02 Tuesday Feb 2021
Posted in Big Sandy Valley, Hatfield-McCoy Feud
Tags
Appalachia, Big Sandy River, Ephraim Hatfield, genealogy, Henderson Varney, history, James Lawson, Logan County, Mate Creek, Reece Browning, surveyor, Tug Fork, Valentine Hatfield, Virginia, West Virginia, William A. Dempsey
03 Sunday Jan 2021
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Shively, Spottswood, Warren, Whirlwind
Tags
Appalachia, Catherine Adkins, Harts Creek, Jessie Carter, Joe Martin, Lizzie Carter, Logan Banner, Logan County, Mary Thompson, Ollie Mullins, Thomas Bryant, West Virginia, Whirlwind
An unnamed correspondent from Whirlwind on Big Harts Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on October 30, 1925:
[The first line is illegible.]
Mrs. R. Bryant was calling on Mrs. Catherine Adkins last Saturday.
Mrs. Lizzie Carter called on Mrs. Jessie Carter Sunday.
Mrs. Mary Thompson visited Mrs. Ollie Mullins recently.
Joe Martin and Thomas Bryant were out joy riding Sunday.
03 Sunday Jan 2021
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Guyandotte River, Lincoln County Feud
Tags
Charles I. Stone, county clerk, Daniel Nester, Guyandotte River, Harts Creek, James Lawson, James Toney, Joel Elkins, Lincoln County, Logan County, Virginia, West Virginia
02 Saturday Jan 2021
Posted in Big Sandy Valley, Civil War, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Women's History
Tags
attorney general, Battle of Gravepine, Battle of Scary Creek, Cap Hatfield, Charleston, civil war, Confederate Army, crime, Dan Cunningham, detective, Devil Anse Hatfield, Ellison Mounts, feuds, Frank Phillips, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Howard B. Lee, Jim Comstock, Johnse Hatfeild, Kentucky, Logan Wildcats, Nancy Hatfield, Roseanna McCoy, Tug Fork, Union Army, West Virginia, West Virginia Women
Howard B. Lee, former Attorney General of West Virginia, provided this account of Nancy Hatfield (widow of Cap) in the early 1970s:
Our next stop was at the home of Nancy Elizabeth, the same home where I visited with her and Cap during my campaign. For nearly three hours I asked questions and listened to that remarkable woman recount many of her experiences as the wife of America’s most celebrated feudist.
Nancy Elizabeth’s home also held a number of guns, pistols, and other relics of the feud days. But the most interesting item was Cap’s bullet-proof, steel breastplate, designed to cover the entire front half of his body from his beck to his lower abdomen.
“Mrs. Hatfield,” I said, “judging from the three bullet marks on it, this breastplate was a great protection to Cap; but what was to prevent an enemy from shooting him in the back?” Her eyes flashed as she replied: “Mr. Lee, Cap Hatfield never turned his back on an enemy or a friend.”
“I have read two stories, Mrs. Hatfield, each purporting to give the true cause of the feud: One book stated that it was the result of a dispute between a McCoy and a Hatfield over the ownership of a hog. Another book said that it grew out of the seduction of a McCoy girl by Johnson Hatfield, oldest son of Devil Anse. Is either one of these stories true?”
“No, neither story is true,” she replied. “The McCoys lived on the Kentucky side of Tug River, and the Hatfields lived on the West Virginia side. Hogs don’t swim rivers. I never heard the girl story until I read it in a book, written long after the feud was over. Both stories are pure fiction.”
“The truth is,” she continued, “in the fall of 1882, in an election-day fight between Ellison Hatfield, a younger brother of Devil Anse, and three McCoy brothers, Ellison was shot and knifed. He died two days later. In retaliation, Devil Anse and his clan captured and shot the three McCoy brothers. It was these four senseless killings that started the feud.”
In answer to my inquiry, Nancy Elizabeth said: “Yes, there had been ‘bad blood’ between the two families since the Civil War. In that struggle the Hatfields were ‘rebels’,–loyal to their State, Virginia. Devil Anse organized and was the captain of a company of Confederate sympathizers called the ‘Logan Wildcats’. They were recruited for local defense; but they left the county long enough to take part in the battle of Scary, fought along the banks of the Kanawha River, a few miles below Charleston.
“The McCoys, and their mountain neighbors, were pro-Union; and to protect their region against invasion by ‘Virginia rebels’, they organized a military company called ‘Home Guards’. There were occasional border clashes between the two forces, with casualties on both sides. The war ended only seventeen years before the feud began, and the bitterness still existed in the minds of the older generation, and they passed it on to their children. It was the old sectional and political hatreds that sparked the fight between Ellison Hatfield and the McCoy brothers.”
Nancy Elizabeth declined to estimate the number killed on either side of the feud.
“It was a horrible nightmare to me,” she said. “Sometimes, for months, Cap never spent a night in our house. He and Devil Anse, with others, slept in the nearby woods to guard our homes against surprise attacks. At times, too, we women and our children slept in hidden shelters in the forests.
“But these assaults were not one-sided affairs. The Hatfields crossed the Tug and killed McCoys. It was a savage war of extermination, regardless of age or sex. Finally, to get our children to a safer locality, we Hatfields left Tug River, crossed the mountains, and settled here on Island Creek, a tributary of the Guyandotte River.
“No, there was no formal truce ending hostilities. After a decade or more of fighting and killing, both sides grew tired and quit. The McCoys stayed in Kentucky and the Hatfields kept to West Virginia. The feud was really over a long time before either side realized it.
“Yes, Kentucky offered a large reward for the capture of Devil Anse and Cap. The governor of West Virginia refused to extradite them because, said he, ‘their trials in Kentucky would be nothing more than legalized lynchings’. It was then that Kentucky’s governor offered the reward for their capture–‘dead or alive’. Three attempts were made by reward seekers to capture them.
“Dan Cunningham, a Charleston detective, with two Cincinnati detectives, made the first attempt. They came through Kentucky, and crossed Tug River in the night; but the Hatfields soon captured them. A justice of the peace sentenced them to 90 days in Logan County jail for disturbing hte peace. When released, they were told to follow the Guyandotte River to Huntington, a distance of 60 miles, and ‘not to come back’.
“Next, a man named Phillips led two raids from Kentucky into Hatfield territory. In the first, he captured ‘Cottontop’ Mounts, a relative and supporter of the Hatfields, and took him to Pikeville, Kentucky, where he was hanged. But the second foray met with disaster at the ‘Battle of the Grapevine’. Phillips, and some of his followers escaped into Kentucky, but some where buried where they fell.
“This was the last attempt of the reward seekers. However, Kentucky never withdrew the reward offer, and that is why Devil Anse and Cap were always alarmed and on the alert.”
Source: West Virginia Women (Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock, 1974), p. 151-152
02 Saturday Jan 2021
Posted in Atenville, Guyandotte River, Little Harts Creek
Tags
Appalachia, Charles Adkins, county clerk, genealogy, Guyandotte River, Harts Creek District, history, J.B. Rigsbey, justice of the peace, Lincoln County, Little Harts Creek, Paris "Witch" Brumfield, Vira Brumfield, W.C. Holstein, West Virginia, William Harrison Tomblin, William Workman
02 Saturday Jan 2021
Posted in Logan
From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this editorial dated August 28, 1925:
THE CLEAN TOWN
Cleanl cleaniness, it has been said, is next to Godliness. A dirty individual is neither clean spiritually nor mentally. Dirt makes for ruin physically, mentally, morally. This is as true of a town as an individual. The dirty town, the town full of rubbish, of untidy houses, of muddy streets, of unsanitary conditions, is non-progressive materially, morally, and educationally. Neither moral nor material advancement flourish in dirty, unkempt dwellings or in unkempt towns.
If any town or city is ambitious for advancement, or if even a few of its men and women are ready to devote their time and energy to the betterment of the community, the surest way to achieve success is to clean up, make back yards and front yards clean, make streets clean and keep them clean, encourage the people to stimulate a love for and a pride in their homes and in their towns, repair the tumble-down yard fences, paint up, make things as clean outside as they would be inside, and then that community will look up mentally, morally and materially.
No community which does not clean up and paint up, which does not do its best to have clean streets and clean yards, has any right to look up and face the world.
It might be said a dirty town makes a dirty people: a dirty people makes moral and material dirt and decay. It is the duty of all men and women to make their homes and their home towns just as clean and attractive and beautiful as possible. He who fails short in this respect falls short of his duty to God and Man. It matters not what else he may do.
02 Saturday Jan 2021
Posted in Green Shoal
Tags
Appalachia, Baptist Fry, Charles I. Stone, Charles Lucas, Christian Fry, Druzilla Fry, Emily Fry, genealogy, Green Shoal Creek, history, James Lawson, John Fry, Lincoln County, Logan County, surveyor, Virginia, West Virginia
02 Saturday Jan 2021
Posted in Coal
Tags
Barrackville, Charleston, District 17, Harold Houston, Henry Warrum, history, Indiana, Indianapolis, labor, Logan, Logan Banner, Philadelphia, secretary, Sullivan, United Mine Workers of America, West Virginia, William C. Thompson, William Petry
From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this story dated August 28, 1925 regarding the United Mine Workers of America:
OFFICERS RECEIVE LION’S SHARE OF UNION CHECK OFF
Report Shows 35 Cents of Every Union Miner’s Dollar Goes to Pay Overhead Costs
Virtually 35 cents of every dollar paid into the United Mine Workers of America treasury at Indianapolis goes for overhead expenses, chief of which is salaries, according to the report of the auditors who went over the books of the international’s accounts from January 10 to June 1 of this year. They report that the union had $1,191.991.64 on deposit on various banks on the latter date, despite the payment of some very large sums of money about which little is said.
West Virginia ranks high in the list of expenditures with the statement made that $411,475 was given somebody in connection with the Charleston headquarters of district 17, for the relief of Kanawha miners, for the relief of men who declined to work under the American plan of mining. As this was for 110 days, according to the report, it amounts to virtually $3,750 a day for every day reported. This sum was in addition to the $124,000 given somebody in the Fairmont field, for the aid of strikers there.
Administration Costs High
The “aid” money was also aside and apart from administration expenses in Charleston, because the audit shows the payment of $22,849.05 to William C. Thompson, secretary of District 17, for administrative expenses. Legal salaries were also apart from both of these figures, as the payment of $8.606.57 to Thomas Townsend for work during that period, and $602.11 to Harold Houston, another Charleston attorney, were listed separately. The settlement of claims for back salary, made by William Petry, former vice president of the district is also listed separately, the settlement being made for $500 cash.
The salaries and expenses of officers are lumped in one sum as $254,808.94, or 20.9 per cent of the disbursements for the 110 day period. These salaries and expenses are clear entirely of any incidental office expenses, supplies, etc. Mr. Townsend, the Charleston attorney, received the largest salary of the few listed separately, as Henry Warrum, the Philadelphia attorney received $4.672.73 during the 110 days and John Campbell but $4,250. Several other lawyers received from $2,000 to 3,000 fees.
Gift to Sufferers
Gifts of $250 to the tornado sufferers in Indiana; $500 to the victims of the Barrackville mine disaster; $500 to Illinois tornado sufferers and $1000 to sufferers in the Indiana explosion at Sullivan are also reported, being a very small portion of the disbursements listed.
Recapitulation of the figures show that the balance on hand January 16, 1924 was $1,048,044.40. The incoming from members of the union for the 110 days was $1,362,201.28. This made a total of $2,410,245.78. From this is deducted expenditures of $1,216,254.14 for the 110 days, leaving a balance June 1, of $1,191,991.64.
02 Saturday Jan 2021
Posted in Logan
Tags
Appalachia, Aracoma Hotel, Coal Street, genealogy, history, Hunter Green, Logan, Logan County, Main Street, maps, Nick Savas, S.A. Ammar, Stratton Street, West Virginia
28 Monday Dec 2020
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Coal, Logan, Spottswood, Warren, Whirlwind
Tags
Appalachia, coal, Fourth of July, Francis Collins, genealogy, Harts Creek, Harvey Smith, history, hunting, Lindsey Blair, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, Squire Sol Adams, Taylor Blair, Thomas Tomblin, West Virginia, Whirlwind, White Oak Fork
An unnamed correspondent from Harts in Logan County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on July 24, 1925:
We are sad at this writing, since our friends are passing away so fast. Uncle Thomas Tomblin, who has been ill so long, died at his home. Uncle Frances Collins died at the home of Sol Adams, Jr.
Sol Adams was seen returning from Logan yesterday.
Harve Smith and Tabor Blair were enjoying the Fourth of July while hunting.
The county road is progressing nicely on the head of Hart.
Squire Adams was seen going toward White Oak with a bundle of papers. Wonder where he was going?
Lindsay Blair has quit the county road and gone to 18 mine to repair cars.
28 Monday Dec 2020
Posted in Cemeteries, Logan
Tags
Appalachia, cemeteries, genealogy, H.S. Walker, history, J.W. Beckett, Joe Perry, Logan, Logan Cemetery, Logan County, Reena Mounts, West Virginia
28 Monday Dec 2020
Posted in Big Harts Creek, Green Shoal, Harts
Tags
Appalachia, Bell Adkins, Billie Brumfield, Everett Adkins, Fisher B. Thompson, Fry, genealogy, George Curry, Georgia Curry, Geronimo Adams, Harriett Curry, Harry Curry, Harts, history, Hollena Adkins, John Dalton, John Willard Miller, Josephine Robinson, Laura Adkins, Lincoln County, Lizzie Dalton, Logan Banner, Mary Robinson, Nessel Curry, Nessel Vance, Roxie Tomblin, Susie Adkins, Tom Brumfield, Warren Browning, Weltha Adams, West Virginia
An unnamed correspondent from Harts in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on July 17, 1925:
Warren Browning, Harry Curry, John Dalton, Georgia Curry, Everett Adkins and Nessel Curry were seen out car riding Sunday.
Tom Brumfield has bought him a Studebaker car and was seen riding Sunday.
Harriet Curry was calling on Jeronimo Adams Sunday.
Georgia Curry was calling on John Dalton Sunday evening.
George Curry was calling on John Willard Miller.
Wonder why Billy Brumfield is visiting Fry so much?
Warren Browning and Miss Mary Robinson were seen out car riding Sunday evening.
Fisher B. Thompson and Miss Lizzie Dalton were seen out walking Sunday.
Misses Laura Adkins and Bell Adkins were guests of Mrs. Josephine Robinson Sunday.
Misses Hollena Adkins and Weltha Adams were guests of Mrs. Josephine Robinson Sunday.
Roxie Tomblin, Georgia Curry, Harriet Curry and Nessel Vance were seen out walking Sunday evening.
John Dalton was calling on Miss Susie Adkins Sunday evening.
28 Monday Dec 2020
Posted in Guyandotte River, Little Harts Creek
Tags
Anthony Lawson, Appalachia, Charles I. Stone, Enos "Jake" Adkins, genealogy, Guyandotte River, Hiram Heeter, history, James Lawson, Lincoln County, Little Harts Creek, Logan County, Price Lucas, Sand Creek, Short Hand Fork, surveyor, Virginia, West Virginia
28 Monday Dec 2020
Posted in Cemeteries, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, Logan, Women's History
Tags
Appalachia, attorney general, Betty Caldwell, Cap Hatfield, cemeteries, Devil Anse Hatfield, feuds, Hatfield-McCoy Feud, history, Howard B. Lee, Jim Comstock, Logan, Logan County, Nancy Hatfield, politics, Republican Party, Robert Elliott Hatfield, Sarah Ann, Tennis Hatfield, West Virginia, West Virginia Women, Willis Hatfield
Howard B. Lee, former Attorney General of West Virginia, provided this account of Nancy Hatfield (widow of Cap) in the early 1970s:
HATFIELD WOMEN.
Over the years, much has been written about the male members of the Hatfield clan who took part in that early orgy of blood-letting–the Hatfield-McCoy feud. But nothing has been said concerning the indomitable wives of that stalwart breed of men.
My purpose is to pay a richly deserved tribute to one of those pioneer women–the late Nancy Elizabeth, wife of William Anderson Hatfield, common known “Cap,” second son of Devil Anse, and the most deadly killer of the feud.
More than 30 years have passed since I last talked with her; but I still regard Nancy Elizabeth Hatfield as the most remarkable and unforgettable woman of the mountains.
In the spring of 1924, I was a candidate in the primary election for the Republican nomination for attorney general, and I wanted the Hatfield influence. Devil Anse had died in 1921, and his mantle of leadership of the clan had fallen to his oldest living son, Cap–a power in Logan County politics.
I had met Cap, casually, in 1912, but I had not seen him since that meeting. But his sister, Mrs. Betty Caldwell, and her husband, lived in my county of Mercer, and were among my political supporters. To pave the way for my later meeting with Cap, I had Mrs. Caldwell write and ask him to support me.
Later, when campaigning in the City of Logan, I engaged a taxi to take me the few miles up Island Creek to Cap’s home. The car stopped suddenly and the driver pointed to a comfortable-looking farm house on the other side of the creek and said:
“That’s Cap’s home, and that’s Cap out there by the barn.”
I told him to return for me in two hours.
Cap saw me get out of the car, and, as I crossed the creek on an old-fashioned footlog. I saw him fold his arms across his chest and slip his right hand under his coat. Later, I noticed a large pistol holstered under his left arm. Even in that late day, Cap took no chances with strangers. When I got within speaking distance, I told him my name, and that I had come to solicit his support in my campaign for attorney general. He gave me a hearty handclasp, and said:
“My sister, Mrs. Caldwell, wrote us about you. But, let’s go to the house, my wife is the politician in our family.”
Cap was reluctant to commit himself “so early.” But Nancy Elizabeth thought otherwise. Finally, Cap agreed to support me; and, with that point settled, we visited until my taxi returned.
Meanwhile, with Cap’s approval, Nancy Elizabeth gave me the accompanying, heretofore unpublished photograph of the Devil Anse Clan. In 1963 I rephotographed it and sent a print to Willis Hatfield (number 22 in picture), only survivor of Devil Anse, who made the identification. Nancy Elizabeth is number 16, and the baby in her lap is her son, Robert Elliott, born April 29, 1897. Therefore, the photograph must have been made late in 1897, or early in 1898.
A few months after Cap’s death (August 22, 1930), the West Virginia newspaper publishers and editors held their annual convention in Logan. I was invited to address the group at a morning session. That same day, Sheriff Joe Hatfield and his brother, Tennis, younger brothers of Cap, gave an ox-roast dinner for the visiting newsmen and their guests. The picnic was held on a narrow strip of bottom land, on Island Creek, a half-mile below the old home of Devil Anse.
I ate lunch with Nancy Elizabeth and her sister-in-law, Betty Caldwell. After lunch, at the suggestion of Mrs. Caldwell, we three drove up the creek to the old home of her father–Devil Anse. It was a large, two-story, frame structure (since destroyed by fire, then occupied by Tennis Hatfield, youngest son of Devil Anse).
The most interesting feature in the old home was Devil Anse’s gun-room. Hanging along its walls were a dozen, or more, high-powered rifles, and a number of large caliber pistols, ranging from teh earliest to the latest models. “The older guns,” said Nancy Elizabeth, “were used in the feud.”
As we returned, we stopped at the family cemetery that clings uncertainly to the steep mountainside, overlooking the picnic grounds. There, among the mountains he loved and ruled, old Devil Anse found peace. A life-size statue of the old man, carved in Italy (from a photograph) of the finest Carrara marble, stands in majestic solitude above his grave. On its four-foot high granite base are carved the names of his wife and their thirteen children.
Source: West Virginia Women (Richwood, WV: Jim Comstock, 1974), p. 149-151
27 Sunday Dec 2020
Posted in Big Harts Creek
Tags
Anthony Lawson, Appalachia, Charles I. Stone, Garland Conley Jr., genealogy, Harts Creek, history, Israel Canfield, James Lawson, John Conley, John Hopkins, Logan County, Robert Hensley, Smokehouse Fork, surveyor, West Virginia, William Farley
27 Sunday Dec 2020
Posted in Ashland, Big Creek, Harts, Holden, Huntington, Logan, Sand Creek
Tags
Amon Ferguson, Annie Dingess, Appalachia, Ashland, Beatrice Adkins, Big Creek, Bill Porter, Camden Park, Charles Brumfield, Charleston, Fisher B. Adkins, genealogy, Harts, Hendricks Brumfield, Herbert Adkins, history, Holden, Howard Brumfield, Huntington, Ina Dingess, James Auxier Newman, Jessie Brumfield, John Beamins, John McEldowney, Kentucky, Lincoln County, Logan, Logan Banner, Ora Dingess, Robert Dingess, Rosco Dingess, Sand Creek, Shirley McEldowney, singing school, Sylvia Shelton, West Virginia
An unnamed correspondent from Harts in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on July 3, 1925:
Mr. and Mrs. Rosco Dingess of Blair spent the week end visiting friends and relatives at Harts.
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Dingess of Logan and sister Miss Ina Dingess were visiting relatives at Harts Sunday.
Miss Jessie Brumfield of Harts was shopping in Logan Saturday.
Mr. and Mrs. Fisher B. Adkins of Harts spent Sunday at Camden Park in Huntington.
Mr. and Mrs. John McEldowney returned to their home at Charleston Sunday after a few weeks visit with friends and relatives at Harts.
Mrs. John Beamins of Holden was the guest of Mrs. Robert Brumfield at Harts Sunday.
Miss Sylvia Shelton of Sand Creek passed through our town Sunday.
Mr. Amon Ferguson of Huntington was calling on Miss Ora Dingess at Harts Saturday and Sunday.
Mr. Charles Brumfield and little son Howard were visiting relatives in Huntington and Ashland, Ky., this week.
Mr. James Auxier Newman of Huntington was calling on friends at this place Monday while eanroute to Big Creek.
People at this place were glad to see Hendrix Brumfield on our streets again.
Rev. Gartin is teaching a successful singing school at Harts. Everybody is invited to come.
Miss May Caines of Wayne was calling on Miss Jessie Brumfield at Harts Sunday.
Herbert Adkins was transacting business in Logan Saturday.
It was a great shock to the people of this place to hear of the death of Bill Porter, for he had a wide circle of friends at Harts.
25 Friday Dec 2020
Tags
Appalachia, Carrie Thacker, cemeteries, genealogy, Hamlin, history, L.M. Thacker, Lincoln County, Maude May, R. Dennis Steed, West Virginia
Posted by Brandon Ray Kirk | Filed under Cemeteries, Hamlin
25 Friday Dec 2020
Tags
Alva Koontz, Appalachia, Bessie Adkins, Burl Farley, Caroline Brumfield, Charles Brumfield, Charleston, Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company, Elliot Fleur, Ethel Brumfield, Fisher B. Adkins, genealogy, Gill, Grant Cremeans, Hamlin, Hardin Marcum, Harts, Herb Adkins, history, Holden, Huntington, James Auxier Newman, Jessie Brumfield, John McEldowney, Lincoln County, Logan, Logan Banner, Mary Ann Farley, Ranger, Robert Brumfield, Salt Rock, Sylvia Cyfers, Vesta Cyfers, West Virginia
An unnamed correspondent from Harts in Lincoln County, West Virginia, offered the following items, which the Logan Banner printed on June 19, 1925:
Mr. Charles C. Brumfield of this place is visiting friends and relatives at Logan and Holden this week.
Alva Koontz and James Auxier Newman of Huntington were seen to pass through this town enroute to Big Creek today.
Mr. and Mrs. Burl Farley of Salt Rock were guests of Mrs. Charles Brumfield at Harts Sunday.
Hardin Marcum and Elliot Fleur, C. & O. operators of Ranger, were calling on Miss Jessie Brumfield Saturday evening at Harts.
Robert Brumfield of this place has purchased a fine new Studebaker car this week.
Mr. and Mrs. John McEldowney and children of Charleston are visting relatives at this place.
Rev. Porter, Minister of the Baptist church, preached an able sermon here Sunday which was largely attended.
Fisher Adkins of Harts made a flying trip to Huntington Sunday.
Miss Jessie Brumfield and __ Adkins were guests of Sylvia and Vesta Cyfers and Miss ____ of Gill Sunday and reported a good time.
Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Adkins of Harts and Miss Ethel Brumfield were visiting friends at Hamlin Sunday.
Hon. Grant Cremeans, the Circuit Clerk, and family of Hamlin were guests of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Brumfield Friday.
25 Friday Dec 2020
Posted in Big Harts Creek
Tags
Appalachia, Charles I. Stone, genealogy, Harts Creek, Harvey Elkins Jr., Henry Conley, history, James Lawson, John Gore, Logan County, Marsh Fork, Virginia, West Virginia
23 Wednesday Dec 2020
Tags
Appalachia, Bowlin, C.C. Chambers, Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, coal, coal camps, Fayette County, fiddler, Frank Adkins, Gassaway, Jewell Encampment, John C. Hicks, Logan, Logan Banner, Logan County, music, Nick Roomy, Odd Fellows, W.M. Hornsby, West Virginia
From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this favorable review by one prominent visitor in 1925. The story is dated Friday, June 5, 1925.
“Truth About Logan”
By W.M. Hornsby
Fayette County Man Who Attended Grand Encampment of Odd Fellows Here Makes Interesting Report.
The yellow journalists and just plain liars who have been telling everything about Logan county but the truth for many years may now prepare to receive a real kick in the slats. Their crazy illusions are due to get shattered.
No man ever came to Logan on a peaceful mission and went away to relate any stories of wrong treatment.
The finest group of men that have visited our city for many moons was here when the Grand Encampment of the Odd Fellows of the state was held in Logan recently. In their meetings at the Christian church many of the delegates confessed that they came to Logan fearful and trembling, all on account of the millions of lurid lies which they had read in various papers before coming here. It may sound like old stuff to say that “truth crushed to earth will rise again” but that is exactly what happened in this case. The delegates were recipients of the famous Logan hospitality. The keys to the city were theirs and they were accorded the kind of a reception which Logan has always given to anything good. After a pleasant visit the delegates departed for their homes with a true knowledge of the conditions which exist here, a knowledge of the fact that Logan is not different from any other prosperous mining section of the country.
One of the gentlemen who attended the Grand Encampment was Mr. W.M. Hornsby, of Bowlin, Fayette county. He too had been filled with the common ideas which prevail about Logan county, but during his visit here he discovered the real Logan, not the kind that exists in the putrid minds of the editors of the sensational yellow journals which have done a grievous wrong to Logan county. He discovered real friends with a handshake just as firm and a smile just as sincere as he had ever known. When Mr. Hornsby returned to his home he wrote a report to this lodge. That report is of vital interest to every Loganite and we are glad to reproduce it in the columns of this paper. The entire report is as follows:
“To whom it may concern…and I think it will concern all true hearted Americans:
“This is a true story of what took place during my stay in Logan county. To get a proper start, I must go back one year. On May 14, 1924, the Grand Encampment met in its annual session in Gassaway, W.Va. When the time arrived to choose a place for our next annual meeting, a good many towns offered invitations to the body. Among them was the town of Logan, and when Logan was mentioned there was silence in the hall, until finally some brother said: ‘Can we meet in Logan?’ For we thought by some of the newspaper reports that Logan county was the hell on earth and the town of Logan was the gateway to the bottomless pit. Then somebody got up in the midst of us and said: ‘Yes, you can meet in Logan, for I’m from the town of Logan.’ We looked over this monster from head to foot but could not see any horns and then our Grand Scribe stood up and declared: ‘Our own dear John wants us to come,’ and we answered, ‘If our own dear John wants us to come, we will go.’
“I started to Logan town on May 12, 1925, from Bowlin, Fayette county, wondering what was going to happen to me. We arrived at Logan the following day in a fine coach donated by the C. & O. for our convenience on the trip to Logan and return.
“When we got off the train at the Logan depot, some brother whispered, ‘Now where–and what?’ Just at that moment we found our way blocked–not by the sheriff and his so-called outlaw deputies as you might think–but by John Hicks with a three hundred pound smile for he is __ and by his side stood our own dear Captain of the Uniform Bank with his fine boys.
“The command was given about face, forward march, and we went up a finely paved street by skyscraper hotels and big mercantile houses to the court house. Instead of finding the so-called persecutors of the law awaiting, we ran into a committee of Jewell Encampment, No. 124, with some of the fairest of the fair sex assisting them and all wearing broad and welcoming smiles. We registered as customary and were assigned to our various hotels.
“After the grand body had been called to order in the Christian church by John C. Hicks, past grand patriarch, C.C. Chambers, mayor of Logan, gave us a fine talk and turned the town over to us, saying ‘the town is yours, do what you want with it,’ and common sense would teach that we were not going to destroy our own property. Next were a group of songs by Mrs. Frank Adkins and Mrs. Nick Roomy, accompanied by fine music, and followed in rotation by several fine speakers, and every one of them said ‘we welcome you,’ and by the smiles on their faces you could tell that they meant it.
“At the close of the morning session we had dinner in the basement of the church, where we saw some of our earthly angels sweating over a hot stove to prepare a feast good enough for a king, while two others rendered fine music and songs, accompanied by one of Logan’s imps–but he had a fiddle, not horns as you might think.
“During the afternoon session in stepped Little John, with the statement, ‘Grand Patriarch, the citizens of this town beg this grand body to let them take you out for an auto ride at your pleasure and show you some of Logan county.’
“___ for the ride, and promptly at that hour it was announced: ‘The cars are waiting.’ And we went out and loaded up according to the capacity of each car. It was found that there were not quite enough cars for all, so an appeal was made to the garage men of the town, and the latter stepped on the starters of some brand new machines and fell in line for our pleasure. Now, Fayette county garage men, would you have done that?
“The trip lasted two and a half hours over paved roads to the coal camps. I was told that part of the roads we traveled over were built by the so-called outlaw operators at a cost of $650,000 and when it was finished they walked into the court house and said to the county court, ‘your honors, we will give you this road if you will keep it up.’ Now, if this is so, I would not mind to have them for neighbors, would you?’ In going from one coal camp to another we met the miners coming from work. Walking? No! Sitting reared back in real cars–no Henry’s–and driving over hard roads built by the so-called outlaw operators for their use. I wish we had some outlaws like that in our town, don’t you?
I will say now, Mr. Newspaperman, wherever you may be over this great nation, listen to plain, honest-to-goodness, one-hundred percent American language. If you have been guilty of this dirty low-down, yellow dog propaganda about Logan county and its fine people. In the name of God and the love of humanity, I say stop right now. It’s a shame if you haven’t any respect for yourselves, for God’s sake have mercy on the people of the best county on earth and the country that gives you shelter for you may just as well stop right now for we have been there from every nook and corner in the United States, and we will not believe you anymore anyway. Cut it out or the devil will get you, for no one could write such stuff but imps. If you will just go to the town of Logan and walk around you will get ashamed of yourself and stop talking about your neighbors.”
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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Genealogy and History in North Carolina and Beyond
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Brandon Ray Kirk 