Buchanantown

By Keith Gibson

Buchanantown  was a small community that existed across the Guyandotte river from Lyburn, WV. Actually, it was about half way between Lyburn and Neibert across from the old route 10 which is now known as “Hanging Rock Road.” I’m not really sure when the community was first called “Buchanantown”, (probably between 1885 and 1890)  but I do know that according to the 1841 Logan county (West) Virginia Land Grants, Alexander Buchanan purchased 30 acres of land, at 10 dollars per acre, on the Guyandotte river in Logan county. At first I thought it was referring to the property that later became “Buchanantown,” but the property he bought in 1841 was at the mouth of “Spice Creek.”

Alexander , born in 1797, left Tazewell Virginia and  arrived in Logan with his wife Nancy (Crabtree, born 1795) with four sons and two daughters. Henry, born 1819; Thomas, born 1821; Hannah, born 1824; James, born 1826; Susannah, born 1828; and John Michael, born 1833. According to the “General Index to Deeds, Logan County, WV”, The property at “Spice Creek” in 1841 was just the beginning. The records show that during the next 55 years (1841 to 1896) the Buchanans of Logan County WV owned, or had owned, property at “Beech Creek”, “Aracoma”, Several tracts of land on the Guyandotte river, Several tracts of land at “Gilbert Creek”, The “Left Fork of Spice Creek”, “Neds Branch” , “Laurel Branch”, “Big Branch” on the Guyan river, and “Elk Creek”, just to name a few. And what is now known as “Dairy Hollow” at Neibert, according to the  U.S. Geological Survey map of 1928 was called “Laurel Branch.”.

One day back in the early 1960’s, when I was in my early teens, mom pointed out the remains of a foundation of  a one room elementary school she attended during the early 1920’s that taught first through the eighth grades that was located in Buchanantown at the mouth of Davy Branch. Just before she passed away in 2005 she gave me some old pictures that had belonged to my grandma, and also gave me the old elementary school diploma she received when she graduated from the eighth grade. I noticed that it looked like someone had erased her first name on the diploma and asked her about it. She told me that she was named after her grandmother“Eliza”and didn’t  particularly like the name because the kids she went to school with teased her and would sing “Little Liza Jane”, and she was the one that erased it.

There is no trace of the old school left, and you can’t even find it on any of the USGS historical (early 1900 ‘s) Topography maps. However,  I contacted the Cultural Center in Charleston, WV and the Director of Archives and History said that the 1921-22 Directory lists a one room school at the mouth of Davy Branch. My brother and sister, who were born in the early 1930’s,  remember being allowed to attend the school even though they were too young to even start school.They also said that the teacher allowed them to sit in class with our aunt Blanche, and lived in the boarding house that our grandma ran. It was also said that the school was burned down by two of the local boys because they didn’t want to go to school.

According to the USGS Topography maps of Logan county there were 8 houses in Buchanantown in 1926 and 5 houses in 1911.   The 1891 USGS Topography map for Logan shows  only three houses in Buchanantown, and it appears that the one  at the mouth of Davy Branch was the Floyd Buchanan homeplace.

Anthony Lawson Jr.owned  the Land  at Davy Branch until 1869  and according to Logan WV land records, sold  it to Eli Gore sr. for $500.  Sixteen years later in 1885, Floyd Buchanan purchased  2 tracts of land containing 30 acres (for $480 plus taxes and fees) at Davy Branch on the Guyandotte river from the same Eli Gore Sr..

Another thing I noticed was that the 1869 deed mentioned : “the land situated at or near the mouth of Davy Branch embraced a part of “Cloyd’s Island.” I believe “Cloyd’s Island” was at the upper end of Buchanantown, and  was an actual island back in the 1800’s. When I was growing up back in the 1950’s and 60’s everyone at Buchanantown referred to it as “The Island.” The only time it actually became an island (back when I was a kid) was during the spring flooding season when the Guyandotte river would rise and overflow the bank on the west side, thus creating an island, This was before the Justice Dam was constructed in 1980. After 1980 the “occasional” island ceased to exist.

The 1891 USGS Topography map of Logan county plainly shows an island just up river from Davy Branch. It’s also visible on the 1896 map. However it doesn’t appear on the 1911 map or the 1926 map.