History before our eyes

By Dwight Williamson

In one way or another, we all are making history just by existing. However, for people who really study history, the quote, “Nothing has really happened until it is recorded,” most definitely applies. So,—let it be written and let it be said—that Logan County history is being made right before our eyes—in the form of Chapmanville resident and Governor Earl Ray Tomblin.

In handing over the reins of leadership to Jim Justice, I don’t know what Tomblin’s future holds, but he leaves behind a legacy that all Logan Countians should be proud of. Earl Ray, as most of his constituents like to refer to him as, was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1974 and re-elected in ’76 and ’78 before winning a State Senate seat in 1980. The son of a former Logan County sheriff (Earl Tomblin), Earl Ray was subsequently re-elected to the WV Senate every four years until he assumed the office of Governor in 2011. Here’s some history, that most people do not know:

After being elected in 1995 as President of the Senate, Tomblin held the position for 17 years, which makes him the longest serving Senate President in West Virginia history. Contrary to popular belief, however, Earl Ray is not the first person from Logan County to become Governor of West Virginia. That distinction actually goes to a Hatfield; a nephew of Devil Anse.

Henry D. Hatfield was born in Logan County September 15, 1875 at Mate Creek near Matewan. Of course, that was when that section of the state was a portion of Logan County. Mingo County, the youngest county in West Virginia, was formed from Logan in 1895.

Like Earl Ray, Hatfield also served as Senate President (1911-‘13), while at the same time working as a surgeon at a Welch hospital in McDowell County from 1899 until 1913. With some very impressive credentials and a famous name, he was elected as a republican governor in 1912. In 1929, he became senator again and served so until 1935. Although he never really lived in Logan County, his mother and father did, and both died here. They were buried in Williamson, while the former governor was buried in Woodmere Cemetery in Huntington; the same cemetery where legendary sheriff Don Chafin is also interned.

Records show that Elias Hatfield, the former governor’s father, owned 600 hundred acres of acres of property near Mate Creek, but on January 16, 1888, he purchased a home on Dingess Street in Logan. Hatfield served in the Confederate Army, and at one time owned two slaves. Following his death in 1918, Mrs. Elizabeth (Betty) Hatfield, the mother of the former governor and whose maiden name was Chafin, lost her home and nearly all of her belongings in a major fire that burned two other homes and threatened to destroy the entire area of Logan that today is located across from Logan City Hall. Here’s the story as it was reported in The Logan Banner May 8, 1925.

“Fire shortly after midnight last night destroyed three small frame buildings, one the home of the mother of former Governor Henry Hatfield,” the reporter wrote. The story said the fire also drove the occupants of three hotels from their rooms in their night clothes and caused an estimated $50,000 damage. “It was shortly after twelve o’clock when the flames were discovered in the American restaurant, opposite the railway station and the alarm was promptly sounded, but before the echoes of the whistle had died away the entire building, which was a one story frame structure, was a raging furnace,” it was reported.

On the other side of the American restaurant was the Guyan restaurant and hotel. The Banner reported that flames “attacked this structure, which was of frame and two stories in height.” The hotel was quickly destroyed before firemen arrived, the flames shooting high into the sky and sending sparks flying throughout the area, threatening other buildings in the vicinity.

Adjoining the home of Mrs. Hatfield was the Central Hotel, which previously had served as what The Banner called the Logan Hospital. Firefighters concentrated their efforts on the Central Hotel and the new three story brick Washington Hotel that adjoined the Guyan restaurant. Occupants of the Washington Hotel vacated there because of smoke filling the rooms. Damage to the hotel included the furniture of the restaurant, pool hall and barber shop.

Residents of Bridge Street and guests in the Riverside Hotel that was located across from the street all were aroused and left in their night clothing; some of them getting dressed while on the street.

Mrs. Hatfield, then 74 years of age, was made comfortable for the night, but her home, described as one of the oldest landmarks in the town, was totally destroyed. It was reported that sixty people were displaced that particular night. The Banner story also relayed that former Governor Hatfield had “endeavored for many years to get his mother to leave her old home,” but she would not. Although it is not known where Mrs. Hatfield relocated to, it is known that she died in Logan at the age of 90 in 1941.

Many things have changed since 1925, but the fact remains that Logan County can lay claim to providing West Virginia with two fine governors.

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

*Published with the author’s permission.

History before our eyes

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