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Brandon Ray Kirk

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Brandon Ray Kirk

Tag Archives: timber

Recollections of Tom Brown about Timbering on Big Sandy River (1979)

19 Thursday Sep 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Sandy Valley, Timber, Twelve Pole Creek

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Appalachia, Big Sandy River, Bragg Creek, Fort Gay, history, Horse Creek, Kenova, logging, Mingo County, Naugatuck, Ohio River, pushboats, rafting, steamboats, timber, timbering, Tom Brown, Tug Fork, Twelve Pole Creek, Wayne County, West Virginia

The following interview excerpt of Tom Brown (born c.1909) was conducted at Fort Gay in Wayne County, WV, on December 15, 1979.

***

It was probably hard to get around back then, to go to church.

Well the only way you could get around through this country was up and down creeks or on horseback or wagon. And roads were in the creek most of the way. And where they cut timber and logs they had tram roads built back in the heads of the hollows and they had tracks–they built their track out of 2″ X 4″s–and they hauled these logs or ties from the mills back to the heads of the hollows back to the railroads. And they logged out of the mountains and they ran lots of rafts down Tug River. I’ve see high as four to five. They started the rafts running in the spring. They run them out of Mingo County and generally a lot of them was set out in Naugatuck.

That’s how they got them, they used rafts and boats?

Yes, they used rafts. Logs. They’d put these logs together… Sometimes a raft would be maybe 200 or 300 feet long.

200 or 300 feet long?

Almost as wide as the river. The man would stay on that and they’d pull the men to, I guess, Kenova and the Ohio River down here. And they would log them through the winter. The spring waters came and they started down the rivers with the rafts. The river banks were all cut clean.

That’s what I was going to ask you about. They had to be cut clean, didn’t they?

Yes, they was all cut clean. But the rafts… Well they ran logs down Twelve Pole Creek to… Back then people used to put their logs in the creek when it would raise and run them plumb out down Twelve Pole to Kenova. Heads of these creeks… And sometimes I can remember Bragg Creek and Horse Creek… They was a sawmill. There was locks in at Saltpeter and they pushed just like water to Bragg Creek. I’d say along 1916-1917. And almost the travel was boats. It went down on a little showboat. It used to come up an old paddle wheel boat.

That was in about 1917?

About 1917, ’18, ’19, along that.

Could you get a ride on that showboat if you wanted to?

No, they just pulled in and parked and had a show every night, like the picture show, the movie picture show had.

How long did that showboat go up and down the river? How many years did that last?

Well, I don’t know. It would just come up every once in a while maybe, and just stopped at certain places maybe. Places you know at that time… That was about as far as it could get up. And then things was brought up on pushboat. They loaded ties and stuff like that. I remember them loading them on the boat at the river at the mouth of Horse Creek. It was about as far as boats could come up the river.

Recollections of Bert Curry about Timbering on Pigeon Creek, WV (1978)

10 Saturday Aug 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Coal, Holden, Timber

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Appalachia, Bert Curry, Catlettsburg, coal, Cole and Crane Company, Delbarton, Elk Creek, Henry Ferrell, history, Holden, Island Creek, Island Creek Coal Company, Lando Mines, Lenore, logging, Louisa, Mingo County, Mud Fork, Pigeon Creek, rafting, Rock House, splash dams, timber, timbering, Trace Fork, Tug Fork, Wallace Curry, West Virginia

The following interview excerpt of Bert Curry (born c.1901) was conducted at Lenore in Mingo County, WV, on December 5, 1978.

***

How much money was around back then?

The first public works to come into the Pigeon Creek areas was when Cole and Crane come in to cut all of this virgin timber. All of Pigeon Creek. They built a splash dam at Delbarton, one on Elk Creek, and one on Rock House. They come in here in 1910 and they paid seventy-five cents a day and board for a man to work and he worked from daylight til dark and along later some of their best men, their team drivers… Team drivers had to work extra hours. They’d put them on by the month. I remember my brother-in-law got $35 a month, but he’d have to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and then after supper he’d have to go out and clean the stable and curry his team and doctor ‘em, anything that had to be doctored and feed ‘em and bed ‘em down of the night.

Where did people get most of their income in those days?

If you had a job it was usually helping somebody cut timber. My first job was fifty cents a day carrying water for seventeen men and I was about twelve or thirteen years old.

Was that for loggers?

Well, these was loggers but my brother Wallace had a big field of corn. He had to grow corn to feed his cattle. He had six yokes of cattle and he used cattle in logging and he’d take a big flour barrel full of corn and them cattle would get around and he’d feed that corn to ‘em. They’d eat a barrel of corn each night and they’d let ‘em… Maybe a little fodder, or once in a while in bad weather they’d give ‘em a little hay. But them cattle, they worked ‘em six days a week haulin’ logs. They was trained to work and them six yokes of cattle was worth more than you could get for… You could buy a beef for $25 at that time but if you bought a good oxen that was broke you’d have to give about $50 for him.

What do you remember about the logging operations?

They was very primitive. They had nothin’ like a chain saw. They had a cross cut saw and they had axes and they had cane hooks and they had their teams of oxen and then some had teams of mules and horses. When Cole and Crane come in here they contracted all the cuttin’ of this timber. All the haulin’ it and puttin’ it into the creeks where the waters from the dams would take care of it. They had several contractors. They’d contract a whole boundary, maybe 500 or 1000 acres of timber to cut, and it was all virgin timber. It took six yoke of oxen or two to three big span of mules or horses to pull a tree. They didn’t cut it up into logs like they do now. They cut the whole tree and they didn’t take anything less than 16 inches up to the top. They’d be from 5 to 7 feet down where they cut them off and some of them would be 100 feet long and I’ve seen gorges of logs in Pigeon Creek they claimed had 5,000 trees in it. For a mile it’d be piled up bank to bank as high as they could pile. They’d work sometimes with all the teams they could get around them for three weeks a breaking one gorge. And when they got it to the Tug, they’d raft it. Sometimes they’d raft them and sometimes they would drift them down to the locks at Louisa before they’d raft them and they never went past there. They’d raft them there and then take tug boats and haul them from there to Cincinnati.

How did you raft them? I’m not familiar with that.

They had what you call chain dogs, a little chain about that long (indicates about 12 inches) with a spike on each end. They’d drive a spike in this log here and in this log (indicates two logs laying side by side) to hold it together, one at the front and one at the back, and they’d be oh maybe they’d be 50 feet wide and two or three hundred feet long, the rafts would. Maybe they’d have two or three rafts. One steamboat would be pullin’ maybe two or three rafts.

The logs wouldn’t drift apart?

They’d drive them spikes. Them spikes was about that long (indicating about six inches) and they’d drive them in there and it took a whole lot to pull ‘em out.

Did they work in the winter time, too?

Oh yes! I’ve seen fellers wade Pigeon Creek when they mush ice was a floatin’ and when they’d have to get back in the water to thaw before they could walk.

Was the creek deeper then or about like it is now?

It was more even. They had water all the time but they didn’t have as many severe floods as they have now because this was all covered with timbers, all of everything. See, this mulch in these forests held the water and let it leak out. It didn’t run off like it does now.

The water flow was more evened out this year around?

More evened out. But when they’d have a splash dam at Delbarton, one on Rockhouse up at Lando Mines and one in the head of Elk Creek, they’d time these. They’d know how long it took the water to run from Elk Creek, and they knowed how long it took the water to run from Rock House, and they knowed how long it took the water to meet. They’d try to have them all three come out at once so that they’d have a vast big sudden increase in water. You could look up the creek when they’d splash and you could see a wall floatin’ and a turnin’ in and everything.

And that was to wash the logs out?

Yes, well they washed them out to Tug River that way. That’s the way they got them out of Pigeon Creek.

Do you remember when Island Creek first came into the area?

No. Island Creek first come in about 1901. That was over there. They started when two young fellows come from New York in there looking for oil, to prospect for oil, so they could invest some money. And some old man had a mine open right where No. 1 Island Creek mine is and he was a haulin’ coal with a mule—a mule and a sled. He’d go back in there and he’d haul coal out—a big seam of coal six foot high and good and clean. So they decided that there was where they could make their money. So they got to talkin’ with these fellows and they went and got lawyers and they bought around Holden and Trace Fork and up Mud Fork and a vast area. I don’t know how much: 79,000 acres for 470,000 dollars. And fellows like Henry Ferrell, he counted timber so long. To count timber you have men a goin’ through and selecting the trees and one man a tallying. They’d make a mark on a tree when they’d count it, and the fellow with the tally sheet, he kept the numbers. He said they’d count timber a while and said then they had more money than they had brains. To spend that much money for that much land—470,000 dollars—and he said they put up a band mill and cut the timber and sold the timber and built their camps and sold enough lumber to pay for all of it. They got their coal and their land free. Just cut the timber and sold it and got their money back. People thought they were foolish for paying that kind of prices. Buying some of them farms out with all that timber for thousand dollars—that sounded like an awful lot of money. They didn’t have any money. They weren’t used to money. You worked for fifty cents a day. $1000 seemed like a whole lot.

Image

Work Scene Near Spurlockville, Lincoln County, WV

12 Wednesday Jun 2019

Tags

Appalachia, history, Lincoln County, logging, photos, Spurlockville, timber, timbering, West Virginia

Work Scene at Spurlockville Area copyright.jpg

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk | Filed under Spurlockville, Timber

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Antique Timber Branding Stamp Hammer (2019)

09 Sunday Jun 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Timber

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Tags

history, logging, photos, Phyllis Kirk, timber, timbering

IMG_8656

These well-worn hammers were used to “brand” the ends of freshly cut logs so as to identify the owner of each log. Photo by Mom. 7 June 2019

IMG_8657

When timber men sent hundreds or thousands of logs floating down the river to market, the identifying mark proved ownership. Cutting the end of the log, thus removing the brand symbol, was a penitentiary offense. Photo by Mom. 7 June 2019

Logging Items at Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum (2019)

26 Sunday May 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Pikeville, Timber

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Appalachia, Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum, branding hammer, history, Kentucky, logging, photos, Pikeville, timber, timbering

IMG_6913

Branding stamping hammer, Pikeville, KY. 11 May 2019

ARQN6686

Branding stamping hammer, Pikeville, KY. 11 May 2019

QYBR7943

Timberman’s caliper, Pikeville, KY. 11 May 2019

Peytona Lumber Company in Omar, WV (2019)

23 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Timber

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history, Logan County, logging, Omar, Peytona Lumber Company, photos, Pine Creek, timber, timbering, West Virginia

IMG_6304

The Peytona Lumber Company established itself in 1916 at Omar, Logan County, WV. As of 1921-1922, the company boasted 150 employees. Here’s a PLC splash dam crib on Pine Creek in Omar. 19 April 2019

Georgia Perry Deed to John W. Robertson (1909)

30 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Harts Creek, Timber

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Appalachia, Big Branch, Charles Avis, genealogy, Georgia Perry, Harts Creek, history, John W. Robertson, Lincoln County, notary public, Sarah A. Perry, timber, timbering, W.B. Wilkinson, W.C. Holstein, West Virginia

georgia perry to john robertson 1

Deed Book __, page ___, Lincoln County Clerk’s Office, Hamlin, WV.

georgia perry to john robertson 2

Deed Book __, page ___, Lincoln County Clerk’s Office, Hamlin, WV.

georgia perry to john robertson 3

Deed Book __, page ___, Lincoln County Clerk’s Office, Hamlin, WV.

Mary Clark Burks Deed to Gordon Fry (1908)

02 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Ugly Creek

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Appalachia, Big Ugly Creek, Durg Fry, genealogy, Gordon Fry, Guyan Big Ugly and Coal River Railroad Company, Harts Creek District, history, Laurel Fork, Lew Burks, Lincoln County, Mary Clark Burks, timber, West Virginia

Mary Clark Burks to Gordon Fry Deed 1

Deed Book 57, page 196, Lincoln County Clerk’s Office, Hamlin, WV.

Mary Clark Burks to Gordon Fry Deed 3

Deed Book 57, page 197, Lincoln County Clerk’s Office, Hamlin, WV.

Mary Clark Burks to Gordon Fry Deed 4

Deed Book 57, page 197, Lincoln County Clerk’s Office, Hamlin, WV.

Mary Clark Burks to Gordon Fry Deed 5

Deed Book 57, page 197, Lincoln County Clerk’s Office, Hamlin, WV.

State v. Ephraim Hatfield (1871-1872)

31 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Big Sandy Valley, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Timber

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Appalachia, crime, deputy sheriff, Devil Anse Hatfield, Ephraim Hatfield, genealogy, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, J.M. Jackson, James Allison, John Hatfield, Logan County, logging, Mingo County, sheriff, timber, timbering, Valentine Wall Hatfield, West Virginia

In 1871-1872, Ephraim Hatfield was accused of stealing “with force and arms” twenty saw logs valued at fifty dollars from James Allison in Logan County, WV. Most likely, the Ephraim Hatfield of this record is Ephraim “Big Eph” Hatfield (c.1811-c.1881), father to Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield. Other possibilities include Ephraim Hatfield (b. c.1851), son of John Hatfield, and Ephraim Hatfield (b. c.1856), son of Valentine “Wall” Hatfield.

56

Grand jury indictment for Ephraim Hatfield, who stood accused of stealing twenty “saw logs” from James Allison valued at fifty dollars on 10 April 1871. Logan County, WV. Page 1.

57

Page 1 (back). Note: This event is not related to the Hatfield-McCoy Feud.

64

Summons for Ephraim Hatfield to appear for the Fall Term of Court 1872 in Logan County, WV. Dated June 15, 1872. Page 1

65

M. Jackson served summons to Ephraim Hatfield on 20 July 1872. Page 1 (back)

Mingo Oak near Holden, Logan County, WV

18 Tuesday Dec 2018

Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk in Holden, Timber

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Appalachia, history, Holden, Jill Baisden, Logan County, Lowe Mountain, Mingo County, Mingo Oak, photos, Rum Creek, timber, West Virginia

Big Tree at Lowe Mountain 1

This tree was an old landmark on near Holden in Logan County, WV. The owner of this photo thought this photograph was taken on Lowe Mountain in the head of Rum Creek, Logan County, WV. Photo courtesy of Jill (Mullins) Baisden.

For more information, go here: https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1833

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  • Richard and Spencer Adkins Deed to Sarah Adkins (1892)
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Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC

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