West Virginia History Lesson

The great state of West Virginia was born of the Civil War. Tired of being used and abused by their kin in Richmond following Virginia's succession from the Union, the bastards formed their own government under the state of Virginia and subsequently received permission from themselves to become a different state. Pretty crafty huh? The Union (i.e. Federal Government) saw this as a way to increase their land mass and were more than willing to overlook such small things as who actually owned the land that would become West Virginia. Abraham Lincoln signed us up and on June 20, 1863, we were born (again). West Virginia has a rich, rich history. Depending on the historian, West Virginia either boasts the last battle of Lord Dunmore's War (the western most fight against the American Indian) or the first battle of the Revoluntionary War at Point Pleasant, WV (VA at the time) which is about 45 minutes from my house. There the legendary Shawnee Chief Cornstalk and his braves and regiments from VA battled it out. The militia was victorious and stopped Lord Dunmore's War which would have prevented VA from entering the Revolutionary War. The most interesting thing about this to me is that possibly one of my ancestors fought in the Battle of Point Pleasant. I haven't been able at this time to confirm that he is actually my ancestor as I don't have a paper trail as of yet. The chances of that happening are slim but for the most part I'm 99% sure he was my grandfather. That was on my dad's side of the family. On my mom's side, I do have a confirmed Revoluntionary War veteran for a grandfather, he's actually my grandfather twice, but I'll get to that in a later post. George Belcher is definitely my ancestor and definitely fought in the Revolutionary War. He served as one of 11,000 men at Valley Forge with George Washington in the sad sorry winter of 1777-1778. He is also said to have fought at the Battle of Cowpens, made famous by the Mel Gibson movie The Patriot. Either way, he was made of sturdy stuff. His grandson married a Ramey (Remy). The Rameys were said to have migrated from Eygpt to France in 600-700 A.D. and were descendants of or related in some way to Charlemagne. I like seeing how my family fits into the history of West Virginia, not to mention, the world at large. I grew up in a semi-rural area of the southern part of the state. My dad's family were the first white settlers in Boone County in the mid 1700's. It is hard to imagine how difficult it was to reach such an outlying area for the time period. That's where I grew up. No more than 10 miles from where my great-grandfathers first settled the wilderness. The Battle of Blair Mountain, also called "The Redneck War of 1921" (because the miners wore red bandanas around their necks) and "The Miner's March" was the largest labor uprising in the history of America entailing some 8,000 to 13,000 men fighting for the right to unionize the coal mines. The fighting became so bad President Harding called in federal troops. This interests me because they marched through Madison, the county seat of Boone County and had organized about 10 miles from my house on Lens Creek. I'm not sure if any of my family were present. I do know that my great-grandfather was a miner in Kanawha County at that time, where the march began, but its my understanding that Kanawha County was already unionized at that time, although miners from all over WV and neighboring states came to assist. For me, it is difficult to imagine walking the route that they did. It was still a dirt road at the time. A road that is now a divided four lane highway linking Charleston to the Kentucky border. Without a knowledge of the mountain ranges and what lies in each valley it is difficult to understand the exact layout, even with a map, for someone not familiar to the area. I would like to do my next post on deep Southern WV and Homer Hickam. Homer wrote "The Rocket Boys" which later became "October Sky" and a movie starring Jake Gyllenhall and Laura Dern was made. Read the book, much better stuff. I had the pleasure of visiting Coalwood, WV and meeting Homer and the other Rocket Boys (not to mention getting my book signed by all of them.) Considering the time period and where they lived, it is really an amazing and inspiring story. I have photographs also and would like to post those but alas, I have no scanner and will have to ask someone to do it for me. I guess I will wait until I can do that. I would also like to post a map or something to show exactly how freaking rural the area he grew up in was. It made Boone County look like New York City. Well... not quite (wink).