Tice Elkins in Ferrellsburg, WV
28 Sunday Mar 2021
Posted Ferrellsburg
in28 Sunday Mar 2021
Posted Ferrellsburg
in02 Tuesday Jul 2019
Posted Big Creek
inTags
A.L. Lucas, Appalachia, Barrett Mullins, Big Creek, Confederate Army, county clerk, genealogy, Gracie Johnson, Hattie Harmon, history, J. Green McNeely, Logan County, map, Mattie Toney, Route 10, Sanders Branch, W.C. Lucas, W.W. Lucas, West Virginia, William G. Lucas
Big Creek, Logan County, WV. “Big Creek Bill” was a Confederate veteran.
Big Creek, Logan County, WV.
Big Creek, Logan County, WV.
02 Tuesday Jul 2019
Posted Big Ugly Creek, Harts
inTags
Appalachia, art, Big Ugly Community Center, Harts, history, Lincoln County, mural, Route 10, West Virginia
Harts, Lincoln County, WV. BUCC. 2019
09 Saturday Mar 2019
Posted Chapmanville, Ferrellsburg, Huntington, Logan
inTags
Appalachia, Belle Dingess, Chapmanville, Charles Curry, Cora Adkins, Cora Kelly, Dude Tomblin, Easter, Ferrellsburg, Ferrellsburg School, fox hunting, genealogy, Gracy Horns, history, Homer Tomblin, Hugh Farris, Huntington, John Dan, John Lucas, John Pitts, Lincoln County, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Lula Tomblin, Martha Fowler, Martha Mullins, merchant, Piney Fork, Ross Fowler, Route 10, sawmilling, Stella Mullins, Walt Stowers, Wayne Brumfield, West Virginia, Wilburn
A correspondent named “Blue Eyes” from Ferrellsburg in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on April 6, 1923:
The hard road is being rapidly worked on here at this place. We hope Logan County will keep her part of this road worked to make a speedy finish.
Mr. J.W. Stowers is still at home; he doesn’t go out much. Sometimes he fox hunts with his hounds.
Hugh Farris, a merchant from Piney, is here looking after business interests.
Mr. John Lucas made a rushing trip to Chapmanville Tuesday.
Mr. Bartley returned from a home visit in Huntington Monday.
Miss Martha Fowler made a trip to Logan Monday looking after business matters.
Mrs. Belle Dingess is visiting her sister Miss Martha Fowler this week.
Rev. Charles Curry and other Baptist ministers preached at Ferrellsburg school house Easter Sunday.
A Holiness revival will begin here this week by Brother Wellman and wife. We are certainly proud to announce the meeting because the people in this section have got their eyes on this highway of holiness. We are expecting a large crowd and a good meeting.
Mrs. Cora Adkins has been very ill for the past few weeks, but is improving now.
Mrs. Stella Mullins is visiting her sister in Ferrellsburg, Mrs. M. Tomblin.
Mr. John Pitts was on his way to work Saturday night when he fell and shot himself and now is in the Logan hospital.
The beauty of this place left here yesterday—Miss Cora Kelly.
Mr. W.E. Fowler, a merchant of Ferrellsburg, has gone to saw milling.
Mrs. Martha Mullins isn’t very well pleased with this noisy place.
Miss Gracy Horns returned to Ferrellsburg yesterday after visiting her sister at Wilburn, W.Va.
Mr. W.C. Brumfield was calling on Miss Lula Tomblin Saturday and Sunday.
The girls in Ferrellsburg are very sad at this writing on account of bad weather and bad roads, and are hoping the hard roads will be completed in a short time so they can begin joy riding.
Mr. Homer Tomblin and friend John Dan are taking a vacation this week. They will begin work Monday.
19 Thursday Apr 2018
Posted Boone County, Gilbert, Hamlin, Huntington, Logan, Ranger, West Hamlin, Wharncliffe
inTags
Appalachia, Beech Creek, Ben Creek, Bluefield, Bluestone River, Bob Browning, Boone County, Bramwell, Cabell County, Charleston, Coal Valley News, Commissioner of Agriculture, Crum, Davy, Devil Anse Hatfield, farming, Gilbert, Gilbert Creek, ginseng, Griffithsville, Guyandotte River, Hamlin, history, Horsepen Creek, Huntington, Iaeger, Island Creek, John W. Smith, Kanawha River, Lincoln County, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, M.L. Jones, Mate Creek, Pigeon Creek, Ranger, Route 10, Route 2, Route 3, Sarepta Workman, Tug Fork, Twelve Pole Creek, Wayne, Welch, West Hamlin, West Virginia, West Virginia by Rail and Trail, West Virginia Hills, Williamson
From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history about Route 3 dated October 14, 1927:
“Changes Can Be Noted” In Island Creek Hills
Madison Editor Waxes Interesting on Old Times and Primitive Conditions–Surfaced Highways Mark the Paths Through Woodland That Were Traveled a Generation Ago.
An article of special interest to Logan folk is here reproduced from the Coal Valley News (Madison) of which M.L. Jones is editor. In a reminiscent mood he tells of road conditions and other conditions that prevailed hereabouts a generation ago. Exceptions might be taken to one or two statements, but the whole article is interesting indeed and informative.
It is considered appropriate that West Virginians should sing the “West Virginia Hills,” and year after year the teachers in their institution disturb their neighbors with this song, while “Tears of regret will intrusively swell.” There is some romance and merit in the song; but it strikes us that it is about time for a revision of this line.
“But no changes can be noticed in the West Virginia Hills.”
To prove our point we quote from memory.
For some years after 1882, there lived in the extreme head of the left fork of Island Creek, or Main Island Creek, a man named Bob Browning. It was 18 miles from Logan. The house was a two-room log cabin, surrounded by palings; and the valley was so narrow that it was difficult to find enough level ground for a garden. Apple trees and peach trees were scattered over a few acres of cleared mountain side. The family subsisted by a little farming, a little hunting and much ginsenging.
This place was between two low mountain gaps. A dim road, usable for wagons in dry weather, led down the creek to Logan, and forked at Browning’s house. One fork led east over one gap to Horsepen and Gilbert of Guyan; the other went west over the other gap to Pigeon creek, and by more or less roundabout ways connected with Ben Creek, Beech Creek, Mate Creek and Pigeon Creek, all of Tug river. Hence, it was a possible road route.
The nearest house down Island creek and on Horsepen creek was two miles; and on Pigeon creek about three-fourths of a mile. A wagon, lightly loaded, passed here on the average six times a year. Horsemen may have averaged one a day, though often a whole week passed without a traveler. It was simply a log shack in the head of the hollow, four miles from a school, ten miles from a store, without anything “which exalts and embellishes civilized life,” and so very remote from the haunts of men that when “Devil” Anse Hatfield and his followers concluded to surrender Tug river to Frank Phillips and the McCoys, they picked their “last stand” on Island creek, four miles below the spot we have been talking about.
Now, in the close of 1927, can “changes be noticed?” We have not been there for over 30 years. But we recently received a present from John W. Smith, commissioner of agriculture , Charleston, W.Va., entitled “West Virginia by Rail and Trail,” containing 22 maps and 174 pictures reproduced from photographs of different parts of the state, and for which we sincerely thank whoever got our name on Mr. Smith’s mailing list.
From this book we learn that when we laboriously trudged through the Horsepen gap or the Pigeon gap, from 45 to 35 years ago, we failed to foresee that within on generation men would pick those two gaps, within less than a miles of each other, as a route for one of West Virginia’s leading roads; and not only for one, but for two, of West Virginia’s leading roads. As we will explain:
Route 3, connects Huntington, Wayne, Crum, Williamson, Gilbert, Iaeger, Davy, Welch, Bramwell, and Bluefield. From Huntington to Wayne and about 15 miles above Wayne, it is mostly on the waters of Twelve Pole creek. It then bears west to Tug river and follows it from Crum to Williamson, about 25 miles. It then bears east to Pigeon Creek, which it follows to the spot we are writing about, in the head of Island creek, some 20 miles. It then goes through the two gaps and down Horsepen creek to Gilbert, on Guyan; up Guyan and Little Huff’s creek, of Guyan, and across the mountain to Iaeger, on Tug river. It then follows up Tug, by Welch, to the head of Elkhorn and then on the waters of Bluestone to Bluefield.
In all, Route 3 is in seven counties, though less than a mile of it is in Logan county, in the head of Island creek. It is graded all the way about 60 percent of it is hard surfaced, including about 25 miles at and near the Bob Browning place. Thus Bob, if alive, can ride on a hard surfaced road from his old home almost to Williamson, one way, and to Gilbert on Guyan the other way; and he could continue south by graded road, until he strikes hard surface again. The last fifty miles next to Bluefield is all hard surfaced, also the lower 25 miles next to Huntington.
But this is not the only big state route hitting this “head of the hollow.”
Route 10 runs from Huntington to the very same spot, a distance of 100 miles, through Cabell, Lincoln and Logan, and is all on Guyan or its tributaries. It is paved, or hard surfaced, from Huntington to West Hamlin, on Guyan where the Hamlin-Griffithsville hard-surfaced road turns off. It is also marked paved for seven miles north of Logan and twelve miles up Island creek. This leaves six miles up by the “Devil” Anse Hatfield place to the Bob Browning place to pave, and it is marked, “paved road under construction.” The only drawback to No. 10 is that from West Hamlin to Ranger is a patch where the grading is not yet satisfactory. Doubtless, within three years both 3 and 10 will be hard surfaced all the way. Even now, from the Browning place, the people can take their choice between an evening’s entertainment in Logan or Williamson.
But that is not all yet. The chances are heavy that there will never be but one hard surfaced road from Logan to Williamson. There will always be a heavy travel from Charleston to Williamson. It will be by our No. 2 to Logan; by No. 10 to the Browning place; and by No. 3 to Williamson. Within a few months it will all be hard surfaced.
From all this we conclude.
First; that we let a good chance slip when we failed to buy a half acre of land where No. 10 joints No. 3 for a hotel and filling station. We could have multiplied our investment by one thousand. But so far as we could see that spot was fit only to hold and the rest of the Earth’s surface together, and to get away from as rapidly as possible.
Second; that “changes can be noticed in the West Virginia Hills.”
We might add that thousands can remember crossing the Kanawha at Charleston on the ferry, because there was no bridge; and few, if any, three-story homes. The writer hereof did his first plowing with a two-horse turning plow in the center of what is now Huntington. It was a cornfield then. It is a fashionable residence district now. He boarded at an isolated log house on a hill back of the Huntington bottom, where now are miles of mansions on paved streets. Even in and about Madison and all over Boone county, it is hard for people to visualize how things looked a short ten years ago. Mrs. Sarepta Workman, on her recent visit to her old…
06 Wednesday Dec 2017
Posted Chapmanville, Huntington, Logan
inTags
Appalachia, Bernice Ward, Bertie Collins, C&O Railroad, Chapmanville, genealogy, Hassel Perdue, Henry Conley, history, Huntington, Kenneth Hilton, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Mable Ferrell, Maxey Perdue, O.J. Moses, Omar, Phico, preacher, Route 10, Ruth Queen, Virginia Hurst, West Virginia
An unknown correspondent from Chapmanville in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on May 6, 1927:
Rev. Screeds of Omar preached at the Church of Christ Sunday morning and Sunday evening.
Miss Virginia Hurst of Logan spent the weekend here with Miss Click.
Miss Ruth Queen spent the weekend in Logan.
Miss Bernice Ward spent the weekend here with her mother.
Miss Bertie Collins has returned to Chapmanville after a few days absence.
Lamar seemed to be enjoying himself Saturday evening and Sunday. Who is she, Lamar?
Daily Scenes: Beulah on the road to Phico; Carrie coming to school; Jane looking cute; Hazel and John; Inez working in the post office; Lyle calling at the office; Kyle and his sweetie.
Mr. O.J. Moses was visiting his parents in Huntington Saturday and Sunday.
Mrs. Kenneth Hilton and daughter were in Logan Monday.
The Sunday school at the Christian church is progressing nicely.
Rev. Shrive preached two delightful sermons at the Christian church Sunday. The house was crowded.
Mr. and Mrs. Hassel Perdue and son Maxey were visitors in Logan Monday.
The work on both the state and county roads is progressing finely.
Henry Conley was injured Monday by a freight train. All wish him speedy recovery.
Wonder why Miss Mable Ferrell doesn’t attend Sunday school?
Good luck to The Banner and its readers.
05 Tuesday Dec 2017
Posted Chapmanville, Huntington
inTags
Appalachia, appendicitis, C&O Hospital, Cecil Shuff, Chapmanville, Charleston, Dorothy Lowe, Easter, genealogy, Geraldine Lowe, Grover Lowe, history, Huntington, John Ferrell, Logan Banner, Logan County, Paul Bentley, Route 10, Sarah Thompson, Stollings, Virginia, West Virginia
An unknown correspondent from Chapmanville in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on April 29, 1927:
The work on the roads is going forward nicely. We hope Chapmanville will not be a mud hole always. It is more like Charleston already.
Rev. Remus preached here Sunday. The home was crowded.
Grover Lowe and daughters Geraldine and Dorothy from Stollings attended Sunday school and visited friends here Sunday.
John Ferrell from Virginia is visiting friends and relatives at this place.
The Sunday school is progressing finely. Everyone is invited. Rev. Reeves will preach again Sunday.
Miss Sarah Thompson was taken to the hospital at Huntington where she will be operated on for appendicitis.
Paul Bentley who is in the C. & O. hospital is said to be improving.
Cecil Shuff spent Easter with his girlfriend here.
Daily happenings: Lamar leading the choir; Jack attending Sunday school; Minnie and her smiles; Carlos going to the post office; Victor and Steve flirting with their girls; Joe attending Sunday school; Lois going to school.
Good luck to The Banner, and who has baked those pies?
20 Friday Oct 2017
Posted Chapmanville, Pecks Mill, Yantus
inTags
Albert Cabell, Appalachia, Arnold Barker, Canna Creek, Chapmanville, Christian, Democratic Party, G.S. Chapman, genealogy, H.T. Butcher, history, Joker Dingess, Logan Banner, Logan County, Newt Munsey, Patty Ann Cabell, Pecks Mill, Route 10, Squire Barker, Walter Crislip, West Virginia, Yantus
An unknown correspondent from Chapmanville in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on July 16, 1926:
The grading is done, and the road from here to Peck’s Mill is open to traffic.
Mrs. Albert Cabell of Yantus died last Sunday morning after a lingering illness of several months.
H.T. Butcher destroyed some high powered mash near Canna Creek a few days ago. So far no one has appeared to claim it.
Young Joker Dingess was visiting at Squire Barker’s Sunday.
There is a movement on foot to incorporate this town again. This will test out how many tight-wads there are here.
Newt Munsey and Walter Crislip have formed a partnership to operate a hack line from here to Logan. They will do their own driving. It will be known as the Safety line.
Arnold Barker is now clerking in the retail department of the G.S. Chapman store. Arnold is right there when it comes to waiting on the ladies.
Since the new mines have started everybody is at work except the Sons of Rest.
A gentleman from Christian spent the night here Sunday night trying to get his car started, but it would not go, so the next morning he gave a mechanic $1 to tell him he had no has in the tank.
The Democrats here are exclaiming: “How wise we are when the chance is gone, And a glance we backward cast. We know just the thing we should have done, When the time for doing is past.”
19 Thursday Oct 2017
Posted Big Creek, Chapmanville, Ferrellsburg
inTags
A.L. Samson, America, Appalachia, Big Creek, board of education, Cap Adkins, Chapmanville, constable, county clerk, Edgwright, Ferrell Hill, Ferrellsburg, Fisher B. Adkins, genealogy, history, Jim Bryant, John Dingess, Ku Klux Klan, Lincoln County, Logan Banner, Logan County, Lumbago, O.J. Phipps, Republican Party, Route 10, The Old Rugged Cross, West Virginia
An unknown correspondent from Chapmanville in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on July 9, 1926:
O.J. Phipps is now on his vacation.
Cap Adkins of Kentucky has been visiting his grand children on Big Creek this week.
Grading on our new road is being finished this week.
Several of our citizens motored to Big Creek Monday evening to get their part of the hot air dispensed by John (Corn) and others.
A white-robed crowd of men of mystery assembled on the Ferrell Hill last Monday night and burned a very beautiful cross and sang “America” and “The Old Rugged Cross.”
Mrs. Jim Bryant is visiting her parents at Edgwright this week.
Fisher B. Adkins of Ferrellsburg was attending the meeting of the Board of Education here Monday. Fisher is a candidate for Clerk of the County Court of Lincoln county.
John Dingess is confined to the house with Lumbago this week.
A.L. Samson is a candidate here for constable on the Republican ticket. He says he served seven years in Lincoln county and never took any one with him to arrest a man in his life. We say hurrah for Abe.
13 Friday Oct 2017
Posted Chapmanville, Huntington
inTags
Appalachia, Cam Pridemore, Chapmanville, Democratic Party, deputy sheriff, G.S. Ferrell, H.T. Butcher, history, Hubert Toney, Huntington, John Webb, Logan Banner, Logan County, Martin Johnson, moonshine, moonshining, Peach Creek, Republican Party, Route 10, Squire Barker, Sutton, W.H. Phipps, West Virginia
An unknown correspondent from Chapmanville in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on July 2, 1926:
The grading of our road is not quite done, but the road is open to traffic to Huntington.
W.H. Phipps of Peach Creek was here Monday and Tuesday of this week.
Cam Pridemore is the best deputy sheriff we have had for years.
Squire Barker is kept busy hiving bees these hot days.
Ask John Webb what it costs to get a taxi here.
Martin Johnson has purchased the wholesale feed store of G.S. Ferrell. We like to see new capital come to town.
Hubert Toney and wife left his morning for Sutton to visit Mrs. Toney’s parents at that place.
The Democrats can’t see how there comes to be so many Republicans here this time.
H.T. Butcher is making the bootlegger’s life a hard one these days.
Writings from my travels and experiences. High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water. Mark Twain
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