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Tag Archives: Thomas Dunn English

Aracoma (Part 4)

04 Sunday Dec 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Veola Ann Runyon: Authoress-Poet of Logan County (1922)

08 Tuesday Oct 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ashland, Coal, Guyandotte River, Man, Poetry

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Appalachia, Ashland, author, authors, coal, Guyandotte Valley, history, Kentucky, Logan Banner, Logan County, physician, poems, poetry, Thomas Dunn English, Three Forks, Viola Ann Runyon, West Virginia, writers, writing

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history about Veola Ann Runyon, authoress-poet of Logan County. The story is dated January 13, 1922:

LOGAN COUNTY HAS AN AUTHORESS-POET

Mrs. Veola Ann Runyon, of Three Forks, Has Had Much of Her Work Published.

We never know in what nook or corner we may find unknown talent or beneath what bushel measure we may and a shining light unless, perchance, we may trip across a clue that may lead us to a welcome discovery. Such was the case with a representative of The Banner on a recent trip to Three Forks, when he fortunately learned of the presence there of Mrs. Veola Anne Runyon, a poet and talented writer of fact and fiction.

Mrs. Runyon was born in Ashland, Ky. Her grandfather was a French physician and author. From him she derived the gifted talent at at the early age of sixteen she began writing stories and for the past ten years she has been a regular contributor to several of the largest magazines of our country. She has in preparation at the present time a romance which will be happily connected with the coal mining industry, while she has in the hands of her publisher two other  books, one dealing with scientifical and botanical work and the other on entomological facts.

The story now in preparation will be eagerly sought by all readers in Logan County, due to the fact that part of the plot will be based upon knowledge gained within this county. Mrs. Runyon was requested by her publishers to write a story closely connected with the mining industry and so not knowing the details connected with the industry she came to Three Forks, and while stopping at the Club House there she is gathering facts that will prove invaluable in her latest work.

Mrs. Runyon is a gifted writer and is filled with the love of the work. She is also deeply interested in botanical work and the study of nature. Through persuasion we were able to secure some of her poems for publication in The Banner, and we are pleased to announce that arrangements have been made with her for regular contributions to the columns of this paper.

Her presence here will recall to mind another author who came to Logan County in years gone by. Dr. Thos. Dunn English recognized the beauty of these mountains and the nearness of true nature and came here during the period between 1850 and 1860. Some of his poems deal with life in the Guyan Valley.

With her ability and fluency of language, Mrs. Runyon should find in these grand majestic mountains and wonderful natural beauty an invaluable aid to inspiration that will enable her to complete a wonderful story that should attract the favorable attention of the most critical.

Note: I cannot locate any biographical information for this writer. Three Forks, according to one source, is also known as Saunders (Buffalo Creek).

Samuel Zook Deed to Thomas Dunn English (1854)

06 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Guyandotte River, Logan

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Appalachia, Big Ugly Creek, genealogy, Guyandotte River, history, Lincoln County, Logan County, Mile Branch, New York, New York City, Pigeon Roost Branch, Samuel Zook, Thomas Dunn English, Virginia, West Virginia

Samuel Zook to Thomas Dunn English 1.JPG

Deed Book C, page ____, Logan County Clerk’s Office, Logan, WV. This land is located in present-day Lincoln County, WV.

Thomas Dunn English and “Ben Bolt” (1928)

06 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Guyandotte River, Huntington, Logan, Poetry

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Appalachia, Battle of Buena Vista, Ben Bolt, Charles Porter, Charleston, Edgar Allan Poe, George P. Morris, Green Gables Inn, history, Huntington, Know Nothing Party, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan Grazier, McDowell County, N.P. Willis, Nelson F. Kneass, New York Mirror, Philadelphia, poems, poetry, Rafting on the Guyan, Roy Fuller, Staunton, Thomas Dunn English, Vicie Nighbert, Wayne County, Welch, West Virginia, West Virginia Review, Wyoming Hunter

From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history concerning Thomas Dunn English and his famous poem “Ben Bolt,” which was reportedly composed in Logan:

Poem Ben Bolt Not Written In This City

Legend Concerning Thomas Dunn English Is Refuted by Roy Fuller in Magazine Article

Another forceful kick has been directed against the legend that Thomas Dunn English wrote the poem Ben Bolt under the big elms back of the former Vicie Nighbert home, now known as the Green Gables Inn.

Though all reliable investigators agree that this famous poem was written before Dr. English settled in this community, the legend survives with a strange pertinacity.

The subject is discarded in an interesting and enlightening way in the current number of the West Virginia Review by J. Roy Fuller. He has written before in a similar vein for other publications.

Fuller, a native of Wayne county, had been connected with Charleston, Huntington, and Welch papers for several years. Recently he went to New York to take an editorial position on Picture Play. On the subject “As to Ben Bolt,” he writes as follows:

If a man writes a poem a little more sentimental than any other, and then some ten years later moves to another state, it seems that the towns and counties around his new home will, years later, recall the very spot where the poem was written. Such has been the case with Ben Bolt, by Thomas Dunn English. The people of Logan county point with pride to the very tree under which the poet scribbled Ben Bolt, and time and again articles have been written in support of the legend, and people who speak of it choose to believe nothing else. Why this should be considered in the least important is amusing. But that is not all. In McDowell county, it is said, Thomas Dunn English wrote the feverish lines while at the old county seat town, now called English. A clerk in a hotel informed this writer that he knew exactly where Ben Bolt was written and offered to show him the house somewhere just over the Virginia state line.

The rare honor of being the birthplace of Ben Bolt cannot be claimed truthfully for this section at all. It was written in Philadelphia nine years before he ever came to West Virginia. There was no romantic posing over the grave of the beloved lady in the song as it has been said in Logan county. A New York editor asked English to write something for him. He insisted, and finally English mailed the verses with instructions to burn them if not satisfactory, after combining parts of two poems into one. So any weeping we do can be for our own images, and not for sympathy with the poor poet.

English was once postmaster of Logan (1857), and also a resident doctor, politician, poet and lawyer. One time he attended a convention in Staunton where he made a speech that was influential in helping to bring about the downfall of Know-Nothingism. He wrote many local poems such as Rafting on the Guyan, Logan Grazier, and Wyoming Hunter. Before coming to the south he was well known in the east and was mentioned—unfavorably—by Edgar Allan Poe in his Literati. For calling him Thomas Dunn “Brown,” English wrote a severe criticism of Poe. Some time later Poe answered him in a Philadelphia paper, and brought suit against him. Poe was awarded $225 damages for English’s sarcastic literary thrust.

It has always been a matter of chagrin to English that his Ben Bolt was the most popular of his literary works. He himself called the song “twaddle.” But the German melody, mention of old mills, school, a loved one, friendship—these things made it take hold of the heart.

He wrote Ben Bolt in 1843 after having dabbled in his professions for several years, and quite unexpectedly found himself famous. The story of the song will show how far removed it is from the cherished pastoral story told in Logan county. The story persists, however, this being one of the cases where the “moving finger writes,” etc., and nothing more can be done about it.

N.P. Willis and George P. Morris had revived the old New York Mirror. The former asked English to write a poem for the paper and suggested a sea song. English tried to write it after renewed pressure but he reported to the editors that his muse was not working. Later he drifted into reminiscence and produced four and a half stanzas of the well known song. His muse balked again, and after some thought he added the first four lines of a sea song he had started and sent the whole with a note to Willis telling him that he would send something else when he was in a better writing mood. The poem was printed with a little puff, and was signed with the author’s initial.

Later it was suggested that the poem be set to music, but several attempts failed. English composed a melody for it, but another got the start of his. In 1846 Charles Porter, manager of the Pittsburgh theatre had Nelson F. Kneass, a fine tenor, in his company. Porter told the singer that if he could find a song suitable for his voice he would cast him in The Battle of Buena Vista. An Englishman, a sort of hanger-on named Hunt, had read Ben Bolt and could recall most of it. The gaps were patched up and to this Kneass adapted a German air and sang the piece. The drama was soon dropped but the song took the country by

Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 11 December 1928

Thomas Dunn English (1846-1861)

10 Sunday Jun 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Logan, Poetry

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abolitionists, Appalachia, Aracoma, Ben Bolt, Bergen County, Columbian Fountain, Daily Dispatch, Democrat, Democratic Party, history, Logan, Logan County, Lucretia Mott, New Jersey, New York, New York Daily Tribune, poet, politics, Thomas Dunn English, U.S. Congress, Virginia, West Virginia, William and Mary College, writers

From various newspapers come these items relating to Thomas Dunn English, the famous poet who once lived in Logan County, (West) Virginia:

The Columbian Fountain (Washington, DC), 19 September 1846

Thomas Dunn English is to be the Democratic candidate for Congress in the fifth district, New York.

***

New York (NY) Daily Tribune, 27 December 1850

Doctor Thomas Dunn English will lecture concerning Hungarian matters on Sunday the 22d inst. and Lucretia Mott concerning Woman’s Rights upon the 29th of December, Sabbath evening.

***

Daily Dispatch (Richmond, VA), 29 July 1853

Dr. Thomas Dunn English is engaged in making geological exploration for some New York capitalists in Western Virginia.

***

Richmond (VA) Enquirer, 6 March 1855

We have seen the proof-sheets of a selection of the poems of Thomas Dunn English, the author of “Ben Bolt.” The same author is collating and arranging materials for an illustrated history of South-western Virginia.

***

Nashville (TN) Union and American via Richmond (VA) Enquirer, 6 September 1861

THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH MOBBED.–This gentleman was mobbed in Bergen county, New Jersey, on Friday, while on his way to speak at a peace meeting. He was severely maltreated by the Abolitionists, and, though he fought his way boldly, was with difficulty saved from assassination by the sheriff of the county. Dr. English resided in Logan county, Va., for several years. He represented Logan county in the legislature several years ago, and last year he delivered the poem at the commencement of William and Mary College. He is a genial poet and eloquent speaker. Since 1855 he has resided in New Jersey.

Edgar Allan Poe v. Thomas Dunn English (1847)

19 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Logan, Poetry

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Appalachia, Broadway Journal, Charleston, Edgar Allan Poe, Evening Mirror, history, Logan, Logan Banner, New York, Philadelphia, poetry, Ravenscourt, Roy Fuller, Saturday Gazette, St. Albans, Sweet Alice, The Literati, The Mirror, The Raven, Thomas Dunn English, West Virginia, West Virginia Review, White Sulphur Springs

From the Logan Banner, of Logan, WV, comes this item of interest relating to Thomas Dunn English, former mayor of Logan, and Edgar Allan Poe:

EDGAR ALLAN POE AND DR. ENGLISH, LOGAN’S POET, HAD VERBAL DUEL

Some interesting matters are brought to light by Roy Fuller in an article titled “Edgar Allan Poe in West Virginia” in the January number of West Virginia Review.

Of special interest is what he writes of the hostility between Poe and Thomas Dunn English, who was probably the most widely known citizen this city or county ever had.

Fuller, a Charleston newspaper man of real talent, smashes the tradition that Poe visited St. Albans and wrote “The Raven” in a house long afterward named “Ravenscourt” by a resourceful real estate agent and still an object of reverent interest to credulous folk.

“Oddly enough, Poe really spent three summers in what is now West Virginia, but this is never mentioned if it is known here,” says the Review article. “The unsubstantiated tale has precedence over the truth, a situation not at all rare. He came into West Virginia not as a wanderer but as the recently adopted son of the Richmond tobacco merchant. The three summers following his adoption by the Allans he was taken to White Sulphur Springs, then the most popular resort in the south. This is the only claim that the State’s romantic folk can establish, so far as it can be learned from his biographers, except his dealings with Thomas Dunn English, whom West Virginians claim as one of their poets…

“As to ‘The Raven,’ it is generally believed that he wrote it while living near West Eighty-fourth Street, New York. It was published in the ‘Evening Mirror’ January 29, 1845.

Poe wrote “The Literati” condemning and puffing some thirty-eight of his contemporary New Yorkers, including Mr. English. Poe called him “Thomas Dunn Brown” and spoke further of him in such a light way that the author of “Sweet Alice” became peeved. The versatile gentleman lately of West Virginia poured out his heart in a few columns of “The Mirror.” Poe replied four days later in the Philadelphia “Saturday Gazette” and followed his answer with a suit for damage. He got $225 on February 17, 1847. Thus Poe got perhaps his greatest “stake” from Mr. English, an amount great in comparison with $10 he got for his greatest work “The Raven.”

“English also brought out one issue of the ‘Broadway Journal’ after it was given up by Poe. Thus good West Virginians may claim that one of their boys ran a Broadway paper–for a day.”

Source: Logan (WV) Banner, 18 January 1927.

Thomas Dunn English Deed to Crispin Stone (1852)

28 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Ugly Creek, Tazewell County

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Appalachia, Big Ugly Creek, county clerk, Crispin S. Stone, genealogy, Hamilton Fry, history, Lincoln County, Logan County, Nancy Fry, Pigeon Rock Branch, Tazewell County, Thomas Dunn English, Virginia, W.I. Campbell, West Virginia, William Straton

Thomas Dunn English and Crispin Stone to Hamilton Fry 1852 1

Deed Book C, page 306, Logan County Clerk’s Office, Logan, WV. This property is located in present-day Lincoln County, WV.

Hamilton Fry Deed to Thomas Dunn English (1852)

01 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Ugly Creek, Guyandotte River

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Big Ugly Creek, Christian Fry, Crispin S. Stone, Druzilla Fry, Elias Adkins, Emily Fry, Guyandotte River, Hamilton Fry, history, justice of the peace, Lincoln County, Logan County, Nancy Fry, Pigeon Roost Branch, Thomas Dunn English, Virginia, West Virginia

Hamilton Fry to Thomas Dunn English 1852 1

Deed Book C, page 270, Logan County Clerk’s Office, Logan, WV. I descend from three of Hamilton Fry’s siblings: Christian Fry, Emily Fry, and Druzilla Fry. Thomas Dunn English was a well-known poet. This land is located in present-day Lincoln County, WV.

Hamilton Fry to Thomas Dunn English 1852 2

Deed Book C, page 271, Logan County Clerk’s Office, Logan, WV. I live on part of the old Elias Adkins farm.

Thomas Dunn English and “Ben Bolt”

15 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Logan

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Appalachia, Ben Bolt, Fred B. Lambert, Huntington, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Marshall University, poems, poetry, Sam Miller, Thomas Dunn English, West Virginia, writers

Thomas Dunn English 6

Fred B. Lambert Papers, Special Collections Department, James E. Morrow Library, Marshall University, Huntington, WV.

Ben Bolt LB 9.25.03 2

Logan (WV) Banner, 25 September 1903.

Ben Bolt LB 9.25.03 3

Logan (WV) Banner, 25 September 1903.

“Ben Bolt” Not Written in Logan (1926)

15 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Logan

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Alice Lawson, Aracoma, assistant postmaster, Ben Bolt, Charleston Gazette, Edgar Allan Poe, George T. Swain, George Washington, Guyandotte River, history, Karl Myers, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, logging, mayor, New York Mirror, Pennsylvania, poems, poetry, postmaster, rafting, Rafting on the Guyandotte, Savage Grant, St. Albans, Thomas Dunn English, timbering, Vicie Nighbert, Walt Whitman, West Virginia, writers

Thomas Dunn English (1819-1902) was a Pennsylvania-born writer who lived briefly in present-day Logan, WV, before the Civil War. At one time, many Loganites believed he wrote his famous work titled “Ben Bolt” while a resident of Logan, then called Aracoma. For more information about his biography, follow this link: https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2205

The following story appeared in the Logan Banner on November 23, 1926:

“Logan gains quite a bit of notoriety from the fact that the song ‘Ben Bolt’ was written here,” said G.T. Swain in his short history of Logan county, published in 1916. Dr. English wrote “Ben Bolt” for the New York Mirror about 10 years before he ever came to Logan. So here explodeth another nice literary myth–if a myth concerning “Ben Bolt” may be called a literary one. They even tell how Dr. English laid aside his law and medicine practice, his novel writing, and his duties as assistant postmaster and politician and dreamily to go to the shades of certain elm trees overlooking the Guyandotte and there wrote the poem to a sweetheart of other days. The truth is that English wrote the poem while in the east at the request of “The Mirror” and while trying to compose a sea song he suddenly hit upon the sentimental mood and dashed it off, tacking the first four lines of the sea song-in-the-making onto the one in question. He sent it to the editor and told him the story and remarked that if it was not worth using to burn it. It was always a matter of chagrin to Dr. English that it was the best received piece he ever wrote and his prestige in congress was largely due to his fame from the song.

“For information relating to Dr. English we are indebted to Mrs. Vicie Nighbert, who gave us the information as told to her by her mother, and to Mr. Bryan [who] was personally acquainted [with English, now in his] 80th year and living at present in Straton street,” said Mr. Swain. “Mr. Bryan was personally acquainted with Dr. English, having at one time been postmaster of the town and employed Dr. English as assistant postmaster.”

English was mayor of Logan, according to Swain, in 1852. Mr. Swain said that Dr. English suddenly disappeared while living in Logan and showed up again with a woman and two children. Dr. English announced at the time that he had married a widow but rumors around the Logan chimney corners had it that the versatile gentleman had added that of wife stealing to his accomplishments. He did not permit the woman to visit or receive but a few friends “and she always carried a look of apprehension.” It is known that English, by act of the general assembly, had the names of the children changed to his own.

Although the whole thing is not worth refuting or proving, English did not write his “Ben Bolt” as told in Logan county. Mrs. Nighbert told the author of this historical sketch that “Dr. English used to often visit the large elm trees that stood by the bank of the Guyandotte near the woman’s residence. It was beneath the shade of the elm that stands today by the railroad bridge that he composed the song ‘Ben Bolt.'” Dr. English was a frequent visitor to the home of the Lawson’s, but the story to the effect that this song was dedicated to Alice Lawson is only imaginary for there was at that time none of the Lawson children bearing the name of Alice, nor were any of the girls at that time large enough to attract the attention of Dr. English.

The “Ben Bolt” myth is comparable to the story around Charleston that Poe wrote some of his works at St. Albans. Poe was never at St. Albans. It is like that pet tradition of the Huntington D.A.R. that George Washington surveyed lands in the Savage grant, the first grants involving the present site of Huntington.

Dr. English wrote a thousand rimes and jingles and couplets but no poems. “Ben Bolt” is a spurt of sentimentality of which the author was ashamed. Its popularity began when the German air was adapted to it, and has lived only on the strength of the music which is a sort the folk will not forget.

BEN BOLT

Don’t you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt…

Sweet Alice whose hair was so brown.

Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile.

And trembled with fear at your frown?

In the old churchyard in the valley, Ben Bolt.

In a corner obscure and alone,

They have fitted a slab of the granite so grey,

And Alice lies under the stone.

And so forth. English was at a loss how to open the verses when he hit upon the idea of tacking the first four lines of a sea song he was trying to compose for Willis, editor of “The Mirror,” and his last lines reflect the influence of the idea:

Your presence a blessing, your friendship a truth.

Ben Bolt, of the salt sea gale.

English wrote “Rafting on the Guyandotte” and two other “poems” while waiting on the return of a friend he was visiting, taking about an hour to [write] the poem. The opening to his poem is:

Who at danger never laughed,

Let him ride upon a raft

Down Guyan, when from the drains

Pours the flood from many rains,

And a stream no plummet gauges

In a furious freshet rages

With a strange and rapturous fear

Rushing water he will hear;

Woods and cliffsides darting by,

These shall terribly glad his eye.

He shall find his life blood leaping

Feel his brain with frenzy swell;

Faster with the current’s sweeping;

Hear his voice in sudden yell…

And so on for a 100 lines or more he describes the thrills of rafting. It would be interesting to have the collectors of West Virginia verse to rise up [illegible] now and tell exactly their reaction to this “beautiful verse” and why they like it, or why they attach importance to the scribbling pastimes of Dr. English, politician, physician, and lawyer.

Although he went to congress on “Ben Bolt,” there is no legitimate claims to list him as a West Virginia poet. Karl Myers writes much better verse than English ever achieved. A sixth grade pupil of native brightness a notch or two above his classmates can write pages of rhymes as good as the rafting poem. It is the sort of rhyme that is easier to do than not to do, once you establish the swing of it. Youngsters have been known to turn in history examination papers done in rhyme as good as this. But West Virginia is so anxious to claim some poets. Why this should worry the state is a mystery, for European critics say that the whole of America has produced but a poet and a half… Edgar Allan Poe the poet and Walt Whitman the half poet. So why should we feel sensitive about it?

Source: Charleston Gazette via the Logan Banner, 23 November 1926.

Sims Index to Land Grants (1952)

20 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Big Ugly Creek, Fourteen, Green Shoal, Harts, Little Harts Creek, Queens Ridge, Sand Creek

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A.F. McKendree, Abbotts Branch, Abijah Workman, Abner Vance, Admiral S. Fry, Albert Abbott, Alexander Tomblin, Allen Adkins, Allen Butcher, Anderson Barker, Andrew Dial, Andrew Elkins, Anthony Lawson, Archibald Elkins, Arnold Perry, Baptist Fry, Barnabus Carter, Big Ugly Creek, Burbus C. Toney, Cabell County, Charles Adkins, Charles F. Dingess, Charles J. Stone, Charles Lattin, Charles Spurlock, Charleston, Christian T. Fry, Crispin S. Stone, Cultural Center, Dicy Adams, Douglas Branch, Edmund Toney, Elias Adkins, Elijah A. Gartin, Evermont Ward, Fourteen Mile Creek, Francis Browning, Garland Conley, genealogy, George Hager, George Perry, Grandison B. Moore, Green Shoal, Hamilton Fry, Harts Creek, Harvey Elkins, Harvey S. Dingess, Harvey Smith, Henderson Dingess, Henry Adkins, Henry Conley, history, Ira Lucas, Isaac Adkins, Isaac Fry, Isaac Samuels, Isaiah Adkins, Jacob Stollings, Jake Adkins, James Browning, James Butcher, James Justice, James Smith, James Toney, James Wilson, Jeremiah Farmer, Joel Elkins, John Dalton, John Dempsey, John Fry, John Gore, John H. Brumfield, John Rowe, John W. Sartin, John Washington Adams, John Workman, Joseph Adams, Joseph Fry, Joseph Gore, Josephus Workman, Joshua Butcher, Kiahs Creek, Levi Collins, Lewis Adkins, Lilly's Branch, Limestone Creek, Little Harts Creek, Logan County, Lorenzo D. Hill, Low Gap Branch, Mathias Elkins, Meekin Vance, Melville Childers, Moses Brown, Moses Harrison, Moses Workman, Noah Hainer, Obediah Merritt, Obediah Workman, Paris Vance, Patton Thompson, Peter Dingess, Peter Mullins, Polly Vance, Price Lucas, Ralph Lucas, Reese W. Elkins, Richard Elkins, Richard Vance, Robert Elkins, Robert Hensley, Robert Lilly, Royal Childers, Sally McComas, Samuel Damron, Samuel Ferrell, Samuel Lambert, Samuel Parsons, Samuel Short, Samuel Vannatter, Sand Creek, Sims Index to Land Grants, Spencer A. Mullins, Squire Toney, Stephen Lambert, Thomas A. Childers, Thomas Dunn English, Thomas P. Spears, Wesley Vance, West Virginia, West Virginia State Archives, William Brown, William Buffington, William Dalton, William Hainer, William Johnson, William P. Blankenship, William Smith, William Straton, William T. Nichols, William Thompson, William Vance, William Wirt Brumfield

Persons receiving land grants between 1812 and 1860, including acreage totals, for the following streams located in Logan and Cabell counties, (West) Virginia: Big Harts Creek, Big Ugly Creek, Fourteen Mile Creek, Little Harts Creek, Sand Creek, Kiah’s Creek, Green Shoal, Brown’s (Abbott’s) Branch, Douglas Branch, Low Gap Branch, Lilly’s Branch, and Limestone (partial). This list does not necessarily reflect ALL of the person’s landholdings; only land in the Harts Creek community are noted. Also, some persons are duplicated due to receiving grants individually or jointly. Known nonresident landowners are denoted by a (*). My ancestors are placed in bold font. Note: This is a work in progress.

Anthony Lawson*, 6502 acres

Anthony Lawson et al*, 3400 acres

Charles Lattin et al, 2667 acres

John H. Brumfield et al, 2328 acres

Spencer A. Mullins, 2145 acres

John Dempsey et al*, 2090 acres

Isaiah Adkins, 2058 acres

Evermont Ward*, 1800 acres

William Johnson, 1794 acres

Elijah A. Garten, 1620 acres

Charles J. Stone, 1610 acres

Hamilton Fry, 1488 acres

William Johnson et al, 1435 acres

Burbus C. Toney, 1332 acres

William Straton et al*, 1319 acres

Thomas Dunn English*, 1085 acres

Thomas A. Childers et al*, 1050 acres

Samuel Damron et al, 1043 acres

Joshua Butcher, 808 acres

William Straton*, 791 acres

Elijah A. Garten et al, 770 acres

Isaac Adkins, 720 acres

Moses Harrison et al, 700 acres

Abner Vance, Jr., 642 acres

George Hager et al, 600 acres

Isaac Adkins, Jr., 595 acres

Samuel Short et al*, 561 acres

Elias Adkins, 560 acres

George Hager, 520 acres

Crispin S. Stone et al, 485 acres

John H. Brumfield, 480 acres

Moses Brown, 412 acres

Peter Mullins, 408 acres

Robert Lilly, 393 acres

Joseph and Dicy Adams, 384 acres

Charles Lattin, 378 acres

Albert Abbot, 370 acres

Christian T. Fry, 367 acres

Lorenzo D. Hill, 340 acres

Lewis Adkins et al, 325 acres

Enos “Jake” Adkins, 320 acres

Richard Elkins, 311 acres

Obadiah Merret*, 310 acres

Squire Toney, 307 acres

Isaac Samuels et al*, 300 acres

William T. Nicholls et al*, 296 acres

Samuel Lambert, 269 acres

Richard Elkin, Jr. et al, 260 acres

Anderson Barker, Jr. et al, 250 acres

Noah and William Haner et al, 250 acres

William Smith et al, 250 acres

Harvey S. Dingess, 242 acres

Abijah Workman, 239 acres

Samuel Ferrell, 238 acres

Noah Haner et al, 235 acres

Charles F. Dingess & Peter Dingess, Jr., 233 acres

Henderson Dingess, 233 acres

Richard Elkins et al, 230 acres

James Justice*, 220 acres

John Fry, 204 acres

Elias and Allen Adkins et al, 200 acres

James Smith and Harvey Smith, 200 acres

James Toney et al, 200 acres

James Browning, 190 acres

William Buffington et al*, 190 acres

Charles Lucas, 190 acres

James Wilson et al*, 190 acres

James Butcher, 185 acres

Jacob Stollings, 185 acres

A.F. McKendree et al*, 185 acres

Grandison B. Moore, 180 acres

Peter Dingess, 170 acres

Joseph Fry, 162 acres

Robert Elkin, 160 acres

Admiral S. Fry, 157 acres

Robert Hensley, 154 acres

Richard Vance, 153 acres

Levi Collins, 150 acres

Harvey Elkins, 148 acres

James Smith, 148 acres

Reese W. Elkins, 125 acres

John Fry, Jr., 125 acres

Price Lucas, 125 acres

Ralph Lucas, 125 acres

William Dalton, 123 acres

Andrew Dial, 120 acres

Lewis Adkins, 116 acres

Patton Thompson, Jr., 112 acres

John W. Adams, Jr., 110 acres

Charles Adkins, 110 acres

Obediah Workman, 106 acres

Stephen Lambert, 105 acres

John Goare, 104 acres

Moses Workman and John Workman, 100 acres

James Toney, 95 acres

Francis Browning, 94 acres

Alexander Tombolin, 94 acres

Allen Butcher, 93 acres

Ira Lucas, 93 acres

William P. Blankenship, 92 acres

David Robison, 92 acres

Joseph Gore, 90 acres

Archibald Elkins, 87 ½ acres

Anderson Barker et al, 85 acres

Isaac Fry et al, 85 acres

Paris Vance, 84 acres

William Brumfield, 75 acres

Henry Conley, 75 acres

Squire Toney et al, 75 acres

Andrew Dial et al, 73 acres

Burbus C. Toney et al, 73 acres

Henry Adkins, 70 acres

Isaiah and Charles Adkins, 70 acres

John W. Sartin, 70 acres

Barnabus Carter, 65 acres

Mathias Elkin, 63 acres

Patton Thompson, 62 acres

Samuel Parsons*, 60 acres

Harvey and Andrew Elkin, 55 acres

Meken Vance, 55 acres

Joel Elkins, 50 acres

Jeremiah Farmer, 50 acres

Baptist Fry, 50 acres

William Smith, 50 acres

Thomas P. Spears, 50 acres

Charles Spurlock, 50 acres

Samuel Vannatter et al, 50 acres

Edmund Toney, 46 acres

Sally McComas et al heirs, 45 acres

George Perry, 44 acres

Arnold Perry, Jr., 40 acres

William Thompson, 40 acres

John Workman, 40 acres

Josephus Workman, 40 acres

John Rowe, 38 acres

Melville Childers et al*, 37 acres

John Dalton, 34 acres

Polly Vance and William Vance (son), 33 acres

Garland Conley, Jr., 32 acres

Moses Workman, 26 acres

William Brown, 25 acres

Royal Childers*, 25 acres

Wesley Vance, 25 acres

Richard Vance, Jr., 13 acres

Source: Sims Index to Land Grants in West Virginia (Charleston, WV: State of West Virginia, 1952). Thanks to the West Virginia State Archives at the Cultural Center in Charleston, West Virginia, for use of the book.

Thomas Dunn English obituary (1902)

25 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Logan

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Tags

Appalachia, Aracoma, author, Ben Bolt, Henry Clay Ragland, history, lawyer, Logan, Logan County, Logan County Banner, New Jersey, Newark, physician, poet, statesman, Thomas Dunn English, West Virginia, writer

Thomas Dunn English obit LCB 3.13.02

Thomas Dunn English obituary, Logan County (WV) Banner, 13 March 1902

In Search of Ed Haley 183

16 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley, Timber

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Appalachia, Cabell County, Doc Suiter, Dolph Spratt, fiddlers, Fred B. Lambert, Guyandotte River, history, John Thomas Moore, logging, Lucian Mitchell, Paris Brumfield, Thomas Dunn English, timbering, W.M. Carter, writing

The weather was also a problem for loggers, who often plied the river in freezing temperatures.

“I was on the water that cold Saturday, about 1900,” W.M. Carter of Ferrellsburg told Fred B. Lambert, regional historian. “People froze to death, finger and toe nails froze off, but we went on.”

Some loggers built fires on their rafts to battle the cold.

“I have had fires on a raft in winter by throwing sand between close logs,” Mitchell said.

For warmth and a little light-hearted comfort, the loggers drank whiskey along the way. A resident of the Salt Rock area told Lambert about hearing “a hundred men passing his home, one night, about 1896” who “were gloriously drunk and filled the air with such cursing and yelling as one hears not more than once in a lifetime.” Johnson’s Representative Men of Cabell County, West Virginia (1929) said “they were often so boisterous that children playing along the banks ran away in fright as they heard these raftsmen sweeping by, yelling and swearing lustily. Yet, they were only a lot of mountaineers taking their trips as high adventure.”

In addition to their whiskey, loggers also used music to alleviate the hardship of their trip. They always had one or two fiddlers with them who sometimes played on the ride downriver. Thomas Dunn English’s poem “Rafting on the Guyandot” hinted at that part of the journey with the line: “Where’s the fiddle? Boys, be gay!” The fiddles were brought out again after dark, when loggers were camped at various points on the riverbank, in the yard of inns or at houses along their route where people made a business of caring for them. Raftsmen spent their evening eating packed lunches (or fresh, home-cooked meals if they were lucky), drinking, dancing, then sleeping it all off in preparation for the next day.

I could just picture Milt Haley playing the fiddle under the stars and lifting the spirits of burly men who were gathered around their campfires.

“If no bad luck overtook them, they could make the whole journey to Guyandotte in one or two days,” according to The Llorrac.

At that location, their timber was caught in a boom, then examined by measuring crews, who paid them based on the quality and usability (per cubic foot) of each log.

“Here they were delivered to sawmills or run into the Ohio where they were gathered into ‘fleets’ containing many rafts,” Lambert wrote. “They were sold to lumber dealers in Cincinnati, Louisville, Jeffersonville, Indiana, or other cities, and floated down the river.”

Having rid themselves of their timber, the loggers found vacant hotel rooms or boarding houses in the town of Guyandotte and set about the business of “having a good time.” Locals had no choice but to surrender to them and prepare for the worst.

Ferrell’s Centennial Program put it thusly: “When the timbermen had anchored their rafts, the good people of the town anchored themselves at home.”

The whole scene was as exciting and dangerous as any thing in the Wild West. There were a lot of horrible atrocities, like when John T. Moore was burned to death after some loggers renting the upstairs of his large house caught the whole place on fire.

“I’ve seen some fancy fights in Huntington among the raftsmen,” Lucian Mitchell said. “Policemen usually didn’t interfere. Dolph Spratt of Mingo County or Paris Brumfield hit Doc Suiter. He toned down after that.”

After several days of hell-raising, loggers bought a final half-gallon of the best whiskey and made plans to return home. Most made their way back upriver on borrowed or rented horses and mules — or less dramatically by walking. (To get to Harts by foot was a six or seven day trip.)

“They often went in crowds of twenty-five to fifty,” Lambert wrote.

It was rare for them to return home sober, and when they did, it often warranted special attention by local newspapers.

“We note with satisfaction that the raftsmen all returned home safely,” one reported, “and we are pleased to say that the absence of drunkedness among them on this trip was indeed gratifying.”

In Search of Ed Haley 145

30 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Ed Haley

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Tags

Appalachia, Elias Adkins, Harts Creek, history, Isaac Adkins, John H. Brumfield, Joseph Adams, Logan County, Peter Mullins, slavery, Thomas Dunn English, timbering, writing

Within a few years, by 1827, there were more settlers: Elias Adkins at Fowler Branch on the Guyandotte River, Moses Brown at Brown’s Branch of Guyan River and Marvel Elkins on Piney Creek of West Fork. Within three years, Isaac Adkins was at Harts and John Brumfield (father of Paris) was at the mouth of Ugly Creek. The Adkins brothers — Isaac and Elias — were the only slave owners in the section. They bought land at the mouth of Harts Creek in 1833.

In the early 1830s, Joseph Fry, John Lucas, and John Fry moved to the Harts area. Joseph Fry lived at Ugly Creek; John Fry, a War of 1812 veteran, lived at the mouth of Green Shoal; and John Lucas, a Baptist preacher, lived near Big Creek. With the arrival of these and other men, a school was organized to meet the educational needs of local children. “The first school was taught in a log cabin one mile above the mouth of Big Harts creek about the year 1832,” writes Hardesty. “The first house for educational purposes was built near the mouth of Big Harts creek in 1834. It was a five-cornered building, one side being occupied by the ever-present huge fire place.”

In the mid-1830s, Joseph Adams and Peter Mullins — both great-grandfathers to Ed Haley — arrived in the headwaters of Harts Creek. In 1838, Adams was granted 100 acres between the Forks of Harts Creek and the Rockhouse Branch. He became the patriarch of most Adamses in Harts, including Anthony and Ben Adams — key players in the Haley-McCoy trouble. In the early 1840s, Mullins was granted land on Hoover Fork and Trace Fork. He was a grandfather to Emma Haley.

At that time, in 1840, there were roughly 23 families in Harts. In the head of Harts Creek were Stephen Lambert, Moses Workman, Alexander Tomblin, and James Tomblin. Henry Conley and William Thompson were somewhere on the creek. Richard Elkins was at Thompson Branch and Isaac Adkins, Jr. was at Big Branch. Abner Vance was on West Fork. Isaac Adkins, Sr. and James Toney were at Harts. Moses Brown and Archibald Elkins were just below there. Harvey Elkins and Price Lucas were on or near Little Harts Creek. Above Harts was Elias Adkins and Squire Toney. At Ugly Creek were John Brumfield, Joseph Fry, and John Rowe. Charles Lucas and John Fry were at Green Shoal. John Dolen was somewhere in the area.

At that early date, folks were beginning to explore timber as a means of industry. “Isaac Elkins built the first saw mill in 1847 or 1848,” Hardesty writes. “It was constructed on the old sash-saw plan, and had a capacity for cutting from 800 to 1,000 feet per day.” To assist in the transport of timber and coal from the valley, locks and dams were constructed in the lower section of the Guyan and steamboats made a brief appearance in the valley during the 1850s, although they did not travel so far upriver as to reach Harts. There was some excitement, too, when Thomas Dunn English — a famous Northeastern writer — arrived in nearby Logan (then called Aracoma) and became mayor.

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

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Feud Poll 3

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

Recent Posts

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Ed Haley Poll 1

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

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OtterTales

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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