Luvina "Vena" Bias 1869-1947

Luvina "Vena" Bias was born in 1869 (some records say 1872) in Cabell County, West Virginia to Evermont James Bias and Eliza F. McComas.  It is through her parents that we are connected to the McComas's who were the first Virginia settlers in the Mud River Valley.  Eliza's grandparents came into the valley in the 1780s and were a part of the conquest of the land from the Iroquios Confederation.  Luvina was also a granddaughter of Hiram Curry, who was also her husband, Ira's, grandfather.

On November 24, 1895, Luvina married Ira G. Bias, her first cousin, and was an old bride for the period at 23 or 26 years of age.  Conflicting data is available on how many children they had, but it was likely that she had 10, including her second, my grandfather Arnold Bias, who was born in 1899.  Though first cousin marriage is now illegal in West Virginia and 23 other states, in the 19th century, the relative isolation of small communities in the draws and valleys of that mountainous region made it much more common.

Luvina died at home in Accoville, Logan County, West Virginia on October 17, 1947 and was buried the next day in Curry Cemetery, Lincoln County, WV.

I don't have firm information, but my suspicion is that Luvina and her husband moved the family to Accoville in Logan County for mining work, possibly as soon as they were married.  My grandfather, Arnold Bias, was born in Buffalo, a village along Buffalo Creek just next to Accoville in 1899 so we know they were in the area by then.  Among the sadnesses in her life were the loss of two of her sons in World War II.  Her son Ray died at Fort Polk, Louisiana of dysentery, and her youngest son Leslie was killed in action on Bouganville in the Marshall Islands fighting the Japanese.  These losses came not long after the 1941 death of her husband, Ira.

If Luvina and her family were in Buffalo Creek/Accoville anytime between 1900 and 1930 they lived in one of the repressive company towns, endured the hardships of coal mine life and lived through the terror of the Battle of Blair Mountain in which hundreds of miners were killed in open combat with strike breakers, deputies, and ultimately federal troops.  The more I read about the times in which they lived, the more amazed I am that they got through it all.