Robert K. Holliday: Boy Scouts, meet Fayette County
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- With the Boy Scouts on their way to their new camp in Fayette County, I find I want to share with them something about the area that they will be visiting.
You must be conscious that our untamed country was but an uncultivated wilderness, inhabited by many creatures and used by numerous Indians, believed to be the first settlers here, who had thumped down the paths as a hunting ground.
The territory was rich and beautiful and had its share of fresh water. The fur trade was the biggest commodity. Wars between the Indians and whites were fierce, violent and savage.
West Virginia has been populated for several thousand years. Few Indians were known to have lived here. By the time white settlers had secured independence from England, they had completed their settlements to the Ohio River Valley. In the early 1800s, Missionary John Cross took the road west from Lewisburg to the Kanawha Valley. After he had moved down from some of the most craggy and rugged mountains he ever had seen, Cross saw the Gauley River and New River, which formed the Great Kanawha River. The spacious waters were spread out and calmly flowed over the Kanawha Falls, a very picturesque site, indeed.
Thomas Jefferson was extremely impressed with our state. On the map, the state looks like an enormous pan with two handles. The limestone base is where an ancient ocean flowed.
In the long past bygone days, the earth around here was covered with plants and their leaves, branches and boggy pockets where after many years became coal and oil.
Around the state you will find ancient mounds. The two largest are at South Charleston, in the business district, and Moundsville, near the old state penitentiary. When opened, these spectacular objects were found to be tombs.
At Indian burial grounds at Mount Carbon, at the mouth of Armstrong Creek and the Kanawha River, several of us joined archaeologists in digging to where skeletons were openly and plainly seen. Frankly, I had an unholy emotion, as I participated in shoveling, thinking perhaps I was digging where I should not have been.
The walls on the steep mountainsides were as exciting to see as are other earthworks. These walls are tearing apart as time goes by. Archaeologists, Indians, and scholarly scientists and others have examined the ruins.
Now, I wish to share a story from more recent times, a sensational murder case.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- With the Boy Scouts on their way to their new camp in Fayette County, I find I want to share with them something about the area that they will be visiting.
You must be conscious that our untamed country was but an uncultivated wilderness, inhabited by many creatures and used by numerous Indians, believed to be the first settlers here, who had thumped down the paths as a hunting ground.
The territory was rich and beautiful and had its share of fresh water. The fur trade was the biggest commodity. Wars between the Indians and whites were fierce, violent and savage.
West Virginia has been populated for several thousand years. Few Indians were known to have lived here. By the time white settlers had secured independence from England, they had completed their settlements to the Ohio River Valley. In the early 1800s, Missionary John Cross took the road west from Lewisburg to the Kanawha Valley. After he had moved down from some of the most craggy and rugged mountains he ever had seen, Cross saw the Gauley River and New River, which formed the Great Kanawha River. The spacious waters were spread out and calmly flowed over the Kanawha Falls, a very picturesque site, indeed.
Thomas Jefferson was extremely impressed with our state. On the map, the state looks like an enormous pan with two handles. The limestone base is where an ancient ocean flowed.
In the long past bygone days, the earth around here was covered with plants and their leaves, branches and boggy pockets where after many years became coal and oil.
Around the state you will find ancient mounds. The two largest are at South Charleston, in the business district, and Moundsville, near the old state penitentiary. When opened, these spectacular objects were found to be tombs.
At Indian burial grounds at Mount Carbon, at the mouth of Armstrong Creek and the Kanawha River, several of us joined archaeologists in digging to where skeletons were openly and plainly seen. Frankly, I had an unholy emotion, as I participated in shoveling, thinking perhaps I was digging where I should not have been.
The walls on the steep mountainsides were as exciting to see as are other earthworks. These walls are tearing apart as time goes by. Archaeologists, Indians, and scholarly scientists and others have examined the ruins.
Now, I wish to share a story from more recent times, a sensational murder case.
Bullets flew, blood flowed, and three died horribly in a blazing gun battle at Boomer on Oct. 17. 1911. Principal characters in the gory drama were Elias and Troy Hatfield, fifth and sixth sons of the notorious and famous "Devil Anse" Hatfield of Logan. A politician was the third partner in the business setup. It seemed everyone was making a profit until two more saloons moved into the Harewood and Boomer area to compete. Octovian Vagliozzo, also known as O. Gerone, had been hired by Carl Hanson, operator of a saloon at Cannelton to solicit beer orders and to make free deliveries.
The fact that the price of Hanson's beer was reduced and that a large Italian population resided in the Boomer area all added up to a plan to eliminate competition.
On the day of the triple slaying, Elias Hatfield went to the home of an Italian miner named Anglo. The Hatfield brothers went to the cabin to see Anglo, whom they had whipped and beat up earlier in the day. Elias went through the front door. Troy sought to go through the back. Gerone shot Elias three times with a .32 Colts pistol, and then whirled around and opened fire on Troy. Both shot their object. Though mortally wounded. Troy Hatfield dew his automatic pistol and pumped three bullets into the Italian. Gerone stumbled out the kitchen door and fell on his face in the backyard. As Gerone fell to the ground, Elias Hatfield came up and fired a blast through the man's head. Within 30 minutes, all thee men were dead.
The Hatfield-McCoy feud was the worst of all, and many myths and truths run through most all of the stories. Go explore the public library, the Internet and read your books, and go watch the play at Grandview State Park.
Holliday is a former state senator from Fayette County.
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