Tag Archives: Whirlwind

In Search of Ed Haley 233

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by in Big Harts Creek, Ed Haley, Whirlwind

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In that same year, 1912, according to a state business directory, there were a variety of folks with business interests in Whirlwind, West Virginia. Sol Riddell was the postmaster, a lawyer, and part owner of a general store named Mullins & Riddell. Peter Mullins was a carpenter, D. Adams was an apiarist, Grover Adams dealt in ginseng, Sol Adams was a miller and lumber dealer, W.J. Bachtel was a teacher, Reece Dalton dealt in livestock and M. Tomblin was a teamster. Reverend Perris Hensley and Reverend William Tomblin were area preachers.

Between 1916-1918, roughly the time Ed Haley left Harts Creek for Ashland, Kentucky, many of these same folks were listed in business directories for Whirlwind. James Mullins was postmaster in 1916, as well as the local general store operator and photographer. William Farley was a mail dealer. In 1918, Frank Adams was a mail carrier. Sol Adams operated a saw mill. Lindsey Blair was a watchmaker. Callahill McCloud dealt in poultry. C.M. Mullins dealt in ginseng. J.M. Mullins operated a flour mill.

By that time, Peter Mullins served as a sort of surrogate father to Ed Haley. It was Uncle Peter who had given Ed a cornstalk fiddle when he was a young boy and who kept him for years. As Ed became a young man who frequently left Harts with his music, Uncle Peter toiled on Trace Fork as a farmer and occasional timberman. He was perhaps best known for his moonshining, an art form with a long history in his pedigree. In January of 1919, he appeared in The Lincoln Republican in an article titled “Four Moonshiners Caught in Raid.”

A constable and owner of a general store was one of the four men arrested Saturday night in Harts Creek district and taken to Huntington Sunday for arraignment before United States Commissioner J.P. Douglas on a charge of illegally manufacturing liquor. The men were found on Trace Fork of Harts creek.

Peter Mullins is the constable and owns a general store on Harts creek. He is known as ‘Shooting Pete’ and is now in the Cabell county jail in default of bond. In his store were found 900 pounds of meal and 209 pounds of flour. Sol Adams, Peter Jonas and George Adams, the other three arrested, gave bond. All are held to the grand jury at the April term of federal court. At the home of Geo. Adams, were found 200 pounds of meal, 100 pounds of light brown sugar, 200 pounds of bran or ships stuff and one barrel of mash, made up, which Adams said was for his hogs. He had one hog, according to the men on the raid. The arrests were made on Saturday by G.C. Rutheford and Hartley Ferguson, deputy marshals; H.D. Sims and G.L. Hannan, of the internal revenue department; M.E. Ketchem, Frank Adkins and W.F. Porter of the state prohibition commissioner’s force.

In Search of Ed Haley 232

27 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by in Big Harts Creek, Ed Haley, Whirlwind

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In spite of new economic developments, educational opportunities for young Ed Haley were limited. As far as can be ascertained, he received no formal education as a child. In that Victorian era of prosperity and refineries, schools (and other forms of improvement) were slow to arrive in the mountains of Appalachia. Joe Adams, whose father was Ed’s age and who was raised at the mouth of Trace Fork, summed it up this way: “All the education they got, they got theirselves.” (He had heard the old-timers speak of the McGuffey Readers.) In August of 1897, Ed got his first chance for an education when Sophia and David Kinser donated land on Trace Fork to the district board of education for the purpose of building a schoolhouse. So far as is known, this was the first school built on the branch. It was easy to picture Ed showing up to visit and entertain students with his amazing fiddle playing…and perhaps to occasionally sit in on school.

In February of 1898, as Ed approached his teen years, Weddie and Peter Mullins swapped property on Trace Fork. Weddie deeded his land to Peter’s wife Liza, who likewise sold her land to Weddie. Thereafter, Peter made his home in the spot where Lawrence Haley and I had visited in the early ’90s, while Weddie lived at the Jackson Mullins home. A few years later, after Weddie was murdered, his widow remarried to Lee Farley — brother to Burl — causing many people to refer to their home as the “old Lee Farley place” (as opposed to the Jackson Mullins place).

In May 1898, the Logan County Court appointed Henry Blair, Jr. as guardian of Ed Haley “an infant under the age of 14 years.” Blair and Albert Dingess paid the bond of 100 dollars. Haley was listed with his maternal grandparents, Jackson and Chloe Mullins, in the 1900 census.

By that time, the Emma Haley property had dropped in value to 33 dollars. Then, for reasons unknown, the value of “Emmagene Haley’s” property increased to $5.50 an acre for a total worth of $110 in 1906. Maybe Uncle Peter or Weddie had made an improvement on the property or maybe someone had appraised it for timber. In any case, Ed would’ve inherited it outright at that time as a person of legal adult age. More than likely, he had no idea of its worth.

The timber boom led directly to the creation of new towns on Harts Creek. Around 1902, a new post office was created at the mouth of Smoke House Fork called Spottswood. According to a 1904 business directory, Sol Adams was a justice at Spottswood. In 1906, Anthony Adams was the operator of a general store, as was J.M. Adams and James Thompson. Berl Adams was a blacksmith, Sewell Adams was a logger, Francis Collins was a miner, Albert Gore was a constable, David Dingess was a lawyer and Sol Riddell was a teacher. Joseph Adams dealt in walnut lumber, while Reverend John McCloud handled local religious matters. Alice Adams was the postmistress at Spottswood. A little later, Berl Adams, Albert Dingess, Alice Adams, Charles Dingess, William Farley and Thomas J. Wysong opened up general stores.

Later, other post offices opened on Harts Creek. In 1910, according to local tradition, Whirlwind Post Office opened in the head of Harts Creek. This replaced Spottswood as Ed Haley’s local post office, although he was traveling away from Harts quite a bit at that time. Whirlwind was roughly sixteen miles from Logan and nine miles from Dingess. (I had seen the remnants of Whirlwind post office on my recent visit to Harts Creek.) It served 250 people and received mail daily.

Ed Haley, meanwhile, sold the only piece of land he would ever own in March of 1911 to his first cousin Ewell Mullins for 25 dollars (1/5 of its appraisal value as per the assessor). In the deed, Jonas Branch was called Gunnel Branch and the size of the tract was given as 25 acres. The deed read as follows:

Beginning at a rock at the mouth of the Gunnel Branch on the right side of Trace creek thence up the hill to the top of the hill; thence up the ridge to opposite a ash corner on a cliff thence down the hill to the ash thence cross the creek to a plum tree thence up the hill to a beech thence a strait line to the top of the hill thence around the ridge to point on the u[p]per side of the Gunnel Branch thence down the point to a stake on the bank of branch thence down the branch and with the division between Ed Haley and Liza Mullins and crossing the creek to the beginning, containing 25 acres more or less.

Tax books first listed the property in Mullins’ name in 1912 and valued it at $140.

In Search of Ed Haley 225

15 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by in Big Harts Creek, Ed Haley, Whirlwind

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After lunch, Billy suggested that we go see Sherman and Minnie Smith, who lived a little further up the creek at the old Whirlwind Post Office. Minnie was the granddaughter of Solomon Adams and a great-granddaughter to Anthony Adams. Her father was a nephew to Melvin Kirk, who helped bury Milt and Green.

We soon pulled up to an incredible two-story log home with a remodeled front. We first spoke with Minnie’s husband Sherman who was busy dismantling a chimney labeled “S.A. 1875.” Minnie came out of the house, recognized Billy and started talking to us like we were neighbors. We raved over her log house for several minutes, which caused her to tell us how her grandfather Sol Adams had built it of yellow poplar in 1869. We later discovered that he was born in that year.

We gathered in chairs and sofas in a dimly lit living room with a low ceiling, while Sherman stood nearby in a doorway leading into the kitchen. We told them about my interest in Ed Haley, which caused Sherman to tell about seeing him in Logan when he was a boy. He said Ed was usually by himself but sometimes had a banjo-picker with him.

“Ed Haley used to play here when I was a girl,” Minnie said, adding that she was born in 1933. According to Minnie, Ed played for dances in the Workman home. Her parents would clear all of the furniture out of the living room and an adjacent room on Saturday. Ed came before the dance started and was fed properly, then as people started showing up he was “set up” on a stool in the doorway between the two cleared rooms. From there, he could entertain two rooms of people instead of just one. Minnie remembered him playing tunes like “Blind Man Stackolee” and “Fire on the Mountain”. Creed Conley was usually the caller and would have people dancing so wildly that they’d bump heads. Most were drunk. Minnie said someone passed a hat around for Ed’s pay toward the end of the dance.

Whirlwind Post Office

11 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by in Big Harts Creek, Whirlwind

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Between 1909 and 1952, Whirlwind Post Office served the postal needs for residents of Upper Hart. What follows is an attempt to reconstruct a history of its postmasters and its locations. All information is based on official post office records located in Washington, DC.

In 1908, Lawrence W. Riddle petitioned the Postmaster General for the creation of a post office called “Zama” in the Upper Hart section of Logan County, West Virginia. This proposed post office would be situated twenty feet west of Harts Creek, three miles west of the Norfolk & Southern Railway, six miles northwest of McCloud Post Office, seven miles south of the town of Dingess in Mingo County, and eight miles east of the Guyandotte River. The total population to be supplied with mail would be 200 persons. In January 1909, the First Assistant Postmaster General responded in a letter that marked out the proposed name of this post office, “Zama,” and replaced it with “Whirlwind.”

Early postmasters at Whirlwind included: Lawrence W. Riddle (March 31, 1910, appointed; April 25, 1910, commissioned; May 16, 1910, took possession), Moses Tomblin (February 13, 1911, appointed), Sol Riddle (May 7, 1913, order; May 25, 1911, appointed; June 12, 1911, commissioned; June 30, 1911, took possession), and James Mullins (April 30, 1914, confirmed; May 19, 1914, commission signed and mailed; May 23, 1914, assumed charge). On June 26, 1925, Mr. Mullins requested to change the site of the post office to a spot 600 feet southwest of its current location.

Lindsey Blair next served as postmaster (April 28, 1938, confirmed; May 6, 1938, commission signed and mailed; May 11, 1938, assumed charge; resigned without prejudice). On July 15, 1938, Mr. Blair requested to relocate the post office to a spot 1652 feet east of its present location.

Shirley Smith replaced Mr. Blair (October 22 or 23, 1940, assumed charge; October 26, 1940, appointed acting postmaster). In a letter dated October 1940, Smith requested a relocation of the post office. The new post office location would be 5/10th of a mile southeast from the old location, 100 feet west of Harts Creek, nine miles southwest of Dingess, ten miles north of Harts, twelve miles southeast of Verdunville, and fourteen miles from Logan. Ms. Smith asked that the post office be relocated “so I can take care of it at my own home.” Twenty-eight patrons resided within a one-mile radius. Postmasters in this era include: Shirley Smith (December 5, 1940, confirmed; December 27, 1940, commission signed and mailed; December 31, 1940, took possession; January 1, 1941, assumed charge; resigned without prejudice) and Pearl Lowe (July 11 or 12, 1941, assumed charge).

In a letter dated August 19, 1941, Pearl Lowe wrote the Postmaster General requesting that Whirlwind Post Office relocate to a new site. The proposed location would be one mile north of its present location, about forty feet west of Harts Creek, two miles southwest of a county line, nine miles southwest from Dingess, nine miles south of Verdunville, ten miles from the Guyandotte River, and ten miles from Chapmanville. This location was approved and became effective as of September 18, 1941.

Pearl Lowe served as the only postmaster at this location: (September 19, 1941, appointed acting postmaster; November 5, 1941, appointed postmaster; January 2, 1942, commission signed and mailed; January 22 or 23, 1942, assumed charge). On April 14, 1942, Mrs. Lowe requested that the post office be relocated to a new site 1500 feet east of the present location. Shortly thereafter, on July 6, she requested that it be relocated to a site 1/8 mile away. This new spot would be 300 feet east of Harts Creek, nine miles southwest of Dingess, eleven miles northeast of Harts, and twelve miles southeast of Verdunville. On April 8, 1944, Ms. Lowe requested the site be moved 1/2 mile to the east. This latter site became effective May 1, 1944.

On July 15, 1944, someone (the paperwork does not specify who) requested that the post office be relocated 1/4 mile south of the old post office, about forty feet east of Harts Creek, two miles from Mingo County, nine miles southwest of Dingess, ten miles north of Harts, eleven miles south of Verdunville, thirteen miles east of the Guyandotte River, and thirteen miles northeast of Chapmanville.

Tema Workman took possession of the Whirlwind Post Office on February 28, 1947 and was “appointed” on March 12, 1947. On April 22, 1947, Ms. Workman requested that the post office be relocated to a site one mile north of the old location. The new post office would be 1/2 miles from Mingo County, 7 1/2 miles south of Dingess, 8 1/10 miles northeast of Shively, 9 1/2 miles north of Harts, and 10 8/10 miles southeast of Verdunville. This letter cites another name which the community was then known: Bulwark.

Subsequent postmasters included: Tema Workman (June 16, 1947, confirmed; July 11, 1947, commission signed and mailed; September 30, 1947, took possession; October 1, 1947, assumed charge; removed) and Verlie Smith (November 5, 1947, assumed charge; November 5, 1949, took possession; November 15, 1949, appointed).

On November 16, 1949, W.J. Carle, Post Office Inspector, wrote a letter requesting the post office be moved to a site one mile southeast. The new location would be situated two miles from Mingo County, 6 1/2 miles east of Shively, 8 1/2 miles north of Harts, ten miles south of Dingess, and fourteen miles west of Kirk.

Ernestine Tomblin served as the final postmaster at Whirlwind (March 31, 1951, assumed charge; April 17, 1951, appointed).

Whirlwind Post Office was discontinued on January 5, 1952, effective January 31, 1952, “mail to Harts.” Documents cite the post office as “unnecessary.” An investigation determined “reestablishment unnecessary” on May 1, 1953.