Day 55, Year 11: Walk Down Memory Lane
Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Weather: Partly Sunny, High in the 50’s F, 30’s Tonight
Location: Turnpike Motel, Princeton, West Virginia
What a delightful day! We started the day in the little town of Union in Monroe County, West Virginia. My mother’s family has lived in this little corner of the world since the late 1700’s. My father grew up in this same county, just over the mountain from Union. But we have never known just when my father’s parents moved to Monroe County from Giles County, Virginia. The purpose of my quest today was to try and pin down just when the Martins came into Monroe County and to find out just where they lived in Virginia before moving there. I didn’t expect to find all the answers today, but I made great progress. So not only was the day fun, it was successful. And we managed to fit in a lot of visiting between the research sessions.
Having lived in Monroe County from 1979 to 1984, we were very curious about how things might have changed. The answer from what we saw today . . . not much. The little town of Union looked just like it looked in 1979. The drive from Union to the hilltop ‘village’ of Wikel hasn’t changed much either. Wikel, itself, the specific place where my mother’s family lived and where Mark and I lived, looked much the same with the addition of a hugely tall water tank supplying the residents with city water. We stopped to see good friends Jean Mason and Betty ‘Mom’ Comer. Both have been widowed in the past few years, but both are strong women who are carrying on. Jean’s son Scotty now keeps his beef cattle on her farm. Betty ‘Mom’ did daycare for Heather and Justin. Heather was only with her for one year, but Justin was with her for three. She potty-trained Justin by putting a flower print feed sack (soft cotton, not burlap) on him as a diaper one day when I forgot to send the Pampers. He thought the blue-flowered material was so pretty that he refused to soil it and instantly became potty-trained. I knew from that day forward that I would always be indebted to Betty ‘Mom’. We also visited the log home we built there. That was the downer of the day. The people who own it separated a couple of years ago and neither is living in it. Vines have covered the log walls and last winter they didn’t turn the water off resulting in broken water pipes on the top floor that flooded the main floor as well as the basement. No one checked on the house for a long period, so the water just kept running through the house. The guy they have hired to try and “fix” things was there today and he let us roam through the house. The three sets of French doors leading from the great room out onto the deck have not been painted or stained in 35 years and the wood is rotting. The beautiful Ash wood floor had to be ripped up. And all of the dry wall in the basement had to be removed. The one thing that still looked beautiful was the side door that Mark built out of walnut. The owners want to do a quick fix and try to sell the house and 40 acres for $189,000, but I don’t think they will ever get that much money for it. It was heart-breaking to see such a beautiful home that was built with so much care look so lonely. If I had an extra $100,000 on hand, I’d offer them that and try to restore the home to its original state. Unfortunately, I have neither the money nor the time. So hopefully someone who does will buy it and treat it with care. After leaving Wikel, we stopped to see Richard and Sarah Jane Bowers. Sarah is my first cousin and she is one of those people who never seem to age. Her husband, Richard, is almost 78 and we found him hard at work getting a load of logs out. He’s done this for so much of his life that I don’t think he can stop. It is hard work, but it has kept him healthy and happy. So I salute him for continuing.
We drove from Monroe County, West Virginia across the border to Giles County, Virginia. We found the land deed for my paternal grandmother’s home place and we drove to the area indicated to make sure it matched with what my mother had showed me years ago. It did, so now the challenge is to find the exact location. Reading a deed that indicates location by the number of chestnut trees doesn’t help much since there was a blight of the American chestnut tree in the early 1900’s and no chestnut trees are left standing today. But eventually I can trace forward from owner to buyer and find more modern survey indications. The drive to Clover Hollow where my father was born and spent the first four years of his life was gorgeous. The area is half way up a mountain to a modern day resort called Mountain Lake. The views of the sunset from on high were magnificent.
The funniest thing happened this morning when we were in the Monroe County Courthouse. Mark and I had gone in and asked if we could look at the land deed records. We were escorted to a back room, given a brief overview of where to find things, and then left alone. Then the young woman who had taken us back there returned and asked if we were Mark and Judy Handley. How did she know? When we said we were, she gave us a phone message she had just received from David Bowers asking us to call him. David is the son on one of my first cousins, but how did he know we were there. I have talked to him a couple of times in the past five years, but how would he know we were in the Court House this morning? I kept researching but sent Mark out to call him. David reads this blog and read last night that we would be in Union this morning. He lives about 45 miles to the west in Princeton and he invited us to come to Princeton to have dinner with him. That worked out great with our schedule so we agreed to meet him. We had dinner with David, his daughter Jennifer, her son, and her boyfriend. It was great to see them. Thank you, David!
This is a beautiful part of the world and Mark and I both want to come back and spend more time here visiting. There is a song I learned in elementary school called “The West Virginia Hills” and I think the words sum things up nicely.
Oh, the West Virginia hills! How majestic and how grand,
With their summits bathes in glory, Like our Prince Immanuel’s Land!
Is it any wonder then, that my heart with rapture thrills,
As I stand once more with love ones on those West Virginia hills?
CHORUS:
Oh, the hills, beautiful hills, How I love those West Virginia hills!
If over sea or land I roam, Still I’ll think of happy home,
And my friends among the West Virginia hills.
 |
| 151216 Day 55 Visit in Monroe & Giles; Dinner with David Bowers |
