Dolores Riggs Davis

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Logan County, West Virginia was being soaked with a steady drizzle of rain as a crowd gathered to wait for news at the entrance of the Macbeth Mine. At about 1:30 in the evening on September 2, 1936 the Macbeth Mine of the Hutchinson Coal Company blew killing ten men. It was considered a major […]

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A Gaping Black Mouth – MacBeth 1937

Only six months after the first Macbeth explosion on March 11, 1937, the Macbeth Mine blew again killing eighteen men. As a March rain fell, scenes from September past were being replayed. Some of the men who helped carry out bodies in the first explosion were now mangled corpses in the same entries they had

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Dark as a Dungeon – Holden, March 8, 1960

On Tuesday, March 8, 1960 the Holden Mine at Island Creek No. 22 in Logan County, West Virginia, caught fire in the coal seam and created a carbon monoxide gas which killed eighteen men by asphyxiation. The men were trapped shortly after entering the mine at seven in the morning.

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Letters from the Logan County Honor Roll

Letters from the Logan County Vietnam Honor Roll Postcard sent to me by Aubrey Lee Spry from Dongbathein THE 1965 LOGAN HONOR ROLL Pfc Herman R. Adkins Ronald P. Barker USS Savage A/2C Lawrence A. Bird Sp/4 Ellis R. Blevins A/1C Harvey C. Brewster Capt. R. L. Brown Sp/4 Curtis R. Browning Pfc John L.

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Goodbye My Darlin’ Hello Vietnam

Joni Terrio designed the banner WELCOME HOME!!! THIS PAGE IS DEDICATED TO ALL VIETNAM VETERANS   GOODBYE MY DARLIN’ HELLO VIETNAM written by: Tom T. Hall – ca 1964 Recorded by: Johnny Wright, husband of Country Music singer Kitty Wells Kiss me goodbye and write me when you can. Goodbye my darlin’, hello Vietnam. America

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Does Mamie Thurman Still Walk Those Hills?

MAMIE THURMAN MURDER IN LOGAN COUNTY The taking of another’s life is a monstrous act indeed. The violence of a murder has creepy vines that bind. It kills a part of everyone involved. After more than eighty years when the night winds wail, people still claim Mamie Thurman walks the hills on 22 Mountain near

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Part Two, The Mamie Story Continues – The Trial

Mamie Thurman The trial of Clarence Stephenson began on Monday, September the tenth in Logan’s stately old courthouse. It was estimated that nearly one-thousand curious people crowded their way into the public gallery, the balcony, and even lined up in the hallways. Still, others waited outside hoping for a chance to get inside the door.

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Logan County People and Places

Originally posted on March 23, 2011 Logan County is located on the Guyandotte River, and nestled in the Appalachian Mountains with an elevation of six-hundred and sixty-two feet. Logan County was once called “The Billion Dollar Coal Fields.” Those days have vanished just like the coal camps where we once lived. On this page, I

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Bluegrass Rules

That’s me sitting on the beach in Panama City Beach with my cd player on my knee listening to bluegrass music photo by: Jean McPeak BLUEGRASS RULES by: Dolores Riggs Davis Bluegrass music is often considered “hillbilly music.” However, it is a music close to my heart. I consider it a part of my roots.

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Times Have Changed!

At age five, I remember huddling around a Philco floor model radio with my parents listening to President Roosevelt’s chilling words, “This is a date that will live in infamy.” I knew by the grip of Mother’s hand something terrible had happened. While Japanese diplomats talked peace in Washington their planes bombed Pearl Harbor. Four

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