Thomas Conley Survey (1840)
05 Friday Feb 2021
Posted Big Harts Creek
in05 Friday Feb 2021
Posted Big Harts Creek
in27 Sunday Dec 2020
Posted Big Harts Creek
in12 Friday Apr 2019
Posted Big Harts Creek, Shively, Spottswood, Twelve Pole Creek, Whirlwind
inTags
Appalachia, Bud Richards, Cherry Tree, genealogy, Grover Adams, Harts Creek, Harvey Smith, history, Hoover Fork, Horatio Rush Adams, hunting, James Robert, Joe Kirk, John Fillinger, John H. Mullins, Logan County, merchant, Mollie Robinson, Mount Gay, Pete Dalton, Pusher Blair, Samuel Vance, singing schools, Smokehouse Fork, Sol Adams, Trace Fork, Twelve Pole Creek, Van Mullins, Victoria Kirk, West Virginia, Whirlwind
A correspondent named “Bluebird” from Whirlwind at Harts Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on February 16, 1923:
Quite a number of people are on the sick list in this vicinity at this time.
Grover Adams has been busily engaged in the hunting business this winter.
Sol Adams of Mount Gay has been visiting relatives on Hoover recently.
Wonder if James Robert has ever let Pusher Blair ride his grey anymore?
The singing school on Trace is progressing nicely.
Victoria and Joe Kirk were out horseback riding Sunday.
Mr. and Mrs. John H. Mullins have been visiting relatives on Hart.
Mr. Samuel Vance of Twelve Pole was a business visitor to this community recently.
Mr. Pete Dalton was calling on Mrs. Mollie Robinson recently.
Harve Smith and John Fillinger have been having some fine sport fox hunting this winter.
Everybody has been wondering what has become of Ichabod Crane.
Van Mullins of this place is at Cherry Tree on the sick list. We hope that he will soon recover and return home.
Bud Richards is going into the mercantile business near the mouth of Smoke House.
Ratio. Don’t be afraid. The bull dog won’t hurt you.
07 Thursday Feb 2019
Tags
Appalachia, Boone County, Crawley Creek, Dick Johnson, Elizabeth Hart, Fred B. Lambert, genealogy, Harts Creek, Henderson Dingess, Henry Clay Ragland, history, Jacob Stollings, James Hart, John Baker, Lincoln County, Little Harts Creek, Logan Banner, Logan County, Logan County Banner, Mud River, Native Americans, Roane County, Smokehouse Fork, Stephen Hart, West Virginia
From the Logan County Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history written by amateur historian Henry Clay Ragland relating to Stephen Hart and the naming of Harts Creek in Lincoln and Logan counties, West Virginia, dated 1896:
Logan County (WV) Banner, 8 April 1896.
***
On 13 April 1937, the Logan Banner printed another story about Hart and his relationship to Harts Creek. This latter story was generally derived from Ragland’s 1896 history.
Harts Creek Named After Stephen Hart—A Wanderer And Famous Deer Hunter
Much has been told about Harts Creek in late years, but little is known about the first settler who built his home in the long hollow and gave it a name.
Stephen Hart built a cabin on the farm which Henderson Dingess later owned at the forks of Hart’s Creek. He cared nothing for the soil, but spent his time hunting deer and curing the meat. He didn’t stay long in one place.
Near his cabin he built a house in which to store his cured venison between his infrequent trips to the settlements down the river and was altogether self-sufficient. His neighbors knew little about the man. There is no record of a family reared by him and he told neighbors little of his past history.
His was a roaming nature. He, like the Arabs, pitched his tent where the water was clearest, the game gamest, and the soil most fertile.
To commemorate his short stay at the forks of Harts, neighbors named the creek for him after he had loaded his gun, food stores and skins on a pack mule, and started west.
His few friends heard no more about him, but they remembered him as a “quiet man, a good shot, and a good neighbor.”
Just “around the bend and over the ridge,” Jacob Stollings, John Baker, and Dick Johnson brought their families and built their homes. From descendants of this family comes much of the record of Stephen Hart who gave the creek a name.
Hart’s venison was known for miles around as the tenderest, the most delicately cured meat in the Hart’s section and Stollings, Baker, and Johnson always put in a small supply of Hart’s meat for the winter, sometimes to take an unusually large supply off the hunter’s hands but most times just because they liked the venison.
John Baker married a daughter of Jacob Stollings, and Dick Johnson married a sister of Baker’s. Both men reared large families whose names are familiar in the county’s history.
But Hart left only the name of his beloved deer hunting grounds as a reminder that he had first set foot on Hart’s Creek.
MY NOTE: Of importance, much confusion remains regarding the source for the naming of Harts Creek, essentially relating to the fact that Stephen Hart was born too late to have inspired the naming of the stream. I first attempted to unravel this story when I published a profile of Stephen Hart in a Lincoln County newspaper in 1995/6. Stephen Hart, son of James and Elizabeth Hart, was born c.1810 in North Carolina; Harts Creek appears on a map printed prior to 1824 (Hart was still quite young). In the early 1900s, amateur historian Fred B. Lambert noted that Hart’s father had been killed by Native Americans at the mouth of present-day Little Harts Creek (according to a Hart descendant). Possibly it is Mr. Hart’s father who inspired the naming of the local stream. Problematic to this possibility is the fact that, based on Stephen Hart’s estimated year of birth, his father would have been killed in 1809-1811, which is about fifteen to twenty years too late for an Indian attack in the Guyandotte Valley. Stephen Hart did settle locally. He may well have squatted on Harts Creek land, as Ragland reported in 1896. Based on documentary evidence, he acquired 50 acres on Crawley Creek in 1839. He appears in the 1840 Logan County Census and the 1850 Boone County Census. By 1860, he had settled in Roane County, where he died in 1896–the same year that Ragland published his history. He also left plenty of local descendants in the Mud River section of Lincoln County. How did Ragland garble this section of his history so badly? For those who wish to avoid sorting out this confusing tale, consider this version: at least one early account states the creek was named “hart” due to the prevalence of stags in its vicinity.
31 Tuesday Jul 2018
Posted Big Harts Creek, Chapmanville, Harts, Logan, Queens Ridge
inTags
Annie Dingess, Appalachia, Ashland, Bob Dingess, Bulwark School, Bunt Dingess, Burl Farley, Carey Dingess, Chapmanville, Charlie Harris, Cole Adams, David Dingess, deputy sheriff, Ed Brumfield, Enos Dial, Ewell Mullins, genealogy, Harts, Harts Creek, history, Howard Adams, Inez Barker, Inez Dingess, Isaac Marion Nelson, J.W. Renfroe, Jeff Baisden, Jonas Branch, Kate Baisden, Kentucky, Lewis Farley, Lincoln County, Liza Mullins, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Lucy Dingess, Mary Ann Farley, Maudie Adams, Mud Fork, Queens Ridge, Rachel Keyser, Roach, Rosa Workman, Sally Dingess, Sidney Mullins, Smokehouse Fork, Sol Adams, Trace Fork, Ula Adams, Ward Brumfield, West Virginia
An unknown correspondent from Queens Ridge (Harts Creek) in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on September 3, 1926:
We are having much rainy weather at this writing.
David Dingess made a business trip to Chapmanville Monday.
Miss Inez Barker of Chapmanville has been visiting Miss Ula Adams of Queen’s Ridge for the past week.
Sidney Mullins made a flying trip to Logan last week.
Edward Brumfield and Enos Dials of Harts were the guests of Misses Inez and Lucy Dingess Saturday and Sunday.
The people of this place enjoyed a fine meeting Saturday and Sunday when fine sermons were delivered by Rev. I.M. Nelson and Revs. J.W. Renfroe and Short from Ashland, Ky. There were a number of conversions.
Ward Brumfield, deputy sheriff of Lincoln county, attended church here Sunday.
Mrs. Rosa Workman of Mud Fork was the guest of her mother, Mrs. Sol Adams last week.
Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Harris of Mud Fork were visiting relatives of Smoke House Fork, Sunday.
Miss Maudie Adams and Rachel Keyser were seen out walking Sunday.
R.L. Dingess is teaching school at Bulwark this year. We wish him much success.
Mr. and Mrs. Howard Adams are raising water melons this year.
Times are very lively on Trace now since Mr. Dials made a visit up the left fork.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Dingess, a fine son, named J. Cary Dingess.
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Farley made a trip to Roach last week, visiting the former’s parents.
Wonder why so many boys visit Mr. Baisden’s now?
Cole Adams looks lonely these days. Cheer up, Cole. Bessie has come back again.
Wonder who the barber is on Jonas Branch nowadays?
Some combinations: Howard and his wash bowl and pitcher; Liza and her flowered dress; Ewell going to Harts; Maudie and her powder puff; Kate and her bobbed hair; Sally and Bunt packing beans.
04 Friday May 2018
Posted Cemeteries, Shively, Timber
inTags
Albert Dingess, Albert Dingess Family Cemetery, Appalachia, cemeteries, Charleston, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, James Bryant, Logan County, Martha Ann Dingess, Minerva Adkins, Shively, Shively Post Office, Smokehouse Fork, West Virginia, West Virginia State Archives, Works Progress Administration
Albert Dingess Family Cemetery, Shively, Smokehouse Fork of Harts Creek, Logan County, WV. You can see the old Shively Post Office down past the trees and along the road. 28 April 2018.
Albert Dingess Family Cemetery, Shively, Smokehouse Fork of Harts Creek, Logan County, WV. 28 April 2018.
Albert Dingess was an important splasher and timberman on Harts Creek in Logan County, WV. His sister, Minerva (Dingess) Adkins, is my great-great-great-grandmother. 8 March 2013.
Martha Ann (Bryant) Dingess was Albert’s second wife. 8 March 2013.
Here’s an old WPA map of the cemetery that shows graves for Albert Dingess and his father-in-law, James Bryant. Courtesy of the WV State Archives, Charleston, WV.
19 Thursday Apr 2018
Posted Big Harts Creek
inTags
Harts Creek, James Tomblin, John Workman, Joshua Butcher, Logan County, Smokehouse Fork, Virginia, W.I. Campbell, West Virginia, William Straton, Wolf Pen Hollow
Deed Book C, page ____, Logan County Clerk’s Office, Logan, WV.
31 Saturday Mar 2018
Posted Big Harts Creek, Cemeteries, Shively
inTags
Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, cemeteries, Charley Conley, Conley Cemetery, Garland "Bock" Conley, Garland Bogue Conley, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Lee Conley, Logan County, Mollie Conley, photos, Smokehouse Fork, West Virginia, White Oak Fork
Heading up the mountain to the Conley Cemetery, located on a ridge between Smokehouse Fork and White Oak Fork of Harts Creek, Logan County, WV. My young guide was a Conley descendant. 26 March 2018.
Conley Cemetery — beautiful! Several of Garland and Mollie (Farley) Conley’s children are buried here. I descend from two of Mollie’s siblings. 26 March 2018.
Conley Cemetery. I mapped at least 74 graves. 26 March 2018.
Conley Cemetery. “Garland Bock Conley section.” 26 March 2018.
I first heard of Charles Conley in the early 1990s; it was great to finally locate his grave. 26 March 2018.
I was sure to place flowers at the grave of Charles Conley. 26 March 2018.
Lee Conley grave. 26 March 2018.
Garland Bock Conley grave. 26 March 2018.
28 Sunday Jan 2018
Posted Cemeteries, Halcyon, Lincoln County Feud
inTags
Appalachia, Auglin Watts, Bearwallow Gap, Bill's Branch, Blood in West Virginia, Brandon Kirk, Bryant-Dingess Cemetery, Burl Bryant, cemeteries, French Bryant, genealogy, Harry Kirk, Harts Creek, history, Hugh Dingess Hollow, Lincoln County Feud, Logan County, Mosco Dingess, photos, Piney Fork, Smokehouse Fork, West Fork, West Virginia
Dad and I recently cleared the Bryant-Dingess cemetery at Bearwallow Gap in the head of Piney Fork and Hugh Dingess Hollow on Harts Creek, Logan County, WV. I last visited this cemetery over twenty years ago. 27 January 2018.
The cemetery was overgrown with saplings. Four persons are buried here: French Bryant, Burl Bryant, Auglin Watts, and Mosco Dingess. 27 January 2018.
French Bryant (1855-1938), son of Rufus Bryant, is a major character in my feud book, “Blood in West Virginia: Brumfield v. McCoy.” My Kirk family liked French. 27 January 2018
Burl Bryant grave (lower) and Auglin Watts grave. 27 January 2018.
Looking downhill toward cemetery. 27 January 2018.
Up above the cemetery are these magnificent rocks. 27 January 2018.
Looking from the rocks down into Hugh Dingess Hollow of Smokehouse Fork of Harts Creek. 27 January 2018.
The ridge above the cemetery. 27 January 2018.
08 Monday Jan 2018
Posted Big Harts Creek, Cemeteries, Civil War
inTags
129th Regiment Virginia Militia, Appalachia, Brandon Kirk, cemeteries, civil war, Confederate Army, Garland Conley Family Cemetery, genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Logan County, Phyllis Kirk, Smokehouse Fork, West Virginia
Garland B. Conley (d.1895) was a veteran of Carter’s Company, 129th Regiment Virginia Militia. I recently revisited his grave on Smokehouse Fork of Harts Creek, Logan County, WV. 7 January 2018. Photo by Mom.
Writings from my travels and experiences. High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water; but everybody likes water. Mark Twain
This site is dedicated to the collection, preservation, and promotion of history and culture in Appalachia.
Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond
A site about one of the most beautiful, interesting, tallented, outrageous and colorful personalities of the 20th Century