Spiritually reuniting Logan’s pioneer couple

By Dwight Williamson

This was originally published in the Logan Banner on July 30, 2014 and is republished here with the author’s permission and our special thanks.

Anthony Lawson 1788-1849A Logan Banner story which appeared April 23 of this year concerning the historic cemetery located on High Street in Logan featured the grave site of one of the town’s earliest citizens who was brutally murdered by two of her own slaves in 1847 when the small village was known as Lawnsville. Logan County itself had only been created 23 years earlier and its boundaries extended much farther than today.

Ann Lawson’s grave is surrounded by a black iron rod fence which has withstood the test of time just as her family had undoubtedly wished. It is the oldest known grave in the cemetery and its historical significance is invaluable. Among other things, it proves that at least 14 years before the outbreak of the Civil War, some Logan citizens owned slaves. Since the town, which was also called Logan Court House at the time, was sparsely populated it is unlikely there were many other slaves utilized. From all accounts handed down for generations, the black person(s) allegedly responsible for Lawson’s death at her age of sixty-four, were hanged even before there was a courthouse for any possible trial which would not have been likely any how.

Inscribed on her tombstone are these words: “Ann Lawson, wife of Anthony Lawson, of Logan County, Va., who was born in the parish of Longhorsby in the county of Northumberland, England on the 17th day of March A.D. 1783 Murdered on the night of the 17th of December, 1847 by two of her own slaves.”

Mrs. Lawson was the wife of Anthony Lawson and the mother of four sons and one daughter. She was murdered eight day s before Christmas. Her pioneering husband was the first person to open a trading post in the village and his home was located where Logan City Hall currently operates. It has been incorrectly reported for generations that Mr. Lawson died in 1 84 6 while returning by riv er from Philadelphia where he had taken goods, including furs and ginseng, to sell and trade. Lawson developed cholera, a bacterial infection of the small intestines, of which at the time there was no anti-bacterial medications. He is buried in a historic cemetery in the community of Guyandotte in Cabell County near the very river which he had so often navigated.

Originally , it was only believed that Mr. Lawson was probably buried in that area because of the mere fact that he is not located near his wife in the local cemetery which is part of property which he owned. Thanks to the difficult and time consuming work of genealogist and historian, the late Eldean Wellman, this writer is now able to report the names of seventy-two persons buried in what Wellman described as the “Old Logan Cemetery.” Annette Browning, who her husband Don describes as quite an enthusiastic genealogical researcher herself, supplied this writer with a copy of Wellman’s works. It prompted this writer to finding the actual gravesite of Anthony Lawson. It also led to some surprises.

First, as his tombstone so distinctly displays, he succumbed to his illness in 1849, not 1846, as so many historians have previously reported. Lawson would have been 70 years old at the time of his demise and surely was not traveling alone. It is possible that one or more of his four sons — John, Lewis, James or Anthony — could have been traveling with him and was there to at least comfort his ailing soul. His corrected death date also means he was living when his wife was murdered.

Determined to at least spiritually reunite one of Logan County’s historical spouses, I set out one Saturday for Cabell County in hopes of finding his grave. Having gone to college at Marshall, I was familiar with the area. Guyandotte, once a larger community than Huntington was, is not now somewhere one wants to venture to at night. As my wife and I crossed the bridge to the town during day light hours, the first thing noticeable on the left was a cemetery. Beside the cemetery was an old house which turned out to have been  listed on the National Register of Historic Places, June 1973. I hoped to locate the
gravesite at this location.

As a member of “Find a Grave’s” website I located the names of many of those buried in the Guyandotte Cemetery. In addition, there was a picture which had been added by somebody named Phillip Conley. The photo showed the same type of iron fence as was placed at his grave. A quick viewing of the rather small graveyard did not reveal an iron fenced gravesite.

After at least thirty minutes, having traversed every road in the community and even asking locals the whereabouts of cemeteries, I became frustrated. Before leaving I at least wanted to find out the story behind the historical house and look at some of the Revolutionary War gravesites. A plaque near the  house explained the site. The house had been transported by flatboat from Gallipolis, Ohio in 1810. It was named the Historic Madie Carroll House because of an incident that occurred early in the Civil War.

Because of political sympathies toward the Confederacy, Union troops on November 11, 1861 burned nearly every house and structure in Guyandotte. Mary Madie Carroll, operating what was licensed as a “house of private entertainment” by her late husband, Thomas, barricaded herself and children in the brick kitchen of the house and refused to leave. The soldiers spared the house but burned the nearby barn.

I wandered into the cemetery which held much older graves than was the age of the historical house beside it. The tombstones were old, but well preserved, and the cemetery, which was fenced, appeared well kept. The grass had recently been mowed. There were no trees at the site. However, in a far corner of the cemetery, just as I prepared to turn my back and depart, I spotted what appeared to be a bush growing where there should be none. Suddenly, as I walked closer, I realized the black iron fence the weeds had been hiding all along, was indeed protecting the grave of Anthony Lawson. His tombstone was made exactly the same as his wife’s. Inscribed at the top were the dates of 1788 and 1849. Below the dates of his birth and death were these words: “SACRED to the memory of Anthony Lawson Sr. of Logan County, Virginia, who was born at Stanton Co, of Northumberland England on the 31 day of October who on his return home from P”…… The stone has been broken on the lower right side where the last three lines of text used to read “who on his return from Philadelphia departed this life at Guyandotte.”

One can only wonder as to why the keepers of the cemetery and historic house nearby would allow this one grave to become so over grown with vegetation. Is it because Lawson is from Logan and there are those that think his descendants should be doing the work? To my knowledge there are no descendants in Logan County. And the reason I know is as simple as this:

If there were any descendants remaining in Logan County, I do not believe the nearly one-acre cemetery here, which Lawson originally owned and which has held his beloved and murdered wife for 167 years, would be in the condition it is in. The Logan cemetery holds the remains of several Civil War veterans, including at least two members of the infamous Logan Wildcats who fought for the Confederacy, and one’s wife who helped sew the Wildcat Flag that the unit fought under.

At least the Lawson’s of Logan County are back together again…if only in the spiritual sense.

Dwight Williamson is a contributing writer and a former reporter for The Logan Banner. He currently serves as a Logan County Magistrate.


Articles by Dwight Williamson on this site.

17 thoughts on “Spiritually reuniting Logan’s pioneer couple”

  1. Mr. Piros: Your death date for George is not correct. According to the diary of Anthony Lawson in “Genealogy of The Descendants of Anthony Lawson of Northumberland England,” George died as an infant. He was born George William Lawson on December 18, 1818, in Alexandria, about a year and a half after his parents and brothers arrived from England. George’s birth date in the diary is given as 8 Dec 1818 at a place called Smith’s Farm in Alexandria. The diary also states that the baby died 23 July 1819, at the same location, at the age of 7 months and 15 days.

    1. Mr. Perkins, Ok.
      Thanks for your help.
      You might want to go to
      familysearch.org & send
      the Lawson family an e-mail
      & have them remove the info
      from their family tree.
      They show born Dec.8,1818
      & died July 23,1919.

  2. From the Richmond Whig, 17 June 1847: “Col. Anthony Lawson Sr. — Logan County — died at Guyandot aged upwards of 60 on his way home from Philadelphia. He often spoke of his birthplace as the vicinity of Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Percies in Yorkshire, England. He accumulated a large fortune which he left his children.”

    1. Wonder if any of his children are buried in
      Man Cemetery? Another part of that Cemetery
      was found, lots of graves behind the old school
      that was just torn down. How about it Bill Lusk,
      please tell the rest of the story.

  3. Barbara Frye Varney

    Dwight: Would you be kin to the Williamson’s that lived in the camp across from the company store at 16? Their son died in a swimming accident. We always called everybody Mr & Mrs so I can’t recall for sure but I was thinking his name might have been Dwight. He used to go to church with my Dad, Hezekiah(H. K.) Frye.

    1. I just saw all of these posts. anyway, Delbert jay Williams was his name. His mother was Bessie Fannin Williams and his father was Albert, who was a brother to my grandfather, Amos Williamson. Albert went by Williams and grandpa went by Williamson, which both were the sons of Washington (Wash) and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Williamson, according to the family Bible, Grandpa was a good friend of Kiah Frye, who I remember trading a knife to when I was quiet young.

  4. I made a mistake too on Anthony’s birth date. Anthony Lawson’s parish records show he was born 31 Oct. 1785 and christened on 10 August 1786. At any rate, the years of birth and death on his Guyandotte tombstone are wrong.

    1. It appears that you have the wrong
      birth date, familysearch.org shows
      that Anthony was born Nov.4,1778
      in Kippax,York England.
      With so many different records, who
      knows which ones are right.

      1. Mr. Piros: You’re referencing the wrong Anthony on familysearch.org. Anthony Lawson who emigrated to America in 1817 with his wife, Ann Bilton, was born 31 October 1785 at Stanton, Northumberland, in the parish of Longhorsley. He was christened 10 August 1786 at St. Helen’s Church in Longhorsley. See: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5J4-2D2. He married Ann Bilton on 26 May 1806 at St. Helen’s. See: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NVFF-1YZ.

        1. Mr. Perkins, I thank you for
          your comment.

          Really wonderful that you are an
          expert on the Lawson family history.

          Where is George Lawson buried?
          What did he do for a living?
          Why did he stay in VA. & not
          go into WV. like the other family
          members did?

          Isn’t the gravestone considered the
          final date? Anthony’s says born in
          1788 & died in 1849.

          1. Mr. Piros: Unsure what George Lawson you are referring to. There are several. Let me know and I’ll look to see if I have information on him. As to dates, official records and contemporaneous accounts are more accurate than cemetery dates. In some cases, tombstones are made years after a person’s death. Memories fade and dates that sound right when given to the tombstone engraver are often way off. In any case, the baptismal record of Anthony Lawson of Northumberland, England, and later of Logan, WV, show he was born in 1786. Anthony’s obituary as well as that of his wife after her murder state Anthony died in 1847. His son’s diary also states he died in 1847. The dates on Anthony’s tombstone are in error.

          2. Mr. Perkins, George was
            the 5th son of Anthony &
            Ann Lawson.
            He was born Dec.8,1818 in
            Alexandria VA. & he died
            July 23, 1919 in same place.

  5. Williamson’s story is highly inaccurate as it concerns Anthony Lawson. The 1876 year of birth and the 1849 year of death on Lawson’s tombstone in Guyandotte are both wrong. Parish records from Northumberland, England, show he was born in 1875 (christened in 1876) and family diaries and newspaper obituaries show he died in 1847. Anthony Lawson was dead when his wife was murdered. The son of Anthony’s Lawson wrote in his diary (transcribed in Robert Runyon’s 1952 “Genealogy of the Descendants of Anthony Lawson of Northumberland, England” that Anthony died at Guyandotte on a return trip from Philadelphia at 2:25 (doesn’t say pm or am) on 20 May 1847. The Richmond Whig for June 17, 1847, includes in its death notices: “On the 20th of May, at Guyandotte, Va., Col. Anthony Lawson of Logan county, Va., aged upwards of 60.” It added that Lawson was on his way home from Philadelphia and died just a few hours after arriving in Guyandotte. It also stated at death Anthony was surrounded by “kind friends who rendered every possible aid and comfort.” But it clearly said he died “far from his home and his family.”

    The transcription of Ann Lawson’s tombstone epitaph is also full of errors. The most serious is her death date. Her tombstone correctly states she was murdered on 27 December 1847 not the wrong date in Williamson’s article.

      1. Bryan: A relative just notified me of your message on this site that I’ve never seen before. I don’t know Mr. Norton, but his information correcting the several errors in the article are accurate, according to my data. I have additional information on some of Anthony and Ann Bilton Lawson’s line that may help you. If you want to email me, go to the bottom of http://www.runyongenealogy.net where it says “Lots of Runyon Tidbits.” That will take you to a link to my email and you can send me your contact information and your questions.

  6. Dwight played softball or was it baseball. I am an aunt of Charles Rakes, his good friend. Dwight picked up Charles the summer before he went to MU in Huntington. I got to know him and he tried to talk Charles into
    Going to MU with him. Charles is a very intelligent individual and certainly wished he had gone with Dwight.
    I marvel that we have someone from Logan that is using what he learned along with his ability in writing local stories. I expect him to become a published author or publish his “Porch Sitters” short stories in book form
    for the generations to come after we are gone.

    I am old enough to remember the time in history that Dwight references in his writing. As a retired educator, I
    Understand the generations to come are deeply interested in the past of Logan County. I went to Chapmanville Middle School to speak to a class on a prepared topic which quickly turned into the Consolidated Bus System
    Operating in our County. I never got to my topic because this 8th. Grade Class could not believe the history of our bus system. They left still asking questions.

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