My PaPaw Howard (Bubby)Walker of Hanover moved into an old four room house near Little Huff Creek in March of 1979. A disabled coal miner, my PaPaw lived alone. Realizing the old house, built over a century ago and first owned by the late Joshua Cline, was haunted.
PaPaw said he was awakened around 4:00 a.m. one morning by noises coming from the next room. When he opened the door, he saw a ghost. Trying not to be afraid, he carried on a conversation with the ghost. Who repeatedly told my PaPaw to leave. His reply was, "No, I live here now, it is you who has to leave. Letting the ghost know that he was the intruder in the house, my PaPaw now knew he probably was not on good terms with this ghost.
PaPaw shut the door to that room never to open it again. He said he wasn't afraid of the ghost and considered him harmless. However, what does it hurt to allow him to have at least the one room. After all, we figured the ghost to be the late Joshua Cline who originally lived in the house and didn't want to be accused of sending the poor soul to roam the hills and hollows without a place to hang his hat.
My Uncle Travis grew up in Wyoming County, went to Huff Consolidated Elementary School and Baileysville High School.
He was the youngest of six children. His parents worked very hard to make ends meet. His Dad, my grandfather, worked in a dark coal mines and come home in the evenings to more work to do in the fields. He raised the food they ate.
My Grandmother Lucy also worked hard sewing dresses for her girls and other children in the neighborhood. She also make quiltes for her family to keep warm inthe winter. Some of the quilts were sold bo buy extra things the family needed.
When Travis was nine years old he and his sister, his older brother, and his parents were in an awful accident that killed his brother. Travis was scared but unhurt. His parents were hospitalized for months with numerous broken bones so my Aunts and my Dad had all the chores to do around the homeplace. My Dad took a job at the local gas station to have extra money to go see his parents and sister.
When Travis finally realized what had happened he cried for days and the nights were even worse. He no longer had his older brother to look up to and his parents were no longer around. My Dad, Ted, had to be a parent and brother, he was sickly too. He had real bad nose bleeds and was hospitalized for weeks. The death of a brother was stressful for him too.
Travis had to continue to go to school, knowing that his parents and sister might not pull through. He was a trooper, he finally finished grade school and when he took an extra job on the Farmbest milk truck to save his money to get through high school. My Dad, Ted, helped him to buy his class ring and buy him a bus ticket to Kentucky where he enlisted in the Air Force where he was stationed for two years. Later on in 1974, he was transferred to Panama City, Florida at Tyndall Air Force Base where he recieved numerous awards. One for Outstanding Unit, National Defense, and he recieved a Good Conduct medal. Then in 1977, he was sent to Colorado Springs, his National Defense Team was in a competition and Travis was selected one of two Outstanding Airmen of the 23rd Norad Region.
He has been stationed in numerous states. He was in Anchorage, Alaska for eight years. Travis has also lived in Minnosota, Michigan, California, Texas, Massachusetts, and New York.
Uncle Travis has retired now after 22 years and more degrees than you could ever imagine. He is now the Vice President of Circuit City in Detroit, Michigan. He lives in Muskgon, Michigan with his wife Katherine, who is a Registered Nurse in the Air Force. They have two beautiful children, Katherine Angela and William Thomas. Travis also has an older son by a first marriage, Travis Joel, who attends Michigan State. Travis Joel also holds down a job rebuilding computers and building race cars. Pretty impressive life for Uncle Travis thus far, don't you think?
This story spans across Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is told by Lucy Bailey about her grandmother, Comfort Daniels Christian.
Comfort Christian was a Kentucky native. Her husband, Robert, was of Cherokee lineage and hailed form a plantation in Virginia. The two married in the later part of the 1800's and set up housekeeping in a log cabin ont he wild mountainous region located above what is now the Wilmore Dam area of McDowell County in West Virginia. The site earned the name Christian Ridge, for obvious reasons.
The area once teemed with wildlife, bear, panther, bobcat, turkey and a host of birds. There was an abundance of natural resources; coal, natural gas, and choices of timber. The couple's original holdings included parcels of land extending from coney Island and Premier Mountain down to the Iaeger side of the mountain up to the top of the Virginia line. Eventually, most of their home and property was lost to delinquent taxes during lean times.
Aside form Robert's occupation as a farmer, he found employment at the coke ovens in Vivian to support his growing brood. Transportation was basic - horseback or foot. Practicality demanded Christian stay near his work site through the week, chancing the often dangerous trek back home ont he weekend. His absence was hard onthe family, expecially Comfort.
The burden of caring for the boisterous household and dealing with its multitudes of problems fell to Comfort. Aside from the trmendous work load, their eldest son, Richard, was a trial for her. The boy had suffered a severe head injury as a small child when he accidentally cracked his head on a hearthstone. His family speculated that the accident resulted in a skull fracture, inflicting brain damage. Richard was a very unstable boy, easily disturbed.
One winter morning, Robert returned home from work and fell exhausted into a deep sleep. Richard went out into the snow and brought the axe into the house. With one blow, he hit his father inthe head. He went into the kitchen and put his arm around his mother and said, "You do not have to worry any more about daddy leaving." Granny Comfort, pregnant with twins, rushed into the bedroom and tried to save her husbad. Richard just held onto her and took her away into the kitchen. Shortly after, the babies were born dead because it was too early. Richard did not remember doing what he did to his father. He was committed to a state hospital in Spencer, WV. Later, her underwent surgery to have a plate inserted in his skull to alleviate the pressure on his brain. He achieved a degree of normalcy, but he had no desire to re-enter the outside world. He said Spencer was his home and he did not want to leave. He loved to garden, and was given his own little patch. At his death, he was taken back to Christian Ridge and buried next to Granny Comfort. The twins were buried next the Grandaddy Robert.
Following the death of her Native American husband, Comfort moved off the mountain to keep her fatherless offspring together. she established a home at Panther, WV, close to relatives. The family did what it could to survive. Noah and Tom, two of the younger boys, chose the most obvious career for that era - coal mining. Incredibly, both were children, Tom being only nine years old.
Pearl, the daughter of Tom after he grew up, told that Tom was critically burned in the mines. Some miners used oil in their lamps. Somehow, on a shift, he spilled some of it down his back and legs and he caught on fire. He lay in agony for weeks at home before he was well from the burns. He went back into the mines, though and retired after working for fifty-six years.
Noah's daughter, Ethel, said that her daddy started work when he was only slightly older than nine. That was his life's work, just like Tom.
"Uncle Mose", Lucy's dad, was a colorful character. He was fond of the bottle and married six times. He had over twenty children. Every day of his life he wore a gun strapped to his side. "That was the way men folk lived in those days," said Lucy.
Mose Christian was the unwitting instigator of the Christian-Daniels feud. Lucy, his daughter, and the teller of this story reports. In 1902, Poppy Mose met a Daniels girl who lived in Kentucky. In no time, he married her. The "Family Business" was moonshining, so he was soon plying the trade. Before long, he was caught and was sent off to prison. While he was gone, his wife died in childbirth. Her family blamed him for it because they figured he should have been with her. After Poppy was released, the trouble started. Her family tried to kill him. This went on for years with one side ambushing the other side. "We don't have any record of how many died in the feudin', but there were many. The fightin' and killin' didn't stop until Poppy Mose died in 1959."
Two other sons of Robert and Comfort were Hiram and Bud. With no father to reign them in, they became a formidable twosome as gunslingers. Their prowess with the itchy trigger fingers landed them in and out of jail frequently. Ethel said they would just as soon shoot someone as to eat. Bud was found hanged in the Williamson jail.
Some of it had to do with the Daniels and Christian feud, but people were afraid of Uncle Bud. I guess they wanted to get rid of him. Most speculated his murder was a set-up. Ethel and Pearl described the night middle-aged Bud was brought home after being extricated from a rope int he hoosegow.
Uncle Bud was laying "a corpse" and someone placed a handkerchief over his face. During the course of the evening, it slid off onto his chest. No one wanted to disturb it, so everyone waited. An hour later, blood started gushing out of his nose and mouth. Someone summoned a doctor and the doctor turned Bud over. He discovered that the body had been shot five times in the back. Everyone suspected it was a grudge killing because of the feud.
Uncle Hiram didn't die in jail though, he got killed int he coal mines instead.
Besides Richard, Mose, Hiram, Bud, Noah, and Tom, other siblings were Charlie, Willis, Elizabeth, Mary, Nannie, and Lovis. There were sixteen in all. Their heirs are numerous.
When the family was sitting around listening to Granny Lucy's story, they expressed a gamut of emotions. They were shocked at Great Grandfather's violent demise; excited over Granny's encounter with the bear; dismayed over Mose, Hiram, and Bud's misdeeds; and sad at Lucy's narration of Granny Comfort's passing.
She was born in 1828 before Andrew Jackson was president, and before the California Gold Rush. She died in the summer of 1941 at the age of 114. Even at her age she had tended tomatoes. She would go outside and hoe a while, then go inside and rest. Finally, she rested for the last time. she was taken to the hospital where she died.
Poppy's Uncle Profit and Troy Hinkle made the coffin. They planed down the rough wood and varnished it. Grandma and Mrs. Hinkle's daughter lined the casket. The day after, Poppy drove up Route 52 in his pickup truck to Muzzle Creek where I lived. He was taking the casket to the cemetary at Zack's Branch.
My daughter Janet was just a baby and was sick, so I couldn't attend the funeral. Poppy asked if I wanted to see Granny and reached up to open the latch of the casket. I told him no, that I just wanted to remember her the way she was.
So, she went to join the others at the cemetery. Her indomitable spirit within her sparrow body had taken flight, soaring to its promised eternal respite.
She left few earthly possessions - an old trunk, a worn rocking chair. But the legacy she bequeathed is priceless: a lifetime of absorbing the lessons o f ups and downs, calamity and repair, triumph and despair. The legend lives on as long as those who are left to remember.
This story takes place in Sandy Huff Hollow in McDowell County
A big storm was heading his way and the farmer didn't have all of his corn cut down.He knew if he didn't get the corn ripped from the stalk before the hail started, he would loose his crops. He had been working since sunrise till way after midnight. He would long been finished but the cutter jammed with the stalks. He would have to get the big stick he kept with him and push the corn out. He did this over and over throughout the day. The farmer was growing very tired now but he could feel the wind picking up and the rain was starting to fall. He worked at an extremly fast pace, but he still had the corner of his field to finish.
The hail started now and the farmer knew he would be alright. He had just got finished congratulating himself when the corn got stuck again. He grabbed his stick and a big bolt of lighting flashed all around him. He pushed at the corn with the stick, lighting flashed again, the stick broke, the corn broke free, and the farmers arms were caught where the corn had just a second earlier been caught. Lighting flashed again and just as quick the farmers arms were freed. The farmer lay on his back in the mud for what seemed an eternity. When he gatherd his wits, he looked down horrified at what he saw. The skin had been ripped from his arms and all that was left were 'bloody bones'. The farmer swore he would never be seen again and he never was. Many believe he hides out in attics. When all is quiet in the house and you hear noises in your attic- its most likely the farmer with the 'bloody bones'!
My grandmother told me that when my mother was five years old there was a bad flood that destroyed , her home. There were seven girls & my mother was teh baby. They had to go behind the house on the gill where the railroad tracks were & watch the house washed hundreds of feet down the bottom. Very little was salvaged just a few clothes but bestof all everyone was spread their lives. When my nmother was only two months old their house burned down so they moved into this house only to have it destroyed by water five years later. Thats when they moved to Hanover , my Mom grew up, got married & had my older brother and then me.
Comfort Daniels Christian, 109 year old mountain woman who left her native area but once in the past forty years has a new clain in fame. She is the oldest person in West Va. receiving a grant from Public Assistance Department. It was just discovered today.
Mrs. Christain is the mother of 16 children. She first came into the public eye in 1932 when she left her McDowell County cabin to vote for President Roosevelt. The record showed she was born in Mingo County in 1828 before Andrew Jackson assumed the presidency and more than 20 years before the first California Gold Rush. She lived one mile west of Panther,West Virginia on Panther Creek.
The aged woman, her hair a snowy white and her face deeply furrowed, was discovered by a party of Welch Kiwanis Club members who distributed Christmas baskets of food to residents of her section several years ago. Mrs. Christian has 84 grandchildren, 66 great grandchildren, and one great great grandchild. She was the oldest woman to ever recieve a pension.
Comfort was a Kentucky native, her husband Robert of Cherokee lineage, hailed from a plantation in Virginia. The two married in the latter part of the 1800's. Setting up housekeeping in a log cabin on a wild mountainous region located above what is now called Wilmore Dam. The site earned the name Christian Ridge for obvious reasons.
The area once teemed with wildlife, bear, panther, bobcat, turkey, etc... plus an abundance of natural resources like coal, natural gas, and choices of timber. The couples original holdings included parcels of land extending from Coney Island and Premier Mountain down to the Iaeger side of the mountain to the top of teh Virginia line. Eventually most of their homes and property was lost to delinquent taxes. Aside from Roberts occupation as a farmer, he found employment at the coke oven in Vivian to support his growing brood.
Transportation was basic. Horseback or on foot practically demanded Christian stay near his worksite through the week, chancing the often dangerous trek back home on the weekend. The burden of caring for the boisterous household and dealing with it's problems fell to Comfort. A trial sometimes was her eldest son, Richard whose behavior was recurringly bewildering. The boy had suffered a severe injury as a small child when he accidently cracked his head on a hearthstone. His family speculates the accident resulted in a skull fracture, inflicting brain damage. Ethel and her cousins believe the youngster committed his bizarre deed because of his impairment. One winter morning, Robert returned home from work and fell exhausted in a deep sleep. Six your old Noah, someday to be my daddy, was asleep in the same bed. Richard stole quietly out into the snow, picked up an axe, and just quietly crept back into the bedroom. With one swift blow, he imbedded the axe in his father's head. Richard calmly walked back into the kitchen where his mother was making breakfast. He put his arms around her and said, "Mother, you won't have to worry anymore, Daddy won't be leaving you again."
Granny Comfort, pregnant with twins, rushed to the bed frantically jerking at the axe. Richard just took her away hugging her as they went. Shortly afterwards, she went into premature labor. The twins were stillborn. Richard was committed to a state hospital in Spencer. He later underwent surgery to have a plate inserted in his skull alleviating the pressure on his brain. Ethel explained that he achieved a degree of normalcy but had no desire to re-enter the outside world. He said it (Spencer) was his home and he did not want to leave. He loved to garden, and was given his own little patch of land.
At his death, his body was brought back here and laid beside Granny's. Richard didn't have any recollection of what he had done to Granddaddy, who is buried on Christian Ridge. The twins' graves are beside Granddaddy's too.
Following the death of her Native American husband, Comfort moved off the mountain to keep her fatherless offspring together. She established a home at Panther, close to relatives. The family did what it could to survive. Noah and Tom, two of the younger boys, chose the most obvious career for that era, coal mining. Incredibly both were children.
Pearl told of the plt of her father, Tom. He entered the coal pits as a nine year old child and was critically burned. Back then, miners used oil in their lamps. Somehow on a shift, he spilled some of it down his back and legs, catching him on fire. He was seared all the way down. He lay at home in agony for weeks before he was well enough to get out. He went back though. He retired from the mines after fifty six years.
Ethel reported that her father Noah started mining when he was nine also. Coal mining was his life's work just like for Tom. Next to Richard and Mose, Hiram and Bud were the two oldest sons. Their modern day relatives acknowledge the duo made formidable twosome as gunslingers. Their prowess with the itchy trigger fingers landed them in and out of jail frequently. They would just as soon shoot someone as eat. That is how Bud ended up hanged int he Williamson jail.
My grandmother's name is Beulah Virginia Wheatley Adkins. She was born December 16, 1932 at Leet, West Virginia. She was raised at Big Creek, West Virginia. She is 67 years old and still lives in Chapmanville. She is now married with eight children, thirteen grandchildren, and two great-grand children.
My Grandmother is the oldest of three brothers and three sisters. One of her brothers died when he was seven months old.
Her dad only worked inthe mines and he farmed. Her mother stayed home and took care of her and her brothers and sisters.
She remembers her mother taking their clothes and washing them on a washboard and hanging them on a clothes line in their yard. She remembers her mother and her aunts making lye soap. She said that they used pork fat and lye. She said that she remembers her mother making gravy and biscuits, fried apples, and butter every SAturday morning.
My grandmother said that when she was five years old she was in her living room playing. She said she was pretending that she was rich. So she had a long housecoat on and she rolled up a newspaper and lit it at the fireplace. She had turned around quickly and got the tail of the housecoat in the fire and caught it on fire.
When my grandmother was six years old she had climbed a sycamore tree and the top had broken. She fell in her father's garden. She said when she fell, her behind softened her fall.
Whe she went to her grandmother's house she and her sisters would go behind the house, climb a huge rock, and play paper dolls ont he top of it. The rock was so big she said that five of them could get up on the rock and play.
In the sumer they would not wear shoes. In the winter they would get a pair of new shoes.
My grandmother went to Danville, West Virginia in the first through third grade. The school's name was Danville Grade School. Then she went to Chapmanville, West Virginia in the fourth grade. The name of the school was Chapmanville Grade School. Then she went to Lane Grade School to go to the fifth grade. All of the schools were just one room schools. The schools she went to are different from mine like my school serves lunch, has a library, has all different teachers for each subject, counselor, and has a coucelor. None of the school she went to had these kinds of things.
After the fifth grade she dropped out of school to stay home and take care of her sick mother.
My grandmother said if all her grand kids had to do what she has done since she was little they could not do what she did.
What I learned from her was that she is a hard worker. She would go out of her way to help someone.
My Mom's family are "The Steeles". She had ten uncles and five aunts. Her Granny Coranae Steele and Papaw Horn had a big family. One thing they had was love. They didn't have a lot growing up, but one thing she remembers was when all the family would get together and have a weiner roast. Then you had to roast your weiner yourself if you wanted a hot dog. Her Aunt Debra and Aunt Ivy were the two girls that lived at home the longest. They usually organized everything. You always had plenty to eat at the weiner roasts. All of my Mom's cousins came and they would play and catch lightening bugs and put them in a jar or they would walk to the fish pond in the head of the hollow. Where she spent most of her childhood. The love that her family had at these times was something that you would never forget. The kids always wanted to play in the fire with the sticks and the grownups would say, "You are going to pee in the bed if you don't stop playing in the fire." They would stay up late at night talking and laughing. They didn't have Play Stations or Nintendos so they had to find their own stuff to play with.
When my Dad was young he use to squirrel hunt with his uncle. His uncle would aggrevate him all the time. He would do things to him that my Dad didn't always think was funny. One day his uncle took him hunting, he grabbed my Dad and tied him up with a lead strap and told him that he was going to leave him. After he tied him up, he left him there for about 20 minutes. My Dad said he was screaming so loud that after about 20 minutes his uncle came back and got him because he thought I was going to scare all the squirrels off. Then another time my Dad and his cousin were hunting with his uncles. They were cutting up so my uncle left them alone and made them walk out of the mountains by themselves.
My Mom was the baby in her family, so everyone picked on her. Her sister was riding her on the handle bars of a bike one day and all of a sudden they were laying in a wire chicken pen. My Mom was stuck in the chin. They use to do all kinds of mean things to her. One day my aunt tried to flip her off the top of a bunk bed and when she did, she threw my Mom to the floor, knocking the breath out of her. My aunt was so afraid, she thought she had killed her. My aunt used to have buck teeth, she was trotting my Mom on her lap and stuck her teeth down in my Mom's head.
This true tale has been told many times, but I still laugh everytime I hear it. Well, way back years ago there was this great white hunter that had a short, pudgy little wife. She asked this hunter husband of hers one day if he would take her along on a deer hunt. He told her he would think about it. She begged and begged so that he soon gave in and said yes! Preparations were made and the hunter and his wife were off that next morning. As they started traveling in the early morning darkness, not far from home they came across a deer. Well, this made the hunter and his wife highly excited. "What a day this is going to be!", thaought the hunter. It was, brother, but not in the way he thougth!
Eventually they reached their destination in Greenbrier County, beautiful Sherwood Lake! It was a cold crisp morning, but, oh, their spirits were high. Tehy had their lunches, their guns and, yes, their hot seats. By the way, the wife's was brand new. As they circled the lake to hunt on the back side, the bright, full moon lit up the water almost as if it was daylight.
As they left the lake path and entered the woods, they jumped a deer. What a prominsing token. Up the mountain the hunter and his wife went. They soon found themselves going through a thick area of mountain laurel. The wife's hunting garb was getting caught on every bush and low growing thing. She was soon tired and getting a little annoyed. After what seemed like an eternity, they emerged fromthe thickets. The hunter sat his wife sown in what was a wonderful place to see game, and he went a few hundred feet above her, just out of sight.
It was cold and the wind was howling. The hunter's wife began to freeze and to be bored with this thing called hunting. Suddnly she heard a strange noise. It sounded like wild hogs were coming her way. Talk about getting a bad case of nerves. She began to be nearly out of her head with fear.
The hunter, just a few hundred feet away, thought he heard a noise through the wind which sounded like a voice calling out. "No", he thought to himself, "it can't be." However, it was. She started yelling and calling for him. Now all this was happening the morning of opening day of deer season. He started just to ignore her and thougth she would soon settle down, but she called louder and louder. Now this was a scared woman, and those mean ole hogs were after her, she thought.
Resigned, the hunter finally moved toward her so she could see him and come to him. His thought was, "When I get to her I'll at least give her a good tongue lashing. This is opening day, for Pete's sake."
When she climbed to where he was, his heart softened. He could see that she was cold and so scared. He put his arms around her to comfort her. She looked up and asked him if these woods had wild hogs in them. He just had to ask why. She told him that she had heard a strange noise and described it to him. He could not control his laughter. What she had heard was the tree branches rubbing together in the strong wind!
The hunter and his wife were both freezing and so they decided to go on up to the top of the mountain where the sun was shining to get warm. He did not leave her by herself anymore that day.
Needless to say, they did not see anymore deer. Before long, it was lunchtime. They descended that mountain to eat their lunch beside the lake. As they began to eat teh wife realized taht most of hers was missing.There was a hole in her coat pocket. yes, the hunter shared his. By the way, she also had lost every shell she had except for the one in her gun.
With lunch over, they decided to do some serious hunting. Walking along, the wife, not having agile footing for the woods, tripped over an old dead log. This caused her gn to pop open and flip the shell back past the side of her head. She started crying that she had just about shot herself. After things settled down a bit, hunting started once more.
As the afternoon wore ont eh wife grew tired and wanted to go home. The hunter too, was very disheartened because this was his day and his dear little wife had ruined it. They decided to head back. At the truck, the wife shed her bulky hunting clothes. She took off the old coat, hat, gloves, boots, and socks and started combing her hair, relieved to be out of the woods.
After a bit, the frustrated hunter said, "I've got some daylight left. YOu stay in the truck and I'll hunt a little more 'til dark." "Nothing doing!", she said, and quickly put all her garb on again.And so they were off once more. As they were walking down an old dirt road, the hunter looked down and saw that his wife, in her haste to get ready again, had put her rubber hunting boots on the wrong feet. She sat down ont eh edge of a deep, muddy rut int he road to exchange her boots.
Now to take your boots off you must first take your gloves off. She did so and put them in her lap. Her boots on the right feet now, she stood up. Her gloves plopped down into the mud. The hunter called his dear wife's attention to that fact, and she, standing in the narrow rut, promptly began to trample her gloves into the mud in her haste to maneuver so that she could retrieve them.
Finally, they found a likely looking spot and prepared to sit down. It was then that the dear little wife discovered that her hot seat, which had been purchased the day before, was also lost. So, her husband, being the gentleman that he ws, gave her his hot seat and sat down next to her on the cold, hard ground until nearly dark. Again, no deer. But the hunter, it was later discovered, did take something home with him. He developed an acute case of a certain unmentionable backside ailment during that cold evening vigil. As the evening darkness gathered, they headed back to the truck tired, hungry, dejected, and empty handed.
On the way home they decided to purchase their evening meal at some restaurant along the way. They soon came upon a Dairy Queen advertising two chili hot dogs for a dollar. What a deal! The dear little wife told her husband that she looked too badly to go in. So they purchased two hot dogs each at the drive thru and headed on toward home. As the dear little wife ws finishing off one of her hot dogs, the weiner slid out the end of the bun. The chili, mustard, and onion laden weiner plopped into the hunter's favorite cap.That was the last straw! When the hunter was later asked if his dear little wife could ever again go hunting with him on opening day, his wild-eyed answer was, "NOT 'TIL DOGS GROW ANTLERS!!"
Long ago when my great grandparents lived around 1920's with no electricity, no running water, no calvinator, a two room shak slept 12 people, 2 adults and 10 children. Oil lamps were the only form of light. Water came from hand dug wells. The old shck had cracks in the walls, they would lay in bed and snow blew through the cracks in the walls. They slept two and three children to one bed. The family kept warm with an old coal stove. They dug the coal from the mountains themselves.
They worked in the field raising their own crops and raised hogs and slottered them for food. Grandma Armeady killed her own chickens for Sunday dinner on Monday mornings Papaw Bubby and his brothers and sisters walked barefoot for miles to attend school in a little 2 room schoolhouse. Most of the kids dropped out of school at an early age to go to work. Papaw Bubby and my Uncle Glen took jobs in the coal mines to help the family. Aunt Ruby moved to Detroit to work in a Ford factory. She moved back at an older age and died here in West Virginia. The rest of Papaw's brothers and sisters live in this area still. They have raised children and grandchildren of their own in such a different lifestyle. Life then was harder but happier than now life as I know it is much different now than then but how I would like to have lived in those days gone by.
When I was a young girl growing up in Canlids, WV. My grandmother told me and some of my young girl friends that you could see your future fate. She had learned the old tale many years ago. Teh tale was that you could use an old oil lamp, a bible, and a glass of water to see your future. The idea was to go into a dark room and place the glass of water on the bible and place it behind the old oil latern and look through the light fromt he oil lamp and look into the glass of water and you could see your future husband. If no one appeared, you would see a casket this would mean you would grow old and die and never marry.
TJ was staying all night at Casey's house. TJ, Casey, and Brandon were outside riding bikes. Brandon was doubling Casey on his bike. TJ was riding by himself. They were behind the house in the road when TJ stopped on the side of the road. Brandon and Casey were coming at TJ and knocked him over. When he got up, he had blood running down his face. Brandon looked at TJ and grabbed him and took him in the house. He needed to see a doctor but he wouldn't go. His Mom talked him in to going to see the doctor but didn't want to have stiches put in so they cleaned it up and put some tape over it. He was OK then.
This is a story that my great grandmother told me one time. She told me about her grandfather, my great, great, great grandfather, Willizm Anderson (everyone called him Uncle Huge) and the different ways he earned a living. He lived in Wharncliffe, Mingo County where he was a mail carrier on both foot and horseback. While this was his main job, he did many other things to earn his money. He trapped animals and sold their fur, as well as dig ginseng in the summer, but his most interesting way of earning money was raising rattlesnakes. My grandmother says she can remember him having them trained. He would take them down to a stream to get a drink and would let them out. He would then hit each one on the head with switch he had cut from a tree. They would then crawl out, get a drink and then crawl back into the pit he had built for them. After the snakes were grown he wuld take their skin to make belts, hat bands, and pocket books to sell. I can't imagine doing anything like that! After hearing about my great, great, great grandfather, I think he was a very interesting person. I'm just glad I don't have to do stuff like that to make a living.
When my Grandpa was younger than he is now, he lived at Big Branch. He also worked in the coal mines and had to walk all the way before they got a car. The money he got was barely enough. They didn't have a television so all they had was a radio that they listened to two times a week. My Grandpa's favorite show was "The Lone Ranger." My Grandpa Buel Lester was a very kind and understanding man and still is today. But I know he'll never forget those hard but good days.
This story is told in the words of Lake Morgan. This story was told to her from her mother, Goldie. Goldie told Lake about this wonderful experience and how she shared it with her family. So, here in Lake's remembered words is the great incident.
My mother was born and raised on Indian Creek, until she was married. She was born in 1879, and she had always rode horseback when she went anywhere. Her brother would always book after her when they visited other families in the area or took her with them when they went to buy clothing or supplies for their farming needs.
To reach the store they traveled over a mountain path, or wagon road, on horseback, to the little town of Davy in McDowell County.
Davy is located on Tug River, so the railroad was built along that river when coal mines began to developed in the late 1800's. The town of Davy was one of the places they close to have a station.
When the day came that the first steam engine was to make it's first trip through Davy, it was a great occasion. Mom's family dressed in their best outfits and went over to Davy by horseback together with everybody at Davy station.
She was sixteen years old and very protected by her family.
When she heard the engine whistle in the distance, she stood close to her older brothers.
The train blew the whistle as it approached the station. The engine came to a halt with a land 'swoooosh' of white, scalding steam from both sides. Horses reared up and had to be held with a tight rein. People put their hands over their ears. Children clutched their parents and held on them. My mother was so terrified that she couldn't stand close to that loud noise. She tore loose from her brother's protective arm and ran. Her brother had to run and catch her until the engine stood quietly with a now and them 'huffing' of steam while passengers got on or off.
When all passengers were on, the engine would let out a short toot of the whistle, the engine would shudder with a few short bursts of steam. The giant wheels would jerk forward and the train would begin to move and pick up speed.
The people at the station would watch and wave until the last car (the red caboose) was out of sight. Then, they all went home or back to what they were doing until another day.
My family has been making applebutter for as long as I can remember. I love the process to make it.
On the day we choose to make the applebutter, we have a "party." We invite everyone from both sides of the family. I never get bored because there is always someone to keep me company or always a baby to watch.
My mom and step-dad wake up at about 3:00 or 4:00 A.M.. My brother and I don't get up until about 9:00. When my mom and step-dad get up, they take this huge copper pot and put seventeen 10 pound cans of applesauce into the pot. After we put the applesauce in, we gradually add 20 pounds of sugar. Then we put in 1 1/2 bottles of cinnamon oil. We cook it for about 8 1/2 hours.
After a long day of waiting, the applebutter is finally ready to put in jars. It makes about 62 quarts!
Nobody can wait for it to cool so we can eat it! You can guess what we are going to have for breakfast! Biscuits and applebutter!
My grandmother is 76 years old, and she has been cooking for 60 years. Her mom taught her how to cook when she was 16.
She has four kids, two girls and two boys. Seh has lived on Rocky Branch for over 40 years.
She said she really enjoys cooking when she's able. Her favorite recipes are a Fresh Apple Cake and 30-Day Friendship Cake. Her favorite meal to cook is pork chops, mash potatoes, and green beans. Every holiday she cooks a big meal. It is like a tradition. Every holiday as I walk through the door I smell the cakes, healthy turkey, ham, and all the otehr refreshing smells of the holidays. She cooks the best meals that I've ever eaten in all my life. The entire family loves granny's home cooked meals.
She tries to teach me mow to cook. I help her cook on the holidays sometimes. But, I'm not as good as her. She has been a big inspiration in my life.
My grandmother, Violet Joyce Adams, first born of Edith and George McCloud, remembers moving witht he sawmill the most. She and her siblings moved whenever the mill did, because their father worked there.
She helped her mother raise most of the children, one of the 13 died at birth and another at age two. Teh second oldest child is five years younger than my grandma is.
She said the word wasting didn't exist. She told me that they used almost every part of the hogs they killed. They gre almost all their food. Most of it was either canned or dried, in order to preserve it.
Almost everyoon had at least one horse, a cow, and a few chickens. Not many people had cars then.
The washing was done mostly by hand and was then hung on the line to dry.
She went to a one-room school. It conained grades first through eighth. When she went to high school she had to board with someone in order to catch a bus to Chapmanville. She has 12th grade education.
She was married at age 20. She and her husband, Turley Adams, had five children.
After she had her own family she still kept some of her siblings so they could go to school, and not have to walk so far.
From the stories my 63-year-old grandma told me, I now realize how much harder life was then than it is now.
My grandmother's name is Meredith Loretta Duty/Ferrel Bell. She was born in her grandmother's house, October 16, 1928. her grandmother lived in Lincoln County, Rector, West Virginia. Which is now known as Leet or Big Ugly.
Her most memorable times were spent with her grandmothers. Along with her mother's help there she learned the art of quilting and food preservation.
She began first grade at Leet Elementary, which was a one room schoolhouse. She finished there in the eighth grade. After that she went to high school at Guyan Valley in the 9th grade, then Chapmanville in the 10th, then Oceana in the 11th, and went back to Chapmanville in the 12th where she graduated in 1947.
Her first job was teaching in a one room school. She taught grades 1st through 8th. After a few years of teaching she attended college at Marshall and Morris Harvey. When she graduated she and continued teaching for 47 and a half years. Teh one room schools that she taught at were in Lincoln County. She taught in one room schools till 1964 when schools were joined on Big Ugly. She taugth my mom and her brother and sisters. She also taught split grades. She taught until 1988, that is when Lori Beth Dingess and I were born.
My grandmother was married in 1947 to my grandfather, Glen Ferrell, who died in 1992. They had four children, three girls and one boy.
After my grandfather passed away, grandmother remarried Hobart Bell, and resides at Turtle Creek Road, West Virginia. They were married for six years until he passed away in October 2000.
During her years of teaching and raising gardens, she found time to preserve food by canning, freezing, and drying it. She also made clothes for her daughters, and some quilts. She still works on them. On my 9th birthday she made me my own quilt out of her own pattern of hearts with red patches.
I wanted to write a story about my great-grandpa's life. Life was so much harder in the old days. As a boy, my great-grandpa, had to work arond the home everyday. he had to farm and work like a man at a young age. Almost everyday when he got up he'd have to feed the farm animals, walk to and from shcool, help in the garden, or do whatever chores needed to be done.
Most chores were a matter of survival. Tehy had to raise most of the food they ate. The winters were so cold and they had to depend on a fireplace to keep the whole house warm. When it got dark they had to use candles or lanterns since they had no electricity.l Since they didn't have vehickles, they either rode horses or walked everywhere they went.
When he got older and had children of his own, times were a little better. He still worked hard. He worked in the coal mines for 30 years. He had to walk across the hills to get to work everyday int he snow or rain. He told me of days when he would sleep at the mines after working long hours so he wouln't have to cross the hilsl. He use to tell me stories of how hard life was back then. I guess I agree with him; in a lot of ways, we have it made now.
This is an interview with my grandfather John Issac Carter. He was born on December 21, 1946. He now is 55 years old.
My grandfather went to Roosevelt Grade School, Bullwork, and Chapmanville. He went to a one room schoolhouse for six years. he started school in 1953. He had to walk to Roosevelt Grade about two miles and Bullwork about one mile. He said he liked the schools he went to. I thougth that they would wear a uniform or specific clothing, but he said he didn't have to.
I asked about how many kids went to his school. He said about 20 at both Roosevelt and Bullwork. When he was growing up he had three sisters and two brothers. He told me he had fun growing up with them.
He said he had a lot of chores like getting wood and coal. He also helped feed the hogs and chickens and helped in the garden.
When he was growing up he lived at Hoover and Big Hart. They had an outdoor bathroom, but they still called it a toilet. They didn't have running water int heir house so, they got water out of the creek. He graduated in the class of '64, and he got married on October 2, 1965. my grandfather told me that pop cost about ten cents, and a candy bar or bag of chips about five cents.
I can't believe hwo the times have changed. I wish we could keep our modern day conviences and go back to the prices they had in my grandfather's childhood.
My grandpa was in teh army reserves. He became an officer in the army. In 1950 he was sent to fight in the Korean War. He fought for three years. He said the Lord was with him all the way. He also said his helmet was like a bullet proof vest, but on his head. My grandpa said he would have been dead if he wasn't wearing a helmet, because he got shot two or three times in the head. One time they had to rush a field doctor to where he was in the battle at Korea. The doctor said he had a concussion. He had to stay out of fighting for two or more weeks. When he came back they promoted him to a place where all he had to do was to sit and wait for the clal in case they needed backup. He told me that he was only called in one time.
After three years in the Korean War, he started to travel all over the world. He got married. He went to a lot of places like to Paris, Europe, and Korea. When they got back, they stayed at an army-like camp for a couple of days. They got to watch an air attack take control of a foreign country.
After the army, my grandpa went to selling cigarettes for R.J. Reynolds. He went all over West Virginia selling cigarettes to little companies. He made a lot of money selling cigarettes. It is ironic that he didn't even smoke.
Then my grandpa worked at Krogers as a head produce clerk and after that he retired. He gets a lot of money for retirement. Hopefully my grandpa will live 50 more years so he can see all of the things going on in the world. I learned that you have got to work in this world to make it just like my grandpa did.
My grandmother Lorena Trivette made butter while growing up. She usually made the butter by herself. The steps are as follows. First, milk the cow. Next, you put the milk in a churn. A churn is a big jug with a stick going inside. You mix up the milk until the milk begins to thicken. Then take the cream off the milk. Add a pinch of salt to the thickened cream. After that, pour the liquid into a container. The milk you have left is what you use to make buttermilk. Finally, you stick it in an icebox to let it chill.
The reason they made their own butter back then is because you could buy one stick of butter for the same price of ingredients that it took to make several pounds of butter. Plus you can have fresh buttermilk too. Most people then had their cows so they already had the main ingredients.
My grandmother was taught how to make butter by her mother Francis Trivette. She taught my grandmother how to make butter because it is a family tradition.
