Those of you who have been here before will notice that more is being added. In the "Where, When, and Who of West Virginia Locations" document I am now able to link some of the new "memories" documents being submitted for these areas, such as the memories of Ethel, by Hassel Browning, Midway, by Shelby Burgess, and Dehue from Judith Peyton Marks.
The goal is to have a link for each area that describes what it was like to grow up there many, many years ago.
If you have such memories or relatives with such memories, PLEASE submit them for posting. I cannot write them myself, but can only collect them and see they are available for all others, like me, who grew up elsewhere.
People have also asked for Logan County coal mine disasters to be recorded. I would be willing to do this, but have located two sites that are already accumulating this information. I have provided links to those sites to the left.
I have a page now for those "down home" recipes. If you have any to submit, they will also be posted and the submitter given credit.
While putting the site together is my contribution, this is truly the work of the descendents of Logan County at large and can only succeed with the continued contributions of these individuals.
In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.
Doing Genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but instead breathing life into alll who have gone before. We are the storytellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us, "Tell our story", so we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves.
How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors "You have a wonderful family. You would be proud of us." How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.
It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am and why do I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying "I can't let that happen." The bones here are bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish, how they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses. Their never giving in or giving up. Their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and soem died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us.
It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth. Without them we could not exist. And so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them, so we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence. Because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers.
That is why I do my family genealogy and that is what calls those young and ol to step up and restore the memory or greet those whom we had never known before.
~~~ Author Unknown ~~~
4/23/2009 - Added more names to the BCCC Employee page (the list is growing!)
Thanks to the folks who made the identifications to the "24 Men" poem on the bottom of that page: Specifically, H. Bernie Cook, Betty Dolin, Jack Abbott, Norman Baldwin, Heather Phillips, and Willie (Billy) Cook,
Thanks also to Jim Baldwin, Linda White Porter, Kitty Clarke, and Kaye Joiner who identified some unknown faces on the Tipple and Shop Crew photo.
Photo of the Hutchinson Coal Company Tipple and Shop Crew - MacBeth, submitted by Sharon Roberts. Some names identified. Looking for ID on others.
Click on photo to enlarge. It is a big photo and may be slow loading.
9/15/2008 - Added a page on Blair Mountain with photos supplied by Judith Burgess Cassie (which can also be accessed through the Where, When and Who of West Virginia Locations document page.) Judi is looking for info on the current status of the tower, the cabin, and the commemorative rock.
5/24/2009 - Added news articles on the 24 men trapped in the mine in 1958, thanks to Eddie Burgess and his mother, who carefully saved copies of them.
Also added a few more names to the BCCC Employee page while making these other modifications to that page.
The articles are located at the bottom of that same page.
9/5/2011 - I haven't had any updates lately, I've been very sick over the past few years, but now am doing much better. Miracles DO occur! :-)
I was reading a book I just got calledImages of America - Logan County, by F. Keith Davis. This book is mostly pictures of old Logan County and the people of that time. While I enjoyed reading and seeing all the countless pictures of Logan, I was so moved by seeing a photo of the Ethel grade school. My Dad was born in Ethel and I've never seen a scrap of a photo of that area, now gone like so many other coal camps.
This photo gave me a glimpse into that hollow during the days Dad lived there which I thought was pretty cool. There were photos of a lot of the camps; Barnabus, Aracoma, Chapmanville, Omar, Accoville, Holden, DeHue, Mallory, Man, and more I'm sure. There was also quite a bit on the Holden 22 disaster and the Buffalo Creek disaster and lots on the Hatfield family. All kinds of photos.
There is no index, so I can't do lookups, but there are a lot of photos of people as well as streets, buildings or aerial photos of towns. Lots on Logan. I thoroughly enjoyed looking in to the past at these areas I've been researching.
If you are interested in Logan County history, you'll probably enjoy this as I did..
11/7/2011 - Made a modification to the Tipple and Shop Crew photo as well as the BCCC Employee list. Thank you, Sally White Hancock. Keep sending in those updates, folks.
In addition, I took the opportunity to share our recent trip to Las Vegas to see Logan's own Landau Eugene Murphy Jr, winner of this past season of America's Got Talent.
