Remembering some of the coal camp communities

By Dwight Williamson

It once was a thriving community which even included a bowling alley and a movie theater. Gone with the coal dust wind is the community of Sharples, which no longer has a school of any kind in the Logan County territory that includes the areas of Clothier, Kelly Hollow, Dobra, Mifflin, Blair, Monclo and a few tiny hollows where some people remain in quiet solitude.

The community of Lake is somewhat isolated, but accessible from the Sharples area, and a drive through Garrett’s Fork of Chapmanville can also land you in Blair on U.S. 119, where one can then head up Kelly Hollow and cross over either into Buffalo Creek in the Man area or go down Lowe’s Mountain into another once thriving coal community of Dehue. But when it comes to an isolated region of Logan County that has always been overlooked except at election time, there is no comparison to the rural area of Harts Creek, where not a single person I am aware of is delivered a copy of this newspaper.

As one of the largest precincts in Logan County, Bulwark used to have more registered voters than any place in the county. Therefore, not that many years ago, it was customary for some politicians with deep pockets to get the cash and liquor to certain people in that area, who would then be responsible for “buying” votes, a practice that up until the last decade or so, was routine in most parts of southern West Virginia. Even today, there remains people throughout the county who refuse to vote because they no longer reap any immediate benefits.

There are no coal mines in the rural community of Harts and therefore there exists no former coal camp communities, although there were many men of yesteryear who worked at various Island Creek Coal Company mines that once existed at Mud Fork, Holden and Whitman. There are probably more small farms or gardens in that part of the county than anywhere else, and I have always found the people of that region to be the most hospitable and laid back of any community in Logan County.

Of course, the history of that area is anything but serene, as it once was the home of more moonshiners than any place in the county. There were many family feuds and deaths that resulted from the making of illegal liquor, but especially during the Prohibition years, it was a grand way of providing an income to help feed and clothe what was usually rather large families.

At one time in local history, there were only dirt roads that led into such parts of Harts as White Oak, Buck Fork, Hoover, Conley, Smokehouse, Trace and even Main Harts. Today there are paved roads at all of these places, but if you happen to be one of the many to complain about the condition of your local roads, just take a drive to Harts. It just might make you appreciate what you have.

The following comes from a 1929 editorial written in The Logan Banner after Logan Circuit Judge Naaman Jackson and businessman and politico J.C. Aldredge made a treacherous trip through Mud Fork to Harts Creek to inspect conditions there. The men would later vow never to make that trip again.

1929 editorial: “It has been obvious for a long time that Harts Creek country needs attention of some sort. We are inclined to think it needs nothing else so much as a good road. A real highway might quickly accomplish more in curtailing the activities of moonshiners and in suppressing feuds than 1,000 raids could accomplish.”

It is this time of the year when the flowers and trees begin their spring beauty that one can appreciate the rough drive through the tranquil territory where freshly tilled vegetable gardens reveal their early growths in a time-held tradition that once made area residents nearly self-sufficient.

It is there that one can see Hugh Dingess Grade School, one of the few, if not the only, operating schools in West Virginia that utilized well water since its founding until just recently when public water lines reached the longstanding school.

Cellphone use in the Harts area is impossible and internet service is not only limited, but of poor quality, according to some folks I’ve spoken to who live there. Still, the spoken word from the area is elation over the fact that residents are finally receiving public water, something nearly all of the rest of us have taken for granted. Although some parts of the Harts area have been hooked up to the Logan County PSD water system for over a year, areas of White Oak and Buck Fork are not expected to receive the precious liquid until about 2019. But after all of this time of self-sufficiency, patience is not a community problem there.

For those who have not experienced well water, which I have in my younger days on a farm in Ohio, for many folks it is a true endeavor to keep pumps operating and from freezing during winter months. Often, the water smells of rotten eggs, while some well water is so iron-laced that clothes washed in it get a yellowish tint. Some wells go dry during hot summer months, or simply are not a good enough source to supply water for such things as washing vehicles or washing down siding on a house.

“We’re very happy to finally get public water over here,” one resident explained. “I never thought I would see it happen in my lifetime.”

FLASHBACK: 1980 – I was 26 years old and the slightly older guy I was campaigning for on Mud Fork was relatively unknown, except for those of us in the softball league circuits that no longer even exist in Logan County. I told a young and then still redheaded Arthur Kirkendoll, who had practically no political experience, I needed something I could tell the people of the area that he would try to do if he was elected as a Logan County commissioner. When you don’t have money to offer some voters, which is basically the way things worked back then, your job of convincing people to vote for a particular candidate is difficult since most people think of politicians (for accurate reasons) as men and women who will promise just about anything to gain your vote.

There were three things which Art agreed to try and accomplish on Mud Fork, if he was to be elected. Well, Kirkendoll narrowly won the election in 1980 in what was described as an upset, along with some other newcomers and young men you may have heard of (Earl Ray Tomblin and Leonard Codispoti) and those three campaign promises have long since came into fruition. Today, there exists on Mud Fork a very nice fire department, a well-kept playground, and public water for those residents who live above what is known as Rockhouse.

I realize there have been water and playgrounds and fire departments placed in many areas of the county since the early ’80s, but here’s the true story of how myself, a fellow Mud Forker and my Marshall University roommate, Sam Workman, together devised a plan to get public water to the people of upper Mud Fork basically before other areas did.

Sam, whose mother, Daisy Workman, was a sister to former Logan Circuit Clerk Alvis Porter’s father, along with her husband, Virgil, were the janitors at Verdunville Grade School back then. My sister, Charlotte McCallister, lived at the time in the area where there was no public water. It was her complaints about yellowed laundry which first got my attention.

I got in touch with Sam and together we plotted that I would interview residents of the area for a front page story of how there was a need for public water. In the meantime, Sam sent a sample of the well water the folks had to use to Charleston for examination and the “awful” report of the contaminated water was made into yet another story, which in the world of public opinion gave Kirkendoll the green light to lead the commission’s efforts to get funding for the work.

It was a few years after the 1980 election that public water reached upper Mud Fork, and what I remember is that many people were surprised to see it happen.

But, hey, there’s nothing like having a CLEAN slate on Election Day.

Dwight Williamson is a former writer for the Logan Banner. He is now a magistrate for Logan County.

*Published with the author’s permission.

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Articles by Dwight Williamson on this site.

• “Boots” was anything but a normal coal miner
• A guardian angel from 1972
• A stringent look into the history of Logan County
• Alderson helped elevate Logan to greatness
• City losing another historical structure
• Coal camp Christmas memories
• Death of the Hatfield brothers
• Don Chafin and the Battle of Blair Mountain
• Early 1900s Logan was crime infused with soap opera
• Early Logan Co.: A mighty tough place to live
• Early Logan County was a ‘mess’
• Early Travel in Logan County
• English credited with discovering coal in Logan Co.
• Every building in downtown Logan has a story
• Finding Princess Aracoma
• Fires change course of Logan’s history
• Growing up with the Company Store
• Halloween escapades of the “Porch Sitters”
• History before our eyes
• Holiday memories from the Shegon Inn
• Life was more free when tram roads crossed the mountains
• Logan Co. people with national interest
• Logan High School almost missed being on the island
• Monumental efforts gave us our ‘Doughboy’
• Recalling one of the worst floods in Logan
• Recollections of old stores and “filling” stations
• Remembering some of the coal camp communities
• Remembering the Community of Holden 22
• Spiritually reuniting Logan’s pioneer couple
• The Civil War in Logan County
• The Creation of Logan County
• The end the Hatfield political dominance
• The historic cemetery in Logan
• The journey of Logan’s Woman’s Club
• The legendary Don Chafin
• The little town at the mouth of Buffalo Creek
• The man responsible for the creation of Mingo County
• The Midelburg family history in Logan
• The murder of Mamie Thurman remains a mystery
• The murderous ’30s
• The old custom of ‘funeralizing’
• The porch sitters