Graveyards abounded under Logan streets

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By Dwight Williamson

Photo of Dwight Williamson, authorThe Logan Banner did not exist when the county of Logan or the village that is now known as the town of Logan came into existence. In fact, it wasn’t until 1888 that the newspaper started being published as The Logan County Banner.

The point being that there are no real written records of what was the beginning of the town that has gone by the names of Logan Courthouse, Lawnsville, Aracoma and Logan. Therefore, we really do not know just what occurred in the settling of the Guyandotte River community that is named after a Native American chief. More specifically, who decided to settle and develop what had to be at the time an obvious Native American graveyard? Apparently, early settlers to the site were not superstitious.

By the turn of the early 1900s, when Logan was beginning to grow and larger buildings were being constructed, the newspaper started printing stories about workers uncovering Native American remains and remnants, which included human body parts, necklaces, and in at least two instances, tomahawks that were found in shallow graves.

Between 1900 and 1910, the town’s population increased from a mere 444 to 1,640. Logan reached its peak in 1940 with 5,166 residents reported in that year’s census. The 2020 census shows 1,438 residents of the town, a loss of 341 since 2010.

The first report of relics I’ve found in the newspaper archives was the uncovering of remains that were discovered around 1910 when the Abdoney building was to be constructed on Dingess Street. However, there have been numerous other such reports in different parts of Logan where Native American relics and body parts have been uncovered, the most recent of which was when the state building was about to be constructed where the former Pioneer Hotel once existed directly across Cole Street from the former Aracoma Hotel site, which itself was the scene of numerous findings when excavation started there.

The Pioneer Hotel, which featured wooden beams, was built in 1902, while the Aracoma Hotel, which was described as fireproof when it opened, was constructed in 1917 and burned in 2010. Before the state building opened, Cole Street separated the two competing multi-story hotels. Cole Street has been the sight of several Native American excavations over the years.

Here is one account from 1938 when workers were excavating at the corner of Cole and Stratton streets to put in a water line:

“The largest number of Indian remains uncovered here in some time were dug up this week below the surface of Stratton Street near the southwest corner of Cole Street. City employees, excavating for a water line, brought to the surface bones, beads, a tomahawk, and other relics.

“From all indications, the diggers were in the midst of former Indian burial grounds which were supposed to extend over the section near the Aracoma and Pioneer Hotels.”

The story further said, “All parts of skeletons were found. Bones of the legs, arms and feet, as well as pieces of skulls, one almost intact, were uncovered. Some of the bones were in good condition, others were crumpled and decayed.

“Two jaw bones, one that of a child and the other an adult, contained teeth perfectly intact. Some 32 teeth were found and just two showing any signs of cavities. According to dental authorities who examined the jaws, one was that of a child about five years old.”

The newspaper account said a “large number of beads, made from bones and whittled out in fine form were uncovered.” The tomahawk and beads were reportedly taken by different persons as souvenirs, while the jaw bones were molded into plaster with the teeth for “permanent display.”

Most of the remains, according to the story, were found but a few feet below the surface of the street just below the brick that used to be the surface of the streets of downtown Logan.

Between the bottom of the bricks and covering the parts were flat stones that the story said accounted for why they were not accounted for before. The theory was that the “diggers” failed to go further when they struck the stones.

It has been a few years since anything new pertaining to Native American relics has been uncovered in Logan, the last find being when the state building was to be built over a decade ago. Folks may recall that construction at that site was halted when Indian bones and relics were discovered there. Native American representatives from as far away as New York excavated the site for several weeks before work for the government building could legally resume.

It is simply a fact that many Native American graves have been opened since the town of Logan started replacing wooden structures with brick during the early 1900s. Excavations, thereafter, uncovered numerous graves. When the basement for the Aracoma Hotel was being excavated, mules pulling equipment used at the time scraped out tons of dirt uncovering 100 graves, according to old newspaper interviews. One account claims that the suspected gravesite site of Aracoma was unearthed there.

Noted former local historian Sigfus Olafson was quoted as saying, “Anyplace you dig in Logan County, you’ll find bones.” Olafson, like another Native American artifact expert, Ron Moxley, had excavated numerous sites in Logan County, uncovering arrowheads and other artifacts, some of which are on display at the Chief Logan State Park museum.

About two weeks ago, while workers were installing ramps and new sidewalks in various parts of Logan, a representative of one Native American Indian tribe was required to be on hand for all of the digging that the men had to do in Logan. According to one company employee, what he described as an “Indian fire pit” was discovered beneath the surface nearest the Cottage Flower Shop parking lot on Main Street. I have heard nothing else concerning that. The employee, James Toney of Buckhannon, West Virginia, did not say what was done about the find.

The fact of the matter is that at one time in our local history the Logan area was a large Indian settlement of the Shawnee nation. After many years of the Shawnee living in the area, the Iroquois went to war with them, eventually forcing them to relocate north of the Ohio River. Remains of the Shawnee and their settlements are scattered throughout the region, especially at the former site of Man Appalachian Regional Hospital, an area Ron Moxley thoroughly uncovered prior to his death.

When white settlers started arriving in the area, the Shawnee — after the Iroquois nation had been weakened while many were fighting on the British side in the Revolutionary War — returned to the area it claimed as their hunting grounds, and deadly fighting resulted with the settlers.

If you really think about it, the people who started what is now the town of Logan must have wanted to always pay respect to the former dwellers of the area. After all, not only was Logan once known as Aracoma, but later was renamed Logan.

Interestingly, during the City of Logan’s heyday (1920s-1940s), when it was the home of a minor league baseball team, that particular squad was known as the Logan Indians for all of its years of existence.

Nationwide, gone are the names of the Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians, and other teams with titles that are said to be offensive to the Native American Indians.

Here’s hoping the names of Aracoma and Logan will continue in our history even longer than the remaining bones that are likely still underneath the town of Logan’s thin earthly skin.

Dwight Williamson is a former writer for the Logan Banner and a retired magistrate for Logan County.

*Published with the author’s permission.

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