“When the going gets rough, family smoothes the edges” Beth Meade Conny As I’ve researched my deep West Virginia roots to a time before West Virginia even existed, I found that, to be a frontiersman, a person would have to have the intestinal fortitude to be able to defend “his own”. So deep was this […]
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.
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
Times Have Changed! Read More »
When death came knocking at the door of Hanna Coal Company’s No. 10 Mine at Willow Grove, its icy fingers entombed more than seventy men in a matter of seconds at eleven o’clock on Saturday morning, March 16, 1940.
Death Comes a Knocking – Willow Grove, Ohio 1940 Read More »
LITTLE EGYPT LOST WRECKAGE OF HAVACO MINE – JANUARY 15, 1946 McDowell County, West Virginia is the most southern county of the state, and they hold the record for the largest number of explosions in the state. The mining town of Jed, located two miles north of Welch, lost eighty-three men when the mine blew
Little Egypt Lost – Havaco Mine – JANUARY 15, 1946 Read More »
At the time of the accident 45 men were inside the mine, however the explosion was confined to only one section. Thirteen men were working in the section that blew, and eleven men were killed Shortly after the explosion, a motorman delivering a trip of empty cars near the site noticed smoke and dust in the haulageway. He immediately notified the outside mine office of his findings, and Superintendent T. L. Lambert, went underground to investigate.
Tragedy at Burning Springs – Kermit 1951 Read More »
GRADE FOUR 1946 – 1947 If you can identify any of the students please e-mail me. Row one: teacher: Evelyn Lewis, Donald Hughes, Dolores Riggs, Billy Joe Molnar, Johnnie Fleming, Lowell Reynolds, ?, Riley Fleming, Mary Ellen Hatton Row two: Jerry Vaughn, Ginger McNeely, Bobby Wagner, unidentified, Ruth Ann Lester, Billy Roberts Row three: Joyce
On Wednesday, January 10, 1940, the Pond Creek No. 1 Mine at Bartley, West Virginia owned by Pocohontas Coal Corporation, exploded at exactly 2:30 in the afternoon killing ninety-one men.
A Time to Weep – Bartley 1940 Read More »
I found this on Melissa Duggins’ Family Tree Page (Sorry, Melissa’s page is no longer online) Thanks Melissa! Sound like anyone YOU know? Untitled They think that I should cook and clean, and be a model wife. I tell them it’s more interesting to study Grandpa’s life. They simply do not understand why I hate
A Genealogist’s Poem by Mel Oshins Read More »
By Joanna Newman Sidney B. Lawson, MD (March 18, 1867 – Oct. 9, 1953) Dr. Lawson, son of Dr. George W. & Chloe Ann Roberson Lawson, published his autobiography, “50 Years A Mountain-Country Doctor” in 1941. In it, he does not give his birth year but states he began practice at his home area around
Sidney B. Lawson, MD Read More »