Tag Archives: Pike County

Johnson Hatfield v. Nancy L. Hatfield (1890)

23 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by in Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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Johnson “Johnse” Hatfield’s relationship with Nancy McCoy represents one of the more interesting components of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud. I recently located Hatfield’s 1890 divorce record, which I transcribed as follows:

DOCUMENT 1

State of West Virginia

County of Logan to wit

In the Circuit Court of said County

The Bill of Complaint of Johnson Hatfield filed in the Circuit Court of Logan County against Nancy L. Hatfield.

To the Hon. Thos. H. Harvey, Judge of the Circuit Court of Logan Co.

Humbly complaining your orator Johnson Hatfield would respectfully ____ unto your Honor that on the 14th day of May 1881 he intermarried with the defendant Nancy L. Hatfield, then Nancy L. McCoy, that he was at all times to her a kind and affectionate husband, that some time in 1888 he was forced to leave his home in Logan County West Virginia, and that shortly thereafter the said defendant abandoned his home and went to the state of Kentucky where she has since that time been living in adultery with Frank Phillips, and ____ other lewd and lascivious _____.

Your orator further represents that he cohabitated with the said defendant for the last time on or about the 8th day of March 1888 in Logan County West Virginia and that they last lived together as husband and wife in said County within five years from the institution of this suit.

Your orator further represents that he be informed and so believes that some time in the month of December 1889, the said defendant was delivered of a child, which was as a ____ of more than twelve months since he had last had any sexual intercourse with her.

Your orator further represents that the adultery complained of was not committed by his consent, connivance or procurement or knowledge. He therefore prays that the bonds of matrimony existing between your orator and the said Defendant be dissolved, and that your orator be restored to his ________ rights, and as is duly bound he will ever pray

Johnson Hatfield, By Counsel

DOCUMENT 2

State of West Virginia

To the Sheriff of Logan County, Greeting:

We command you that you summons Nancy L. Hatfield if she be found in your bailiwick, to appear before the Judge of our Circuit Court for the County of Logan at rules to be held in the Clerk’s Office of said Court on the first Monday in February next, to answer a Bill in Chancery exhibited against her in our said Court by Johnson Hatfield

And have then and there this writ.

Witness: T.C. Whited, Clerk of our said Court at the Court House of said County, on the 1st day of February 1890, and in the 27 year of the State.

T.C. Whited, Clerk

DOCUMENT 3

Order of Publication.

State of West Virginia, Logan County, T0-Wit:

At Rules held in the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of said county on Monday the 3rd day of February 1890

Johnson Hatfield v. Nancy L. Hatfield, In chancery

The object of this suit is to obtain a divorce from the bonds of matrimony. This day came the plaintiff by his Attorney and on his motion it appearing from an affidavit filed with the papers of this suit that the defendant is a non-resident of this State, it is therefore ordered that she appear here within one month from the first publication of this order and do what is necessary to protect her interest herein.

Teste: T.C. Whited, Clerk

H.C. Ragland, Sol.

DOCUMENT 4

I, U.B. Buskirk, one of the Publishers of the Logan County Banner, a newspaper published in Logan County, West Virginia, do hereby certify that the annexed notice was duly published in said paper for 4 successive weeks, ending on the 27 day of February 1890.

Given under my hand this 28th day of February 1890

U.B. Buskirk

Printer’s fees: $6.00

DOCUMENT 5

State of West Virginia

Logan County to wit:

Johnson Hatfield the plaintiff whose name is signed to the forgoing bill being first duly sworn upon oath says that the facts and allegations contained in the forgoing bill are true except so far as the same are ______ stated to be upon information and that so far as the same are stated to be upon information he believes ___ to be true.

Johnson Hatfield

Taken, __________ and sworn to before me this 10th day of March 1890.

T.C. Whited, Clerk

DOCUMENT 6

Notice to Take Deposition

To Nancy L. Hatfield. You will take notice that on the 10 day of October, 1890, between the hours of 8 o’clock A.M. and 6 o’clock P.M., at the house of Anderson Hatfield, in Logan County, West Virginia, I will proceed to take the deposition of myself and others to be read as evidence in behalf of myself in a certain suit in chancery now pending in the Circuit Court of Logan County wherein you are Defendant and I am plaintiff and if from any cause the taking of the said deposition be not commenced on that day, or if commenced and not completed on that day, the taking of the same will be adjourned and continued from day to day or from time to time, at the same place, and between the same hours, until completed.

Respectfully, &c., Johnson Hatfield

DOCUMENT 7

The depositions of Johnson Hatfield and others taken before Pleasants Chafins a notary in and for the county of Logan and State of West Virginia  at the house of Anderson Hatfield on Friday October 10 in 1890, to be taken and consider as evidence in a certain chancery cause pending in the Circuit Court of said county wherein Johnson Hatfield is a plaintiff and Nancy L. Hatfield is a defendant.

Present Johnson Hatfield in person and by counsel , no appearance for the defendant.

Johnson Hatfield a witness of lawful age after being first duly sworn deposes in answer _____ as follows:

Q. What is your name, age, and where do you reside?

A.  Johnson Hatfield. I am 28 years old past. I was born and raised in this county.

Q. What relation do you have to this suit?

A. I am plaintiff.

Q. When were you and the defendant Nancy L. Hatfield married?

A. It was on the 14th day of May 1881.

Q. How did you treat her during the time that you and she lived together as man and wife?

A. .I always kept her plenty of everything she wanted and was always good and kind to her.

Q. State about when it was that you and your wife separated.

A. It was on the 18 of March 1888.

Q. Have you lived with her since that time or had sexual intercourse with her?

A. No, sir.

And the next came Alex Varney, witness of lawful age being by me duly sworn, deposed and say as follows:

Q. State your name, age, and residents.

A. Alexander Varney, Age 56 years. Residents Logan County, West Va.

Q. State wither or not you are acquainted with the partys in this suit.

A. I am.

Q. State whether or not you know anything about the defendant Nancy L. Hatfield living in adultery with Frank Phillips or anyone else since her separation from the plaintiff.

A. I saw her in Pike Co. Kentucky on the 13 day of September 1890. She was staying at the house of frank filips and she told me that she was living with him. She showed me her baby and told me that frank filips was its father.

Q. How old do you suppose that the child was.

A. She told me that the child was 9 month and 4 days old and I suppose it was about that old as it was still sucking.

[Deposition of John B. Gillespie]

Q. State whether or not you know anything about the defendant Nancy L. Hatfield living in adultery with any person.

A. I was at a house in Pike County  Ky. Frank Phillips and Nancy L. Hatfield were there. They called it their home.

Q. State whether or not it was the general impression throughout the community that they were living together as man and wife.

A. No, sir. Not as man and wife. It was that they were living together in adultery.

And further this _________ saith not.

John B. Gillespie

[Deposition of Johnson Hatfield]

_______ ________ __________ recalls and deposes as follows:

Q. State whether or not the acts of adultery committed by your late wife Nancy L. Hatfield with one Frank Phillips ______ in the two foregoing depositions were committed by or with your consent, knowledge, __________, or __________.

A. They were not.

And further this _________ saith not.

Johnson Hatfield, Jr.

State of West Virginia

Logan County, to wit:

I, Pleasants Chafins a notary in and for the county and state aforesaid do certify that the foregoing depositions were duly taken, sworn to, and subscribed in my presence at the time and place _____ in the notice here to _____.

Pleasant Chafin, a notary for Logan Co., W.Va.

Notary’s Fee

2 hrs work as notary     $1.50

DOCUMENT 8

Johnson Hatfield v. Nancy Hatfield, In chancery

This day this cause in which the defendant is prosecuted against as a nonresident and it appearing that the order of publication has been duly published and posted as required by law, came on to be heard upon the plaintiff’s bill and the depositions there with filed in support thereof together with the argument of counsel for plaintiff and the same being considered and inspected by the court the court is of the opinion that the plaintiff is entitled to the relief therein prayed for, whereupon it is adjudged, ______, and decreed that the said plaintiff Johnson Hatfield be and he is hereby divorced absolutely from the defendant the said Nancy L. Hatfield and that the bonds of matrimony now existing between himself and the said defendant be dissolved and the said plaintiff Johnson Hatfield be and he is hereby restored to all the rights, privileges and immunities of an unmarried man. And this cause having performed its object, the same is ordered to be stricken from the docket and it appearing that this order was made at the October 1890 term of this Court, and by _________ not entered, it is ordered that the same be entered now as for ____.

Source: Logan County Circuit Clerk’s Office, Logan County, WV, Case No. 33, File No. 35

John C.H. Shannon

15 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by in Wyoming County

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From “Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888,” published by H.H. Hardesty, we find this entry for John C.H. Shannon, who resided at Sun Hill in Wyoming County, West Virginia:

Son of James H. and Rena (Gore) Shannon, was born Aug. 11, 1853 in Wyoming county, W.Va. His father was born in Tazewell county, Va., Dec. 30, 1808, and died June 14, 1890; his mother in Monroe county, W.Va., June 30, 1810; they were married in Logan county Jan. 13, 1831, the mother dying Sept. 28, 1888. Dec. 30, 1875, J.C.H. Shannon was married to Augusta, daughter of James Justice, who was born Dec. 5, 1812, in Pike county, Ky., and died in Logan county, W.Va., Aug. 12, 1874. Her mother’s maiden name was Jennie Hatfield, who was born in Pike county, Jan. 10, 1813, dying in Logan county April 18, 1886. Mr. and Mrs. Shannon’s children’s records are: Fraaland B., born Feb. 20, 1877; Cora F., born Oct. 21, 1878; James W., born Feb. 3, 1880, and died Aug. 4, 1888; Lightburn F., born July 23, 1881; John L., born Jan 16, 1883; Cosby J., born Aug. 22, 1885; Elizabeth B., born March 12, 1887; and Larkin, born May 11, 1889. Mr. Shannon is engaged in merchandising and farming near Sun Hill, W.Va.

Source: Dr. R.A. Brock, Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888 (Richmond, VA: H.H. Hardesty, Publisher, 1888), p. 838.

William E. Justice

12 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Wyoming County

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From “Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888,” published by H.H. Hardesty, we find this entry for Hon. William E. Justice, who resided at North Spring, West Virginia:

Son of James and Jennie (Hatfield) Justice, was born May 16, 1849, in Logan county, W.Va., a worthy representative of a family which has long been seated in this section. His parents were born in Pike county, Ky., the father on Dec. 5, 1812, dying in Logan county, W.Va., Aug. 12, 1874; the mother born Jan. 10, 1813, dying here also on April 28, 1886. William E., the subject of this sketch, is one of fourteen children, twelve of whom are living. March 24, 1870, he married Laura S., daughter of Jacob and Linda (Chambers) Cook, long and honored residents of this section. Her father was born in Giles county, Va., May 21, 1814, and her mother in Monroe county, W.Va., on July 19, 1819. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Justice are ten in number: Alonzo, born March 31, 1871; Larkin, Feb. 27, 1873; Mollie, March 16, 1875; John K., June 1, 1877; Laura B., Sept. 20, 1879; Teddy F., Dec. 15, 1881; Grover E., April 20, 1883; Violinna, July 10, 1886, dying Aug. 19, the same year; Lotty I., Nov. 19, 1887; and Eva F., Feb. 5, 1890. Hon. W.E. Justice is engaged in farming and merchandising at North Spring, Wyoming county, W.Va., and has amassed extensive means and territory in both Logan and Wyoming counties, consisting of coal and timber lands. He was elected to represent Logan county in the House of Delegates on Nov. 6, 1888, his term having now expired, which he filled with credit and acceptability; post office address, North Spring, W.Va.

Source: Dr. R.A. Brock, Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888 (Richmond, VA: H.H. Hardesty, Publisher, 1888), p. 834.

Thomas Justice

10 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in Civil War, Wyoming County

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From “Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888,” published by H.H. Hardesty, we find this entry for Thomas Justice, who resided at North Spring, West Virginia:

Of North Spring, Wyoming county, W.Va., was born June 15, 1834, in Logan county, W.Va. (then Virginia); in this county, Aug. 20, 1854, he was united in marriage to Ingabo Bailey, who was born in Logan county, Jan. 29, 1832. Record of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Justice: George W., born June 20, 1855, married; Delia J., March 15, 1857, married; Laura C., June 11, 1859, married; Almeda, Dec. 4, 1861, married; Lee, April 20, 1866, married; Minnie, May 1, 1868, married to Berry L. Cook; Scott, Dec. 9, 1870, living with his parents; James, Sept. 15, 1874, living with parents. Record of Thomas Justice’s parents: James Justice, Sr., was born in Pike county, Ky., Dec. 5, 1812, departed this life in Logan county, W.Va., Aug. 12, 1874; Jennie (Hatfield) Justice was born in Pike county, Ky., Jan. 10, 1813, departed this life in Logan county April 28, 1886. Record of the parents of Mrs. Thomas Justice: James Bailey was born in Russell county, Va., Dec. 1, 1806, died in Logan county Feb. 9, 1874; Delia (Gore) Bailey was born in Boone county, W.Va., Oct. 11, 1806, died in Logan county Jan. 28, 1888. Thomas Justice enlisted in 1861 as lieutenant in Co. D, Berkley’s Battalion, C.S.A., and served with honor and distinction until the close of the war. At the present time he resides with his wife and their youngest two children in his pleasant home not far from the mouth of Huff’s Creek; here he is engaged in farming and in managing his estate. His plantation is well cultivated; he also owns valuable coal and timber lands. As citizens he and his family are loved and respected. His son, Lee Justice, was married June 11, 1890, in Logan county, to America, daughter of James N. and Lucinda (Steel) Justice. Record of the family of James N. Justice: He was born in 1847 in Pike county, Ky.; at present lives in Logan county, W.Va.; his wife was born in Logan county in 18_6, and died in the same county in 1884. Their son Wayne was born in 1872; daughter Ellen was born in 1877, and died in 1879.

Source: Dr. R.A. Brock, Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888 (Richmond, VA: H.H. Hardesty, Publisher, 1888), p. 833-834.

Lewis Hatfield

01 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by in Wyoming County

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From “Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888,” published by H.H. Hardesty, we find this entry for Lewis Hatfield, who resided at Blankenship, West Virginia:

Son of James and Rachel (Toler) Hatfield, was born Feb. 20, 1848, in Logan county, W.Va. His parents are now living in Wyoming county, the father born May 19, 1824, in Pike county, Ky., and his mother was born in Logan county. On March 8, 1873, Lewis Hatfield was joined in marriage with Dorcas D. Lester, who was born in this county on Nov. 5, 1845; she died on May 3, 1889, leaving five living children: Laura A., born May 13, 1874; William J., born June 25, 1877; Marga L., born Dec. 12, 1880; Kenna, born May 28, 1883; and Oce O., born April 6, 1887; two daughters, Virginia, born May 25, 1879, died Nov. 13, same year, and Susan B., born Aug. 20, 1885, and died June 3, 1887. Mr. Hatfield is a farmer, and has filled offices of trust and importance; was elected president of the board of education in 1883-5, and justice of the peace in 1885-9; post office address, Blankenship, W.Va. Mrs. Hatfield is a daughter of Pleasant and Lucinda (Miller) Lester, who were united in holy wedlock June 15, 1843; her mother’s birth occurred in Raleigh county, W.Va., Feb. 7, 1823. Pleasant Lester was born in Logan county, W.Va., Jan. 24, 1822; he has passed most of his life in this county, where he is honored and esteemed by all who know him; he is now engaged in farming, but has officiated as justice of the peace, filling the office with highest integrity and efficiency.

Source: Dr. R.A. Brock, Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888 (Richmond, VA: H.H. Hardesty, Publisher, 1888), p. 832.

Suzy Phillips (2015)

22 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by in Big Sandy Valley, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Women's History

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When I visit the Tug River section, Suzy Phillips is often my guide and partner. She is a descendant of Frank Phillips, who gained fame during the Hatfield-McCoy Feud. She loves history. 20 June 2013

Jacob Cook

25 Monday May 2015

Posted by in Wyoming County

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From “Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888,” published by H.H. Hardesty, we find this entry for Jacob Cook, who resided at Oceana, West Virginia:

Son of Jacob and Linda (Chambers) Cook, was born Aug. 5, 1860, in Wyoming county, W.Va. His parents are now living in this county at very advanced ages, the father born May 21, 1814, and the mother July 19, 1819. Jacob Cook was married Feb. 19, 1885, Miss Amanda E. Lester becoming his wife. The result of this union has been: Araminta M., born Jan. 4, 1885; Inez V., born May 17, 1886; and Laura M., born June 29, 1889. Mrs. Cook’s father, Mathew J. Lester, was born June 10, 1846, and her mother, Araminta Lester, was born in Pike county, Ky., Jan. 1, 1844, both now residing in Wyoming county. Mr. Cook is a farmer, and his post office address is Oceana, W.Va.

Source: Dr. R.A. Brock, Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888 (Richmond, VA: H.H. Hardesty, Publisher, 1888), p. 826.

Whirlwind 11.10.1911

21 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by in Big Harts Creek, Holden, Timber, Whirlwind

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“J.M.,” a local correspondent at Whirlwind in Upper Hart, Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items on October 13, which the Logan Banner printed on Friday, November 10, 1911:

We are having plenty of rain in this section.

Jerry Sias was here on business Thursday.

S. Riddell made a business trip to Logan Thursday.

Mrs. Mollie Dalton was out shopping Wednesday.

Moses Tomblin returned to his work at Holden Sunday.

Miss Willson, of Roane county, is teaching the Dalton school this term.

Mrs. F.F. Riddell and daughter, Miss Pattie, were calling on Mrs. S. Riddell, of this place, Thursday.

A. F. Gore and Will Dingess passed this place on their way to Holden on Thursday.

George Mullins was calling on friends recently.

James Mullins was calling on his best girl Thursday.

Deputy Sheriff T.J. Wysong was around serving court papers Monday.

Thomas Carter, of Brown’s Run, was calling on Mullins & Riddell one day recently.

Mrs. Dicey Bush was shopping at Whirlwind Tuesday.

Miss Georgia Lowe was visiting Mullins & Riddell’s store Tuesday.

Crockett Farley transacted business here Wednesday.

Carter Workman passed through the city Thursday.

Elias Workman left Monday for Pike county, Ky., where he will take charge of a large timber job for J.I. Johnson.

Gordon Farley, the leading cross-tie man of Whirlwind, was in the city one day recently.

Union veterans of Chapmanville District (1890)

07 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by in Chapmanville, Civil War

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During the War Between the States, the Chapmanville area of what is today Logan County, West Virginia, strongly supported the Confederacy. Logan County’s loyalty to the Confederacy was quite overwhelming. Its citizens supported secession and opposed the creation of West Virginia. Well over ninety-percent of all local veterans were Confederates. A few local men, however, did serve in the Union Army. At least seven Yankee soldiers lived in Chapmanville District after the war.

In June of 1890, Edwin F. Mitchell, enumerator of the federal census, made his way through Chapmanville District gathering information about local residents who had served in the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps during the late war. He ultimately compiled a short list of residents who had served the Union cause: Sidney T. Woody, Patterson Riffe, Martin Van Buren Prince, William Kelley, Robert Vanderpool, John Rose, and Allen K.M. Browning. It was a mixed bag of Yankees with hard-to-read loyalties. At least four of them were post-war settlers of the Chapmanville area, having served in Tennessee or Kentucky units. One of these migrants was an unenthusiastic Yankee who had been pressed into service by Federal troops. And of the two pre-war Logan County residents — Riffe and Prince — one served in both Confederate and Union military units. Regardless, these seven men reflected a very small percentage of the local population. In 1880, according to census schedules, Logan County had a population of 6,170 male residents and 1,795 families.

Sidney T. Woody, the first veteran listed by Mitchell in the 1890 census, was born around 1852 to Sidney and Anna (Tyree) Woody in North Carolina. During the war, from 1864-1865, he served as a private in a Tennessee regiment. By 1870, he was a resident of Logan District with his parents. In 1874, he married Sally Ann Handy, a daughter of William and Charlotte (Doss) Handy, in Logan County. They were the parents of at least ten children. Woody initially lived in Logan District with his family but spent his last years in the Chapmanville area.

Patterson Riffe, the second veteran identified in the 1890 census, was born on April 18, 1844 to Peter and Jane (Perry) Riffe in Logan County. In 1867, he married Martha B. Thomas, a daughter of David and Margaret (Mullins) Thomas, in Chapmanville. They were the parents of at least eight children. Early in the Civil War, Riffe served in Company A of the 1st Cavalry State Line (Confederate). In the latter part, from April 15, 1862 until August 8, 1865, he was a private with Company I of the 7th West Virginia Cavalry (Union). According to military records, Riffe was six feet tall with a fair complexion, gray eyes, and brown hair. He suffered a war-related injury caused by a horse falling on his leg. Riffe and his family were listed in the 1870, 1880, and 1900 censuses as occupants of Chapmanville District. He died on January 31, 1920 at Big Creek in Logan County.

Martin Van Buren Prince, the third person listed in the 1890 census, was born around 1835. Around 1856, he married Sarah Jane Carter, a daughter of Barney and Mahulda (Mullins) Carter, residents of the Hoover Fork of Harts Creek. Carter was a well-known Confederate officer in the war. During the war, Prince served as a private in Company F of the 5th Virginia Infantry. His dates of service were from August 10, 1861 until June 26, 1863. In 1884, Prince was listed in a business directory as “Van B. Prince, physician,” at Warren, a post office on Harts Creek in Lincoln County.

William Kelley, the fourth veteran in the 1890 census, was born around 1820 to Bryon Kelley in Wise or Tazewell County, Virginia. Around 1841, he married Hannah Osborne, with whom he had at least eight children. In 1850, he was a resident of Tazewell County. During the war, from November 4, 1862 until August 15, 1865, Kelley served in Company C of the 19th Kentucky Infantry. According to family tradition, Kelley was pressed into service by Yankees. “A bunch of Yankee recruiters came to Grandpa’s home and forced him to join up,” said the late Marshall Kelley of Harts. “He said he had to take his son with him because the rebels might come and kill him. Harvey was only about fifteen so they didn’t want him to go. But he went with Grandpa and was with him the whole time. He didn’t do any fighting. He just worked in the camp.” In 1870, Kelley was a resident of Pike County, Kentucky. Throughout the 1870s and early 1880s, Kelley fathered five or more children by different women before marrying Nancy Branham. They were the parents of at least five children. In the late 1880s, around 1888, Kelley sold his farm near Wise, Virginia and moved to the present-day site of the Main Harts Creek Fire Department. In 1890 or 1891, he sold out there to Tom Farley, his son-in-law, and moved back to Kentucky. Kelley died in February of 1902 in Cumberland, Kentucky or Clintwood, Virginia.

Robert Lee Vanderpool, the fifth Union man listed in the 1890 census, was born around 1849 to Jim and Sally (Beverly) Vanderpool. During the war, from May 1, 1864 until March 11, 1865, Vanderpool was a sergeant in Company G of the 1st Kentucky Infantry. Around 1871, Vanderpool married Becky Aurelia Murray, a daughter of Hiram and Francis (Thornsberry) Murray. He and Becky made their home in the Chapmanville District, where they reared at least seven children.

John Rose, the sixth person in the 1890 census, enlisted in Company G of the 1st Kentucky Infantry on the same day as Vanderpool. He was a private and was killed in battle during the war. In the 1880 census, Rose’s widow, Parline, was listed in the Chapmanville District of Logan County with four children. In 1890, Parline was still a widow and living at Warren. By 1900, no Roses lived in Logan County.

The last Union veteran listed in Mitchell’s 1890 enumeration was Allen K.M. Browning. During the war, Allen was a private in Company C of the 9th Virginia Infantry. He enlisted on January 15, 1862. He claimed some type of rupture as a war-related injury. In 1870, no one by Browning’s name lived in Logan County; in 1880, however, two local men appear by the name of “A.M. Browning.” One, aged 56, lived in the Logan District and was married with four children. The other, aged 45, lived in the Magnolia District and was married with six children. By 1900, there were no A.M. Brownings in Logan County census records.

Frank Phillips is Given Up to Die (1895)

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by in Big Sandy Valley, Culture of Honor, Hatfield-McCoy Feud

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Frank Phillips HA 09.28.1895

“His Last Fight: Frank Phillips is Given Up to Die,” Huntington (WV) Advertiser, 28 September 1895

John W. Runyon 1

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by in Big Harts Creek, Big Sandy Valley, Harts, Inez, Timber, Wyoming County

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In the late summer of 1996, Brandon and Billy turned their genealogical sights on John W. Runyon, that elusive character in the 1889 story who seemed to have stirred up a lot of trouble and then escaped unharmed into Kentucky. They arranged a biographical outline after locating two family history books titled Runyon Genealogy (1955) and Alden Williamson Genealogy (1962). Then, they chased down leads at the Cultural Center in Charleston, West Virginia; the Wyoming County Courthouse at Pineville, West Virginia; the Wayne County Courthouse in Wayne, West Virginia; the Martin County Courthouse at Inez, Kentucky; and at various small public libraries in eastern Kentucky. Runyon had left quite a trail.

John W. Runyon was born in February of 1856 to Adam and Wealthy (Muncy) Runyon, Jr. in Pike County, Kentucky. He was a twin to James Bertrand Runyon and the ninth child in his family. His mother was a daughter of James Muncy — making her a sister to Nellie Muncy and an aunt to Milt Haley. In other words, John Runyon and Milt Haley were first cousins.

According to Runyon Genealogy (1955), Adam and Wealthy Runyon left Pike County around 1858 and settled on the Emily Fork of Wolf Creek in present-day Martin County. In 1860, they sold out to, of all people, Milt Haley’s older half-brother, Moses Parsley, and moved to Pigeon Creek in Logan County. John’s grandfather, Adam Runyon, Sr., had first settled on Pigeon Creek around 1811. The family was primarily pro-Union during the Civil War.

At a young age, Runyon showed promise as a timber baron.

“The first lumber industry in Logan County of any importance was started on Crawley Creek by Garrett and Runyon during the year 1876,” Bob Spence wrote in Land of the Guyandot (1978). “Garrett and Runyon deserve credit for their efforts in opening the lumber business in Logan County. They were the first to hire labor in this field. It might be of interest to note here that they originally brought trained men from Catlettsburg… In a few years, Garrett and Runyon left Logan [County], and soon Enoch Baker from Nova Scotia came to Crawley Creek to take their place.”

John may have put his timber interests on hold due to new developments within his family. According to Runyon Genealogy, his mother died around 1878 and was buried at Peach Orchard on Nat’s Creek in Lawrence County, Kentucky. His father, meanwhile, went to live with a son in Minnesota. In that same time frame, on Christmas Day, 1878, Runyon married Mary M. Williamson, daughter of Stephen and Ellender (Blevins) Williamson, in Martin County, Kentucky. He and Mary were the parents of two children: Aquillia Runyon, born 1879; and Wealthy Runyon, born 1881. John settled on or near Nat’s Creek, where his father eventually returned to live with him and was later buried at his death around 1895.

During the late 1880s, of course, Runyon moved to Harts where he surely made the acquaintance of Enoch Baker, the timber baron from Nova Scotia. An 1883 deed for Henderson Dingess referenced “Baker’s lower dam,” while Baker was mentioned in the local newspaper in 1889. “Enoch Baker, who has been at work in the County Clerk’s office and post office for several weeks, is now on Hart’s creek,”  the Logan County Banner reported on September 12. Baker was still there in December, perhaps headquartered at a deluxe logging camp throughout the fall of 1889.

After the tragic events of ’89, Runyon made his way to Wayne County where he and his wife “Mary M. Runyons” were referenced in an 1892 deed. Wayne County, of course, was a border county between Lincoln County and the Tug Fork where Cain Adkins and others made their home. He was apparently trying to re-establish himself in Martin County, where his wife bought out three heirs to her late father’s farm on the Rockhouse Fork of Rockcastle Creek between 1892-1895.

In the late 1890s, John’s two daughters found husbands and began their families. On January 3, 1896, Wealthy Runyon married Clarence Hinkle at “John Runyonses” house in Martin County. She had one child named Hattie, born in 1899 in West Virginia. On March 29, 1896, Aquillia Runyon married Samuel W. Porter at Mary Runyon’s house in Martin County. They had three children: John W. Porter, born in 1897 in West Virginia; Aubrey Lee Porter, born in 1899 in Kentucky; and Izella Porter, who died young.

In Search of Ed Haley 114

21 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Ed Haley

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Ed Haley’s roots, at least on his mother’s side, originated in the high mountains of Appalachia somewhere in that wild section of country situated along the Virginia-Kentucky state line. Peter Mullins, Haley’s great-grandfather, was born around 1804 in Kentucky or, according to one source, in North Carolina. The son of a notorious counterfeiter, “Money Makin’ Sol” Mullins, and reported descendant of those mysterious people the Melungions, Peter chose for his wife Jane Mullins, a first cousin. Between 1830 and 1858, he and his wife had at least eleven children. The sixth child, Andrew Jackson Mullins, was Ed Haley’s grandfather. Peter and his wife initially lived in Pike County, Kentucky, near Clintwood, Virginia. Based on census records, the family remained in Kentucky throughout the 1830s. Family tradition, however, states that Peter relocated to Marion County, Tennessee, due to his involvement in a counterfeiting operation. Around 1841-42, he traveled north to Upper Hart in what was then Logan County, Virginia, and settled near a sister, Dicy Adams. In 1842, he bought 25 acres of land from Abijah Workman and Mekin Vance on Hoover Fork. Deed records indicate that he operated a mill on Hoover. Two years later, he acquired 50 acres on the “first lower branch” of Trace Fork.

There are no stories chronicling Peter’s life on Harts Creek, nor any photographs to reveal anything about his physical features. All we have are census records and deed records — somewhat dry but noteworthy. In the 1850 Logan County Census, he was 46 years old and had 200 dollars worth of real estate. Three years later, in 1853, he bought 40 acres of land on Hoover from John and Sarah Workman and 37 additional acres on Trace. That same year, he sold a 35-acre tract (that included a “mill built by Mullins”) and a 25-acre tract on Hoover to son-in-law Barney Carter for 400 dollars. In 1854 he bought 30 acres on the Gunnel Branch of Trace Fork and another 1/4 acre on Hoover from Carter. On this latter property, he acquired a mill and dam, referenced in the deed. Three years later, he purchased three tracts of land totaling 97 acres on Trace. In 1858 he sold land on Hoover to son-in-law Mathias Elkins for 400 dollars. The next year, he sold a small acreage on Hoover to Carter for 100 dollars. In 1860, Peter appeared in Logan County Census records as 54 years old with 1,500 dollars worth of real estate and 2,000 dollars worth of personal property. In 1869, he bought 29 acres from Elkins for 100 dollars located “10 poles above the Alfred Tombline House” on Harts Creek.

In 1870, 63-year-old Peter Mullins appeared in the Logan County Census with his wife Jane and four of their children. Within in the next few years, Jane Mullins died. In 1874, Peter remarried to the much-younger Elizabeth (Johnson) Bryant and settled on Buck Fork. That same year, he sold a tract on the Bills Branch of Trace to son-in-law William Jonas, then bought 50 acres of land on Harts Creek above Lick Branch from Carter the following year. The 1880 Logan County Census listed him as a 68-year-old farmer; his wife Elizabeth was aged 40. That same year, he sold 80 acres on Trace to son Jackson Mullins — Ed Haley’s grandfather — who simultaneously sold him 50 acres of land on Buck Fork for 600 dollars. In 1882, he bought surface rights to a 100-acre tract and a 30-acre tract on Buck Fork and a 25-acre tract on Trace. Thereafter, in 1883, he sold 35 acres to son Solomon Mullins on Buck Fork for 250 dollars and 20 acres to Mary D. Mullins on Trace Fork for 100 dollars. In 1886, he sold 30 acres to Dicy Blair on Buck Fork.

Peter died around 1888 and was buried on Buck Fork under a large stone slab. In March of 1889, just a few months before the outbreak of the Haley-McCoy trouble, his heirs sold 20 more acres of his property on Buck Fork to Dicy Blair.

In Search of Ed Haley 64

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Ashland, Big Sandy Valley, Ed Haley, Music

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Early that summer, I was back at Lawrence Haley’s in Ashland with plans to visit Lynn Davis in Huntington, West Virginia. Lynn had been mentioned in the Parkersburg Landing liner notes as a source for Haley’s biographical sketch and was the widower of Molly O’Day, the famous country singer. Snake Chapman had told me that Molly and her family were close friends to Haley, who visited their home regularly in Pike County, Kentucky. I was sure Lynn would have a lot of great stories to tell about Ed. At our arrival, he was incredibly friendly — almost overwhelming us with the “welcome mat.” All we had to do was mention Ed’s name and he started telling us how he and Molly used to pick him up in Ashland and drive him up the Big Sandy Valley to see Molly’s father in southeastern Kentucky.

“That was back in the early forties,” he said. “We’d come to Ashland and get him at his home up on Winchester about 37th Street. They was a market there or something you turned up by and we’d go there and pick him up and take him up to Molly’s dad and mother up in Pond Creek, Kentucky — above Williamson. There’s an old log house up there — it’s been boarded up and sort of a thing built around it so people couldn’t get in and tear it up or something — but it’s falling down. He’d stay up there with Molly’s dad and mother for several days. They’d take him to Delbarton, a coal town over there from Williamson, and they’d just drive him around, buddy. Now Molly’s brother, he really loved Ed’s fiddling.”

Lynn was referencing Skeets Williamson, Molly’s older brother and a good fiddler by all accounts. Lynn showed me an album titled Fiddlin’ Skeets Williamson (c.1977), which referenced him as “one of country music’s more skilled fiddlers during the 1940’s — one of the best in his day.”

Skeets was born in 1920 at McVeigh, Kentucky, meaning he was approximately 35 years younger than Haley. As a child, he played music with Molly and his older brother Duke Williamson, as well as Snake Chapman. “During these years, the famous fiddler of Eastern Kentucky, Blind Ed Haley, became a tremendous influence on him,” the album liner notes proclaimed. “Skeets (along with Clark Kessinger) still contend that Haley was the greatest fiddler who ever played.” During a brief stint on Texas radio, Skeets met Georgia Slim Rutland, the famous radio fiddler who spent a year listening to Haley in Ashland.

I asked Lynn more about his trips to Haley’s home on 37th Street.

“We used to go down to his house and Molly’d say, ‘Uncle Ed, I’d just love to hear you play me a tune.’ Well he’d be sitting on the couch and he’d just reach over behind the couch — that’s where he kept his fiddle. He always had it in hand reach. So he would get it out of there, man, and fiddle.”

Sometimes Lynn and Molly would join in, but they mostly just sat back in awe.

“You’ve seen people get under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, John,” Lynn said. “Well now, that’s the way he played. I mean, I’ve seen him be playing a tune and man just shake, you know. It was hitting him. I mean, it was vibrating right in his very spirit. Molly always said, ‘I believe that fiddlers get anointed to the fiddle just like a preacher gets anointed to preach.’ They feel it. Man, he’d rock that fiddle. He’d get with rocking it what a lot of people get with bowing. It was something else. But he got into it man. He moved all over.”

Lynn said Ed was a “great artist” but had no specific memories of his technique. He didn’t comment on Ed’s bowing, fingering or even his fiddle positioning but did say that he mostly played in standard tuning. Only occasionally did Ed “play some weird stuff” in other tunings.

Lynn’s memories of Haley’s tunes seemed limited.

“Well, he played one called ‘Bluegrass Meadows’,” he said. “He had some great names for them. Of course one of his specials was ‘Blackberry Blossoms’. He liked that real good, and he’d tell real stories. He would be a sawing his fiddle a little while he was telling the story, and everybody naturally was just quiet as a mouse. You know, they didn’t want to miss nothing.”

What kind of stories?

“Well, I know about the hog’s foot thing. He said they went someplace to play and they didn’t have anything to eat and those boys went out and stole a hog and said they brought it in and butchered it and heard somebody coming. It was the law. They run in and put that hog in the bed and covered it up like it was somebody sleeping. And Ed was sitting there fiddling and somebody whispered to him, said, ‘Ed, that hog’s foot’s stickin’ out from under the cover there.’ So he started fiddling and singing, ‘Shove that hog’s foot further under the cover…’ He made it up as he went.”

The next thing I knew, Lynn was telling me about his musical career. He’d been acquainted with everybody from country great Hank Williams to Opry star Minnie Pearl. We knew a lot of the same people — a source of “bonding” — and it wasn’t long until he started handing me tapes and records of Molly O’Day and Georgia Slim Rutland. He said he had a wire recording of Ed and Ella somewhere, but couldn’t find it. He promised me though, “When I find this wire — and I will find it — it’s yours.”

Sometime later, he called Dave Peyton, a reporter-friend from the Huntington Herald-Dispatch, to come over for an interview. With Peyton’s arrival, Lynn (ever the showman) spun some big tales.

“Now, Molly’s grandfather on her mother’s side was the king of the moonshiners in West Virginia and he was known as ‘Twelve-Toed John Fleming’,” Lynn said. “He had six toes on each foot. Man, he was a rounder. Little short fella, little handlebar mustache — barefooted. He was from the Short Tail Fork of Jenny’s Creek. And the reason they called it that, those boys didn’t have any britches and they wore those big long night shirts till they was twelve or fourteen years old.”

Lynn was on a roll.

“I preached Molly’s uncle’s funeral. Her uncle is the father of Blaze Starr — the stripper. That’s Molly’s first cousin. In her book, she said she would walk seven miles through the woods to somebody that had a radio so she could hear her pretty cousin Molly sing. She was here in town about three or four months ago. We had breakfast a couple times together. She’s not stripping anymore. She makes jewelry and sells it. She’s about 60 right now.”

In Search of Ed Haley 48

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Ed Haley

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I asked Lawrence if he’d heard from any of his brothers or sister and he said, “I’ve got one that lives in town now. He moved back from Cleveland, Ohio. He lives in town. Noah was a little bit… You might want to talk to him, I don’t know. But Noah, he went away, I guess, in 1939. He went in the service. He was at Scoffield Barracks in Hawaii when the Japanese… He was in all that Pacific Theater. I think he was wounded a couple of times. The Japanese bayoneted him one time in a bonsai attack or something. It left Noah a little bit shell-shocked or something. He gets a pension from it. He’s not together all there, I guess. You know, in a way, if you talked to him you’d never notice it. He was married to a woman of Hungarian descent and raised a family — a boy and a girl. He had a problem with the girl, too. She was having a problem with a boyfriend or something and her boyfriend was there at the house. Well, the boy had a pistol or some sort of a gun and she went and got that pistol and said, ‘If you don’t love me,’ or something and she shot herself. She committed suicide. I think it was non-intentional. It was just a bluff.”

I said to Lawrence, “Well now, aren’t your other brothers, they’re all kind of hard to get along with, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, a little bit odd,” he answered. “Clyde just moved out and took off and went his way, I guess. Followed the sun, I call it. We’d hear from him in Louisiana one year and the next year he might be in Montana or Upper State New York. He did hobo. Noah went to see him about ten years ago out in California and they started back and Noah was going to stop and get some gasoline. Clyde said, ‘No, don’t stop here and get gas. I’ll get your gasoline.’ He went over to this big church and told them he was on the road back to Ohio and didn’t have money to get there. I guess they give them a tank of gas and they come all the way back from California like that. Clyde was good at that. He did work and we’d get his W-2 forms. He never did turn in his income tax, I don’t think. He’d send his W-2 forms home. Some years he was out on an oil rig in Louisiana. Apparently during the time he was working for them they had rigs off the coast of Alaska.”

Hearing Lawrence speak of his brothers caused me to ask if maybe any of Milt Haley’s “stuff” — which I now presumed to be sort of bad — might’ve come down in their genetics.

“I don’t know, John,” he said. “I couldn’t say. They never met their granddad. I don’t think… My dad, if he’d been a sighted man, he’d probably been as gentle as a lamb. But he had frustrations in his own life.”

“Sometimes in a situation like that, sometimes a gene will come and it won’t get everybody,” I said, pressing Lawrence a little further. “Like it’ll skip your dad, and like skip you, but pick out a brother there and one over there.”

Lawrence totally disagreed.

“Well, I don’t think any of them… And I really don’t think my grandfather, from what I’ve heard of that tale… It was caused by hard times. I’m not trying to defend my grandpa because, hell, it don’t make any difference to me now.”

Milt in so many ways seemed like a critical character in the story: an ambiguous rogue — a key player in causing Ed’s blindness and inspiring his music, whose very genetic attributes or deficiencies might still live on strongly in his grandchildren.

I wondered if Lawrence knew where Milt came from before his settlement on Harts Creek.

“I think maybe over in Old Virginia or over in Pike County,” he said. “I understand there’s some Haleys in Pike County. I’d ask Aunt Liza, ‘Where’d Milt Haley come from?’ ‘Well, he come from over the mountain.’ Now, that’s as far as I could get from her.”

Lawrence thought his father had resolved his hard feelings toward the Brumfields in later years.

“Pop was supposed to have made the remark that if he’d had his eyesight he’d hunted down the people that killed his dad,” Lawrence said. “But afterwards, him and one of the Brumfield sons, they settled their trouble.”

I said, “Well obviously if your grandmother was at the Brumfields’ house the night she got shot, there was no animosity between her and the Brumfields.”

I was starting to understand how the tragedies of Ed’s early life, as well as the legacy of his father, had manifested itself into the pain, rage, and lonesomeness I’d been so drawn to in his music. I kept telling Lawrence, “We’re gonna have to go back up Harts Creek,” but it would be a year before we actually did so.