalton, H.T. Proctor, Fred Haislip, Al Litz, E.H. Butts, attorney for several Logan county operators, Riley Lilly, attorney for several Logan county interests, B.L. Holland, George Aldredge, Billy Aldredge, Tom Wilson, J.J. Ross and others.

Make Vast Sums

Logan county operators are now in a position, according to reports, to clean up vast sums of money on their investments. The public service corporations who have been depending on the open market have found that it is absolutely necessary for them to go into the coal mining business on their own hook in order to insure their supply and they are doing so.

At the hotel Frederick, many big deals have been pulled off for mines in Boone, the N. & W. territory as well as for Logan. A number of deals affecting Logan county interests are anticipated in near future.

The buyers of Logan mines intend to operate them on a bigger scale than ever before. They have the money to do so and intend to employ for it that purpose so that the general prosperity of the county is on a more solid foundation than ever before.

Allen Hatfield of Beech Creek, WV (1970s)

11 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Matewan, Tazewell County

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Tags

Allen Hatfield, Appalachia, Beech Creek, Beni Kedem, Charleston, Charlie Simpkins, Cincinnati, civil war, Clyde Kiser, Deanna Hatfield, Devil Anse Hatfield, Devon Church of Christ, Doc Mayhorn, Eliza Murphy, Ellison Hatfield, feuds, Frankfort, genealogy, Goldie Hatfield, Gordon Smith, Grapevine Fork, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Hugh C. Boyd Lodge No. 119, Jane Hatfield, Jane Maynard, Joseph Chester Hatfield, Joseph Murphy, Kentucky, Kentucky Colonels, Lawrence Hatfield, Logan County, Major Hatfield, Martha Bell Murphy, Maryland, Mingo County, Norfolk and Western Railroad, North Tazewell, Ohio, Pike County, Plyant Mayhorn, preacher, Raymond Hatfield, Right Hand Fork, Rockville, Thacker, Valentine Wall Hatfield, Virginia, West Virginia, Williamson, Williamson Memorial Hospital, Willis Hatfield

My name is Deanna Hatfield and tonight I would like to share with you a West Virginian, Allen Hatfield, who the community of Beech Creek honored and loved. Allen was born October 11, 1877. He was the youngest child of the pioneer couple, Wall Valentine Hatfield and Jane Maynard Hatfield, who settled on Beech Creek in 1861, the year that the Civil War broke out in this country. His parents had settled at the mouth of Grapevine Fork of Beech Creek. They had occupied a log cabin near the present site of Lawrence Hatfield’s home. He was the nephew of Captain Devil Anse Hatfield, clan leader in the famed Hatfield-McCoy Feud, and a first cousin of Willis Hatfield, the only surviving child of that family.

Almost until the day of his death, Allen carried a sadness in his heart over the death of his father in the days of the famous feud. His father, a peaceable man, was not an active member of the fighting group of the Hatfields during the trouble between his family and the McCoys but was named in warrants along with two of his sons-in-law, Doc and Plyant Mayhorn. Allen Hatfield, but ten years old at the time, remembered that his father Wall, thinking that he had nothing to fear in the courts of Kentucky, wrote the prosecuting attorney of Pike County that he and his sons-in-laws wished to surrender in Pikeville and stand trial for crimes for which they were accused. Allen Hatfield recalled the incident from his boyhood, including the feud. His father did go to Pikeville to voluntarily stand trial and clear his name but he was convicted by a prejudiced jury, the son remembered, and was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Kentucky State Prison in Frankfort. After sentencing, he lived about one year and his burial place is still unknown today. The two Mayhorns served several years and were later pardoned.

One of his fondest memories was that of his mother Jane who took over the management of the home and did a good job of raising a large family after her husband was taken from her. She did chores around the homestead. A great and interesting conversationalist in his adult years, he liked to tell of how he and his friends made bows and arrows–arrows consisting of straight pieces of wood with a horseshoe nails attached as the spike. He became an excellent marksman with the bow and arrow and later with his first rifle as he helped to provide squirrels and other wild game for the family table.

The early years of Hatfield’s life were marked by sadness as a result of the loss of his family in the feud. But his hours spent in the great outdoors hunting and fishing provided a therapy that led to his development to splendid manhood. He was several years old when the Norfolk and Western Railroad Company built an extension from Virginia to southern West Virginia and Mingo County, which still was Logan County at that time.

In 1899, Hatfield was married to Martha Bell Murphy, daughter of Joseph and Eliza (Steele) Murphy. She had just turned fourteen when he proposed and her family thought she was too young to wed. The young couple sort of eloped the night of April 8, 1899, to Allen’s home where they were married by Allen’s brother, Ellison, a country preacher and a granny doctor, as he later recalled. Late that summer, he amassed enough lumber to build their first home—a one-room abode that was erected next to the hillside just north of the present homestead. Allen Hatfield made most of his furniture and his wife tended a garden and dug ginseng to help the family fortune.

During the ensuing years, the Hatfields had eleven children, two of whom preceded them in death. Lawrence Hatfield, who married Dollie Kiser, is now retired and lives with Dollie on Beech Creek at the mouth of Grapevine Fork. Estel Hatfield, who married Virginia Varney, lived with his dad and still lives in the old homeplace. Estel is an agent for the Norfolk and Western Railroad Company. Major Hatfield, who married Mildred Friend, is employed as an agent also for the Norfolk and Western Railroad Company in North Tazewell, Virginia. Rosa Hatfield, married Wayne Simpkins, lives on Beech Creek on Right Hand Fork. Goldie Hatfield married Gordon Smith, and they make their home below Grapevine Fork on Beech Creek. Mamie Hatfield married Charlie Simpkins and makes her home in Rockville, Maryland. Glendeen Hatfield married Douglas Berlin, and they make their home in Louisiana. Etta June Hatfield, never married and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. Erma Hatfield married Forest Baisden, and she lives in Williamson, West Virginia. Milda Hatfield, deceased, was a retired school teacher and was never married. Joseph Chester Hatfield, died at six months old.

In 1914, Allen bought from his brother Smith a grocery store at the old homeplace and moved the merchandise to a small building at his home. He built a large home later and it was there that most of the children were born. He expanded his business to a larger store building, which still stands, and then he erected the present homeplace. During his early merchandising days, Hatfield was compelled to haul his goods from the railway station at Devon by team and wagon for the roads had not been built and most of the rough team tracks was through the creeks. It was a problem in the wintertime to get through the streams as they were filled with ice. After the county built a road up Beech Creek, he retired his team and wagon and switched to a gasoline-powered vehicle to haul and deliver his goods. He learned carpentry in the early years of his marriage and continued this art until 1964 when he retired. Hatfield was a 57-year member of the Hugh C. Boyd Lodge No. 119 AF & AM at Matewan and received his 50-year service award from the Grand Lodge of West Virginia in 1970. The lodge, when he became a master mason, was known as Thacker No. 119. It was located at Thacker, West Virginia. It later was moved to Matewan. He also belonged to the Beni Kedem Temple of Charleston, being a 50-year member of the Shriners. He also received the honorary commission of a Kentucky Colonel on April 10, 1972. He had been a member of the Devon Church of Christ since 1916 and sponsored the building of the present church that stands near his home on Beech Creek.

In his years of selling groceries, Hatfield said he never lost but 50 dollars in bad debts. He was proud of his heritage, a leader in his community, and in his active life a crack shot with a rifle, pistol, and shotgun. His hunting and fishing kept the table supplied with food. He won beef, hogs, turkeys, and chickens in the old-time rifle matches that were so popular in the Beech Creek area years ago. He and the former Martha B. Murphy were married 71 years before her death on May 25, 1970. His life might have been used as the subject by the poet who wrote, “Let me live by the side of the road and be a friend to man.” Allen Hatfield had spent a lifetime doing just that, living beside a little country road on Beech Creek and being a friend to mankind. On March 2, 1975, Allen was taken to the Williamson Memorial Hospital for ailments associated with his advanced age. He then was released and re-entered the hospital on April 18 in critical condition. On Friday, May 2, 1975, the community of Beech Creek lost one of the dearest old-timers that was ever known. Allen Hatfield, 97, prominently-known Mingo pioneer citizen, retired merchant of Beech Creek, died at 3 a.m. in the Williamson Memorial Hospital of a lingering illness. Funeral services were scheduled at the Chambers Funeral Home Chapel with his beloved ministers Clyde Kiser and Raymond Hatfield officiating. Burial took place in the family cemetery behind the homeplace on Beech Creek. His grandsons and great-grandsons were his pallbearers. Allen would have wanted it this way. Simple.

NOTE: Some of the names may be transcribed incorrectly.

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

20 Friday Jul 2018

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

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Tags

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

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

Editor Dean Married

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

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

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

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

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George A. Dean Logan Banner LB 01.24.1913.JPG

Logan (WV) Banner, 24 January 1913.

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Editor of “Most Fearless Weekly” on the Trail

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 1

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 2

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 3

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 4

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 5

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

George A. Dean's Wife Missing LB 03.21.1913 6

Logan (WV) Banner, 21 March 1913.

Coal Development on Island Creek (1927)

04 Friday May 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Coal, Holden, Huntington

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Appalachia, Boston, Cincinnati, coal, F.W. Batcheler, history, Holden, Huntington, Island Creek, Island Creek Coal Company, James D. Francis, Kentucky, Logan, Logan Banner, New York, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Ohio, Pine Creek, Pond Creek, R.S. McVey, Thomas B. Davis, West Virginia

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this story titled “Boston Coal Men Pleased with Island Creek Development–New Town of Pine Creek Planned For,” published on October 25, 1927:

BOSTON COAL MEN PLEASED WITH ISLAND CREEK DEVELOPMENT–NEW TOWN OF PINE CREEK PLANNED FOR

Wish that more of the men at Boston, who talk about “mining camps” could come to West Virginia and see the flourishing cities and towns which dot the coal fields and ride over the hard roads which connect them was expressed Friday by F.W. Batcheler of Boston, treasurer of the Island Creek Coal Company. Mr. Batcheler, for 25 years in his present capacity, had just arrived in Huntington after his first visit to his company’s properties in Logan county and on Pond Creek in Kentucky. He said frankly that the experience had been a revelation to him, familiar as he already was in theory with the activities of his and other companies in these fields, reports the Herald-Dispatch.

Thomas B. Davis of New York, the Island Creek president, who has observed personally the development of the coal fields, was no less enthusiastic than Mr. Batcheler in his comment off the changes which have been wrought since his first visit to Island Creek.

“At first,” he said, “we had to go up the Norfolk & Western, using an accommodation train, and go across the mountains on horseback. Now we can inspect both Pond Creek and Island Creek properties in less time than it took them to get into the field.”

His enthusiasm and that of his fellow travelers was heightened by the fact that the party came to Huntington from Holden, by automobile, in two hours and twenty minutes.

With the president and Mr. Batcheler were R.S. McVey of Cincinnati, vice president in charge of sales, and James D. Francis of Huntington, vice president. Other members of the sales force took part in the inspection visit to the fields.

President Davis spoke in an optimistic strain of business conditions, which he feels are going to continue good despite a “let down” tendency now manifest.

“We can’t go at top speed all the time,” was his comment.

One of the chief points of interest to the inspection party while in Logan was operation No. 22, a new shaft mine which is being opened by the Island Creek company at an outlay of several million dollars.

15-Foot Seam at No. 22

“The shafts are down,” Mr. Davis said, “and we have found a 15-foot seam of coal as good as any found anywhere. The hoists are being raised and the first houses are being built.”

The preliminary housing in the new town of Pine Creek will include about forty buildings. The complete program, the officials explain, includes 600 houses to care for a population of 3,500. To reach this operation a railroad extension was built and a hard road, running for much of the seven-mile distance, was built by the company to connect Pine Creek with Holden.

 

Chafin and Dingess in Dingess, WV

24 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Dingess

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Andrew Jackson Dingess, Appalachia, Dingess, Dingess Branch, Don Chafin, F. Marion Chafin, genealogy, history, J.A. Dingess, Logan County, map, Mingo County, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Ohio Extension, Twelve Pole Creek, West Virginia

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Source: Logan County Circuit Clerk’s Office, Logan, WV. Note: Marion Chafin, a sheriff of Logan County, was the father of Don Chafin.

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The map is undated. This property is located in present-day Mingo County.

Johnson Hatfield (1890-1900)

28 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Culture of Honor, Gilbert, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Matewan, Pikeville

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Alifair McCoy, Appalachia, Beech Creek, Calvin McCoy, Chafinsville, crime, Dan Cunningham, Devil Anse Hatfield, Dollie Hatfield, feud, feuds, Floyd County, Frank Phillips, genealogy, George Hatfield, Gilbert Creek, Greek Milstead, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Henry Clay Ragland, history, Huntington Advertiser, Johnse Hatfield, Johnson Hatfield, Kentucky, Logan County, Logan County Banner, Matewan, Mingo County, murder, Nancy Hatfield, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Oakland Hotel, Pikeville, Portsmouth Blade, Prestonsburg, Southern West Virginian, T.C. Whited, Thomas H. Harvey, true crime, Vanceville, West Virginia

From the Logan County Banner of Logan, WV, and the Huntington Advertiser of Huntington, WV, come the following items relating to Johnson Hatfield:

Johnson Hatfield Notice of Deposition LCB 02.20.1890.JPG

Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 20 February 1890. Also appeared on 13 March 1890.

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Johnson Hatfield v. N&W RR LCB 07.30.1891.JPG

Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 30 July 1891.

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We are glad to see that Johnson Hatfield, who has been confined to his room for the last ___ weeks, is able to be on the street again.

Source: Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 2 March 1893.

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There was an unfortunate difficulty at Matewan on Sunday last in which Mr. Johnson Hatfield was severely wounded through the hand. His son had become involved with an officer which drew his father into the trouble.

Source: Southern West Virginian via the Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 1 January 1896.

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Johnson Hatfield, accompanied by his daughter, Miss Dollie, left on Monday last for a visit to friends and relatives in Mingo county.

Source: Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 23 January 1897.

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Johnson Hatfield and daughter, Miss Dollie, have returned from a visit to friends on Sandy.

Source: Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 6 February 1897.

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Johnson Hatfield, the genial proprietor of the Oakland Hotel, is visiting friends at Pikeville, Kentucky.

Source: Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 28 August 1897.

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Johnson Hatfield has returned from a visit to Pikeville, Ky.

Source: Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 9 October 1897.

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Johnson Hatfield is at Williamson this week.

Source: Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 23 October 1897.

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The many friends of Mrs. Johnson Hatfield will regret to learn of her serious illness. She has a very bad attack of rheumatism.

Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 13 November 1897.

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Johnson Hatfield and wife, of Mingo, passed through here [Chafinsville] last Sunday en route for Vanceville, where they will make their future home.

Source: Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 21 April 1898.

***

HATFIELD KIDNAPPED.

TAKEN TO KENTUCKY ON A SERIOUS CHARGE–NOW IN JAIL.

Johnson Hatfield was arrested yesterday and taken to Pikesville, Kentucky, and lodged in jail on a charge of being an accomplice in the murder of Alifair McCoy on New Years night about nine years ago. This murder was committed during the feud of the Hatfields and McCoys.

Source: Huntington (WV) Advertiser, 20 July 1898.

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Johns Hatfield Captured LCB 07.21.1898

Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 21 July 1898.

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Johnson Hatfield Interview LCB 8.11.1898.JPG

Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 11 August 1898.

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Johnson Hatfield LCB 10.20.1898.JPG

Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 20 October 1898.

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Johnson Hatfield LCB 1.19.1899.JPG

Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 19 January 1899.

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Johnson Hatfield Gets Life HuA 01.21.1899.JPG

Huntington (WV) Advertiser, 21 January 1899.

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Johnson Hatfield LCB 4.12.00.JPG

Logan County Banner (Logan, WV), 12 April 1900.

NOTE: Not all of these stories may pertain to the Johnson “Johnse” Hatfield of Hatfield-McCoy Feud fame. For instance, items relating to the Oakland Hotel and a daughter named Dollie relate to a Johnson Hatfield (born 1837), son of George and Nancy (Whitt) Hatfield.

Narrows, VA (2017)

25 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Civil War, Giles County, Native American History

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Abraham Wood, Appalachia, Blacksburg, Brandon Kirk, Confederate Army, George Crook, Giles County, history, John McCausland, MacArthur Inn, Monroe County, Montgomery County, Mountain Lake, Narrows, Native Americans, New River, Norfolk and Western Railroad, North Carolina, Phyllis Kirk, Stonewall Jackson, Tazewell County, The Crooked Road, Thomas Batts, Union Army, Virginia, West Virginia, William B. Giles, Wood's River

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Plenty of my ancestors once lived in Giles County, VA. 10 August 2017.

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Here we are near Narrows, VA. 10 August 2017. Photo by Mom.

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Entering Narrows, VA. 10 August 2017. The New River is visible on the right.

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I enjoyed this little section of old buildings in Narrows, VA. 10 August 2017.

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Narrows, VA. 10 August 2017. For more info, follow this link: http://townofnarrows.org/history/

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Confederate victory here in Narrows, VA. 10 August 2017. Photo by Mom.

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The MacArthur Inn in Narrows, VA. 10 August 2017. For more info, follow this link: http://www.macarthur-inn.com/

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Bluegrass music every Thursday at MacArthur Inn in Narrows, VA. 10 August 2017. Photo by Mom. For more info, follow this link: https://www.myswva.org/tcr

Winchester Adkins and Cain Adkins, Jr.

21 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Adkins Mill, Big Harts Creek, East Lynn, Harts, Lincoln County Feud, Music

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Appalachia, Cain Adkins, Cain Adkins Jr., fiddler, fiddlers, genealogy, Grand Ole Opry, history, Lincoln County, Lincoln County Feud, Mariah Adkins, Matoaka, Mercer County, Mingo County, Mingo County Ramblers, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Raleigh County, West Virginia, Williamson, Winchester Adkins

Winchester and Cain Adkins Jr. copyright.jpg

Winchester Adkins (left) and Cain Adkins, Jr. (right), sons of Cain and Mariah (Vance) Adkins. Winchester (1874-1938) lived in Williamson, WV, where he was employed by the Norfolk and Western Railroad (and used the surname of Atkins). He was a fiddler who played on the Grand Ole Opry with a band called the Mingo County Ramblers. Cain Adkins, Jr. (1880-1943) lived in Matoaka, Mercer County, WV, and Raleigh County, WV. He was also a fiddler. Both men were children during their father’s involvement in the Lincoln County Feud. Photo courtesy of Adkins family descendants.

Devil Anse Hatfield Arrested (1899)

07 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Culture of Honor, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Wharncliffe

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Appalachia, Bob Hatfield, Cap Hatfield, crime, Devil Anse Hatfield, feud, feuds, genealogy, Gray, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Huntington Advertiser, John L. Dingess, Kentucky, Logan County, Mingo County, murder, Norfolk and Western Railroad, West Virginia, Wharncliffe

Devil Anse Behind Bars HA 09.12.1899 1

Huntington (WV) Advertiser, 12 September 1899.

This story reads: “The posse of citizens which left Gray on the N. & W. yesterday for the purpose of raiding the fort and homes of the Hatfields met with fairly good success, and the most remarkable feature is the fact that no blood was shed. They captured Anse Hatfield, his son Bob, and son-in-law John Dingess at Wharncliffe. The posse hid themselves in a baggage car of an N. & W. train and took the entire party by surprise. When Bob Hatfield put the U.S. mail on the train, two Winchesters were thrust in his face and as his hands were up he was commanded to keep them up under penalty of death. The party then went to Bob’s house which is located on the side of the hill and finding ‘Devil Anse’ asleep his capture was easy. The old fellow who has led his clan for fifteen years against all enemies and authorities seemed much surprised when he awoke and noticed that he was surrounded by men with Winchesters. His faithful Winchesters of the past were then in the hands of the posse. The notorious ‘Cap’ Hatfield was in another room of the house, but at first sight of the posse approaching he escaped into a nearby cornfield and made his way to the mountains in safety. Dingess was located in a nearby saloon operated by Bob Hatfield and he was also taken into custody with but little trouble. The members of the posse of course feel much elated over the captures. All the prisoners were placed in the Williamson jail at a late hour last night and there is much speculation throughout Mingo as to what the outcome will be. It is believed by many that the intention is purely to have them removed to Kentucky, as there are no indictments of any serious nature against any of those captured yesterday in West Virginia. All are wanted in Kentucky however for their complicity in the McCoy murders of years ago. There are a large number of the Hatfields still in the mountains of Mingo and Logan, and whether the posse will continue pushing on until all are captured is not known here today.”

Marrowbone Creek (2016)

10 Saturday Sep 2016

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Coal, Kermit

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Appalachia, Brandon Ray Kirk, coal, history, Kermit, Marrowbone Creek, Mingo County, Norfolk and Southern Railroad, Norfolk and Western Railroad, photos, West Virginia

bk-at-marrowbone-2

Norfolk & Southern Railway Tunnel No. 3, Marrowbone Creek, Mingo County, WV. 20 August 2016. Photo by Mom.

Breeden Tunnel (2016)

05 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Breeden, Coal

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Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, Breeden, coal, Mingo County, Norfolk and Western Railroad, photos, tunnels, West Virginia

IMG_9431

Breeden, Mingo County, WV, 20 August 2016. Photo by Mom.

Dingess 6.26.1890

14 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Dingess

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Dingess, farming, genealogy, history, Logan County, Logan County Banner, Mary Chafin, Mingo County, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Smith Dingess, teacher, W.F. Farley, West Virginia

“Jim Yats,” a local correspondent at Dingess in present-day Mingo County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan County Banner printed on June 26, 1890:

Farming is at a stand still in this locality on account of so much rain.

Railroading is lively along this part of the line. Mr. King is working two crews, one at day, the other at night.

W.F. Farley is teaching our public school at this place.

Smith Dingess and Mary Chafin were united in the holy bonds of matrimony at this place last Friday.

In Search of Ed Haley 296

26 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, Music

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Asa Neal, banjo, Birdie, blind, C&O Railroad, Charlie Mershon, Chet Rogers, Clark Kessinger, Clayt Fry, Community Common, Devil's Dream, Dinky Coffman, Dominique Bennett, Ed Haley, Ella Haley, Elmer Lohorn, fiddle, fiddlers, fiddling, Girl I Left Behind Me, Great Depression, Harry Frye, history, Jason Lovins, John Hartford, John Lozier, John Simon, Kentucky, Kid Lewis, music, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Ohio, Portsmouth, Portsmouth Airs, Portsmouth YMCA, Ragtime Annie, Roger Cooper, Roy Rogers, Russell, West End Jubilee, writing

A little later, I met John Lozier at Portsmouth. He was a real ball of energy. It was hard to believe that he was in his late eighties. I just sat back and listened to him talk about Ed.

“The first time I ever saw Ed Haley he was sitting on the street in a little old stool of a thing — him and his wife — had a little boy with him. They always kept a little boy with them — one of the kids that would lead them here and there and yander. And I didn’t know this but a fella by the name of Charlie Mershon was there and the Mershons are all fiddlers. They live over here in Ohio somewhere. And Charlie went home and told his dad, ‘I heard a man that could out-fiddle you.’ He went over and he had to take his hat off to Ed. But Ed had long, slim fingers like a woman and he played so soft you just had to listen. He was a great fiddler.”

I asked John to tell me about playing with Ed at the Portsmouth YMCA.

“A fella by the name of Dinky Coffman was the head of the entertainment committee at the N&W over here in Portsmouth,” he said. “Well, whenever Dink Coffman would want us to have a little shindig or whatever you want to call it he would take us over in the shops at the N&W at noon. They was about seven hundred people worked over there at one time. And nickels and dimes — whatever they could get — that’s the way Ed Haley made his living. It had to be a rough life. Of course, back in the twenties you make a dollar, honey, you could wrap it ’round a corncob and be nigger rich. And the last time I played with Ed Haley was at the YMCA at the C&O Russell yards.”

I asked John how Ed looked back then and he said, “Ed was a little old short pot-bellied feller. He had an old brown hat on as well as I can remember and just an old brown coat and a pair of britches. He didn’t dress like he was going out on vaudeville stage or anything. His wife would take Braille with her and read Braille for a little extra entertainment. She played a banjo-uke — eight string, short neck — but she just played chords. Mostly me and her would play and she would second after me. One time, we went up to the Russell yards at the YMCA up there and she accompanied me on the piano. I never knew any of the kids.”

John asked to see my fiddle, so I lifted it out of the case and reached it to him. He said to his wife, “Oh, Lord. Look at this. Isn’t that done pretty? My granddad made fiddles and he used three things: a wood chisel, a pocketknife, and a piece of window glass. All he bought was the fingerboard and the apron. And he made little wood clamps and wedges. He wouldn’t let me pick up the fiddle — afraid I’d drop it and break the neck out of it. And I started playing old fiddle tunes on a harp.”

Not long after that, John pulled out his harmonica and played “Devil’s Dream”, “Portsmouth Airs”, “Birdie”, “Girl I Left Behind Me”, and “Ragtime Annie”.

I joined in every now and then, which prompted him to say things like, “You’re putting something extra in there,” or “You missed a note. See that?”

To call him feisty would be a huge understatement.

At one point, he said, “I’m trying to tell you something. You’re gonna be here all day. This is my day.”

A little later he said, “I don’t know if you know what you’re doing or not, but you’re putting a few little slip notes in there. You put more notes in that than what Ed would have put in it. You’ve been listening to Clark Kessinger records.”

Uh-oh.

John opened up a whole new facet of our conversation by mentioning Clark Kessinger, who he’d heard play one time at the West End Jubilee on Market Street in Portsmouth.

“Clark Kessinger was a hard loser in a contest,” John said. “If he lost, he’d just stomp and carry on something awful.”

Clark came to Portsmouth and played a lot because of the great number of musicians in the town during the Depression.

“I come into Portsmouth about the time that Roy Rogers left here,” John said. “Now he had a cousin that was a better guitar player than he was: Chet. He had a little neck like a turkey. And him and Dominique Bennett, Clayt Fry, Elmer Lohorn… Elmer Lohorn was the only man I ever seen that played ‘companion time’ on the guitar. It was a double time — everything he done was doubled. And Harry Frye was a fine tenor banjo player. We had one guitar player by the name of Kid Lewis — was a smart-alec — and he could play classical stuff. But they just sat around and played cards and drank moonshine and got good. Asa Neal was, I’d say, our champion fiddler around here. Asa Neal bought ever record that Clark Kessinger ever put out.”

At that moment, John Simon, a local folklorist, showed up with Roger Cooper, a Buddy Thomas protégé. I got Roger to play the fiddle while I seconded him on my banjo. John Lozier jumped in when we weren’t playing something “just right.” At some point, Jason Lovins, a local newspaper reporter, dropped in with a camera and asked a few questions. He promised to plug my interest in Ed’s life in the Community Common.

In Search of Ed Haley 285

10 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, Music

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Abe Keibler, Adams County, Asa Neal, banjo, Blue Creek, Charlie Fry, Clark Kessinger, Ed Haley, Ella Haley, fiddle, fiddling, Great Depression, Harry Frye, history, John Hartford, John Keibler, John Lozier, Kentucky, moonshine, music, Natchee the Indian, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Ohio, Portsmouth, Sam Cox, South Portsmouth, West End Jubilee, Winding Down the Sheets, writing

About two weeks later, I called John Lozier, the harp player in South Portsmouth, Kentucky. I wanted to hear more about his memories of Ed in Portsmouth, Ohio.

“That there’s where I met Ed Haley at — sitting on Market Street back in about ’28 or ’29 playing for nickels and dimes,” he said. “And his wife had a banjo-uke of some kind. It was about an eight-stringed instrument, but it wasn’t a ukelele and it wasn’t a banjo. And she was blind. They raised five children.”

I had some very specific questions about Ed’s fiddling, which John answered in short measure. I wondered, for instance, if he was a loud or soft fiddler.

“When Ed played, he played so soft and so low that you had to listen,” he said. “It was just like pouring water through a funnel.”

Where did Ed Haley put the fiddle?

“He put it up under his chin.”

Did he play a long bow or a short bow?

“I think he used all of his bow. In other words, he didn’t waste any of it. He played an awful lot of hornpipes.”

I asked John about Asa Neal, the great Portsmouth fiddler whose skill was preserved only on a few cassette tapes floating amongst an “underground” network of old-time music enthusiasts.

“Asa Neal was a good fiddler and he copied after Clark Kessinger,” John said. “He lived over here in Portsmouth and worked on a section on the N&W. I don’t know how he played as well as he did — fingers clamped around them old pick handles all day long. He was kindly rough and a little loud, but he could play a lot of fiddle. Lord, I’ve eat at his house many a time.”

I asked John if Ed knew Asa Neal and he said yes, then added, “Ed Haley and them used to get in a contest when they used to have the West End Jubilee down on Market Street in Portsmouth and Clark Kessinger would come down. Someone asked Charlie Fry one time, said, ‘What are you gonna play?’ and he told him. He said, ‘Well, Clark Kessinger’s gonna do that.’ He said, ‘That’s all right — I’ll use that rolling bow on him.’ Charlie Fry, he had a boy that was a tenor banjo player and he was good. His name was Harry Frye.”

John seemed to regard the Keiblers — who were apparently his kinfolk — as the best among local fiddlers.

“I remember Uncle John Keibler,” he said. “Uncle John Keibler was the best fiddler they was in the country. He was another Ed Haley — he played all of his life. ‘Winding Down the Sheets’, now there’s an old Keibler tune. Did you know there’s one of the Keibler boys up here yet left that plays? Abe Keibler. Lives right above me about four mile in a housing project up here at South Shore. He’s got sugar awful bad, but he’s one of the younger ones of the old set. He’s one of the boys of the seven I told you about and they all played. Now one of them has got the old fiddle that Grandpa brought over here from Germany. Made in 1620 or 1720. A Stradivarius. Abe’s boy’s got it.”

I asked John if Ed knew the Keiblers and he said, “I don’t know whether he did or not. He knew the Mershon boys that lived over on Pond Creek and around over in there. They was a bunch of Mershon boys that played fiddle and banjo there. Some of them were pretty good and some was rough. They was good for a square dance, but they couldn’t play with Ed Haley.”

John was on a roll: “At one time, they was more good musicians around Portsmouth — during the Depression — and they wasn’t no work and they just sat around and played cards and drank a little moonshine and got good. None of them ever went anyplace. And they was just some great fiddlers. Sam Cox, he was a banjo player. You know Natchee the Indian? He lived down around Blue Creek somewhere in Adams County. He’d play the bow over the fiddle and under and upside down and lay down… But Ed Haley never did do that. Ed Haley would just sit and roll it out just as smooth — just spit it right out on the street for ya. Smoothest fiddler I ever heard.”

Toney News 10.13.1910

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Gill, Leet, Rector, Toney

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Bessie Gill, Blackburn Lucas, Clerk Lucas, Ed Reynolds, farming, Fay Gill, genealogy, Gill, Hamlin, history, Leet, life, Lincoln County, Matthew Farley, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Pumpkin Center, Rector, Republican, Toney, Tucker Fry, West Virginia, Wilburn Adkins, Zattoo Cummings

“Ruben,” a local correspondent at Toney in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Lincoln Republican printed on Thursday, October 13, 1910:

Farmers are nearly finished saving their corn and tobacco.

A large crowd of people from different sections attended the funeral of Mr. Adkins on last Sunday. Dinner was served on the ground.

D.C. Fry has just returned from a business trip up the N. & W. Railroad.

Misses Fay and Bessie Gill, from Gill, were visiting at B.B. Lucas’ Saturday and Sunday.

A number of our young people attend the closing of a very successful singing school at Rector, taught by Zatto Cummings.

Wilburn Adkins has purchased a Camera.

Ed. Reynolds, a jovial republican of Leet, spent Sunday with friends in our midst.

Owing to the scarcity of mills, B.B. Lucas is working night and day trying to save the cane crop in this section.

M.C. Farley has just returned from the County Seat.

Clerk Lucas has just returned from “Pumpkin Center” and reports a delightful time.

In Search of Ed Haley 96

27 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, John Hartford, Music

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Appalachia, Catlettsburg, Clyde Haley, Ed Haley, Ella Haley, fiddle, fiddlers, fiddling, Harts Creek, history, Irish lilt, Kenova, Kermit, Kevin Burke, Lawrence Haley, music, Nashville, Noah Mullins, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Patsy Haley, snap bowing, West Virginia, Williamson, writing

Nestled in Nashville, I worked obsessively on Ed Haley’s music. First, I made a real effort to transcribe it note for note and break it down “under the microscope.” Initially, I had tried to play it generally the way he did while keeping its spirit — with my own twists, of course, which is nearly impossible not to do. This time, though, I wanted to study it as you might a fabulous book — break it down, look at it mechanically… I made a huge discovery regarding Ed’s bowing during that time. With Lawrence’s help via telephone conversations, I deduced that Ed used what Scotch fiddlers call “snap bowing,” which is when you separate notes by applying pressure (“little stops”) with the bow — not by changing its direction. Of course, Ed didn’t use those patterns exclusively and mixed them with more conventional strokes.

I also spent a lot of time listening to Ed’s recordings and playing my versions of his songs into a tape recorder. One of the first things I figured out was that he used what fiddler Kevin Burke calls the “Irish lilt” to give his music a “dotted note feel.” It would be like playing a tune in triplets with the middle note taken out.

I also discovered that Lawrence was right about Ed not playing so many notes; instead, he created the illusion of doing so by phrasing his tunes in a way that gave them a nice “crooked” flavor.

Throughout these discoveries, Lawrence continued his role as my brutally honest fiddle teacher. His comments were surprisingly musical for someone who kept reminding me that he didn’t even play anything. When I played “Yellow Barber” for him over the telephone, he said, “That sounded right except when you get down to that low end, you’re doing a little skipping in there and it seemed to me like Pop played that a little bit smoother. Like he had a roll to his… And I noticed you had a few jumping notes in there that really I don’t remember hearing. Maybe you can hear them. Other than that, it sounded great to me.”

Lawrence seemed pleased with my playing of Ed’s “Catlettsburg”.

“That was good, John,” he said. “That was really good.”

I told him I didn’t know how Ed was able to get up into second position on that tune with the fiddle sitting at his shoulder.

“I always thought that he kinda controlled the violin with his thumb and the meaty part of his hand between his finger and thumb,” Lawrence said. “He could relax that up and down the neck of the violin or he could tighten that and he could still have the flexibility of his fingers, plus that give him the ability to rock that violin body underneath the bow, too.”

I was trying that and eventually got to where I could will my fingers into third position still holding the fiddle at my shoulder, which if you have to play for a long time is sure easier on the neck of the player.

I told Lawrence about talking with Clyde, especially about his memories of Ed mistreating him as a child.

“I don’t know, maybe my dad was mean to him when he was a young’n,” Lawrence said. “But I can’t remember my dad ever laying a hand on me to hurt me. I musta been a rowdy little kid ’cause it seemed like whenever Pop’d pick me up he’d call me ‘muddy duck’ because I was always dirty, I reckon, whenever he’d get a hold of me. He’d just rub my head or something like that and call me his ‘muddy duck.’ I don’t know where Clyde got his story from.”

Lawrence agreed that his dad sometimes abused his mother, although he placed a lot of blame for their marital problems on her.

“Well, he could be temperamental with my mother at times, but I think she was temperamental, too. I think my mother’s people had higher tempers than Dad’s people did. They seemed to be kinda quiet people. Noah Mullins was supposed to killed a revenuer up there at Harts. They waylaid a revenuer and they laid it on Noah, but Noah Mullins always seemed to me like just as quiet and as calm a fella as could be. But I had some of my uncles on my mother’s side, they were a little bit of a temperamental type of people. So I’d put some of the blame on my mother for her treatment of my dad. You know, a woman can upset a man and whip him quicker with words than he can whip her with his fists.”

I totally agreed, then asked Lawrence if he knew anything about the Muncys from Patsy’s genealogy.

“We’d ride the Norfork and Western train up from Kenova and stop at Kermit and stay there with Muncy people,” he said. “They lived in an apartment up over their store and filling station-type thing and they had one of them small monkeys. I went up there one day and got right at the top of the steps and was playing with that monkey and I musta made it mad and it made a rush at me and I musta jumped back and I went to the bottom of them steps. That made me remember it more than anything else. I can’t even remember that Pop played music while he was there for them. They mighta just talked. We used to stop there maybe and stay all night and Pop and Mom and me would go on to Williamson and they’d play at courthouse days or something there. Pop musta had people up in there, but he never said anything to me about it.”

Bob Adkins Interview, Part 2 (1993)

18 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Breeden, Ed Haley, Guyandotte River, Hamlin, Harts, John Hartford, Lincoln County Feud

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Al Brumfield, Appalachia, Bob Adkins, Breeden, Cincinnati, crime, feud, feuds, Green McCoy, Guyandotte River, Harts Creek, Henderson Dingess, history, Hollene Brumfield, John Dingess, John Hartford, John W Runyon, Kentucky, Lincoln County Feud, Milt Haley, Norfolk and Western Railroad, Thompson Branch, Tug River, Twelve Pole Creek, West Virginia

Wow. So what about Al Brumfield, the guy who got into the feud with Milt?

“Well, he was a little more tamer fellow than old Paris but he was kind of a rough character — mean as a snake,” Bob said. “All those Brumfields were, you know. They was a tough outfit, all of them was.”

Al and his wife Hollena lived in a large white house at the mouth of Harts Creek, which Bob said had recently burned. They had a store and log boom nearby and kept a boat tied up at the riverbank for easy access across the Guyandotte. Things were going great for them until John Runyon (who Bob called “the root of all evil”) moved in from Kentucky.

“That fellow Runyon, he had a saloon and a store right across the creek there at the mouth of Harts, you know — a shebang,” Bob said. “And Aunt Hollene and Al Brumfield, they had a big store over there on the other side of the creek, over on the lower side of the creek. They was competitors in a way, you know. This fellow Runyon hired these two thugs to kill them, so as to get rid of their competition. And he hired Milt Haley and Green McCoy to kill them. They got a side of bacon and a can of lard and five dollars to do that…each. And these fellows, Milt Haley and Green McCoy, were two characters. I don’t know why they ever took a chance on that. Them boys got into that before they knew what they was into. Them Brumfields was mean as the devil up there.”

Bob spun out the details of Milt and Green’s ambush of Al Brumfield.

“Every Sunday, Al and Hollene would get on their horse and they’d ride up to the Forks of Big Hart about ten miles to visit her father. He was old Henderson Dingess, my great-grandfather. Al had a fine riding horse and he’d get on the horse and she’d ride behind him, see? And they’d been up there on a pretty summer day, and they’d done had dinner with her father.”

Haley and McCoy, meanwhile, laid in wait for them in a sinkhole at Thompson Branch with a .30/.30 Winchester.

“And Al and Hollene came along about three or four o’clock in the evening and those thugs laywaid them on the side of the hill up there as they came back down Harts Creek. They shot at Al’s head. That horse jumped and that bullet missed his head and hit Hollene right in the face right there and the bullet knocked her teeth out and came out this side here. It knocked her off of the horse.”

Al was carried on down the creek by his horse, which “sprang and run” so Milt and Green came off the hill toward his wife.

“They aimed to shoot Aunt Hollene again — and she a laying there in the road, her eyes full of blood. She couldn’t see hardly who it was. But she begged them not to shoot her anymore, because she figured they’d already killed her. She told them she was dying and begged them out of it.”

At that point, Al came back up along the creek bed shooting toward them “and they got scared and they run.”

Bob said, “Well, the Brumfields didn’t know who it was so they watched all around to see who it was. They watched Runyon like a hawk but he changed his name and walked right off. He left his store, his saloon and his family and went back to Kentucky. They hunted for years for him but they never did find him. He never poked his head around there anymore, not even to contact his family.”

Milt and Green also disappeared from the neighborhood — which caused locals to assume that they were guilty of some role in the trouble.

“And these two guys just left their family and went into Kentucky and just deserted their families,” Bob said. “Then they knew who it was. And they started looking for them.”

Al Brumfield put out a $3,000 reward for their capture. Detectives were told to search in river towns, as both men had run rafts out of the Guyan River.

A detective caught Green McCoy first in a Cincinnati restaurant. He identified him by noticing a nick in one of his ears. Just before apprehending him, the detective walked up and said, “I think you’re the man I’m looking for.” Once caught, Green gave the whereabouts of Milt, who was found working a butter churn on a steamboat at the river. Both men were jailed. Al Brumfield was informed of their capture by letter.

Brumfield organized two of his brothers-in-law and perhaps one of his brothers into a posse and rode to the rendezvous point (presumably in the vicinity of Cincinnati). He posed as a sheriff, paid the reward, took possession of the two men, then headed across eastern Kentucky and up the Tug River to Williamson. He and his gang rode a train on the N&W across Twelve Pole to Breeden, where they crossed the mountain and spent a night at the home of John Dingess, Hollena’s brother. Dingess ran a large country store and saloon, Bob said, but “nothing exciting happened around there.”

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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  • Spirit of Jefferson News Article
  • The Friendly Neighbor Radio Show 1
  • The Friendly Neighbor Radio Show 2
  • The Friendly Neighbor Radio Show 3
  • The Friendly Neighbor Radio Show 4
  • The New Yorker
  • The State Journal's 55 Good Things About WV
  • tumblr.
  • Twitter
  • Website
  • Weirton (WV) Daily Times Article
  • Wheeling (WV) Intelligencer News Article 1
  • Wheeling (WV) Intelligencer News Article 2
  • WOWK TV
  • Writers Can Read Open Mic Night

Feud Poll 3

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

Recent Posts

  • Sheriff Joe D. Hatfield, Son of Devil Anse (1962)
  • The C&O Shops at Peach Creek, WV (1974)
  • Map: Southwestern West Virginia (1918-1919)

Ed Haley Poll 1

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

Top Posts & Pages

  • Sheriff Joe D. Hatfield, Son of Devil Anse (1962)
  • Anse Hatfield Letter to Perry Cline (1886)
  • Anthony Lawson founds Lawsonville
  • Jack Dempsey’s Broadway Restaurant Location in New York City (2019)
  • Levisa Hatfield (1927-1929)

Copyright

© Brandon Ray Kirk and brandonraykirk.wordpress.com, 1987-2021. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Brandon Ray Kirk and brandonraykirk.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Appalachia Ashland Big Creek Big Ugly Creek Blood in West Virginia Brandon Kirk Cabell County cemeteries Chapmanville Charleston civil war coal Confederate Army crime culture Ed Haley Ella Haley Ferrellsburg feud fiddler fiddling genealogy Green McCoy Guyandotte River Harts Harts Creek Hatfield-McCoy Feud history Huntington John Hartford Kentucky Lawrence Haley life Lincoln County Lincoln County Feud Logan Logan Banner Logan County Milt Haley Mingo County music Ohio photos timbering U.S. South Virginia Wayne County West Virginia Whirlwind writing

Blogs I Follow

  • OtterTales
  • Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC
  • Piedmont Trails
  • Truman Capote
  • Appalachian Diaspora

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OtterTales

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

Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC

This site is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and promotion of history and culture in Appalachia.

Piedmont Trails

Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond

Truman Capote

A site about one of the most beautiful, interesting, tallented, outrageous and colorful personalities of the 20th Century

Appalachian Diaspora

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