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.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Joressia Dovie Reid Jamison 1866-1943
At 19, she married James Henry Jamison, a 26-year-old farmer and together they had nine children, including my grandmother, Lillie Mae Jamison Tingler, born on the farm in 1888. Lillie Mae was born second, but was their first child to live beyond infancy. When her first child died at birth on April 2, 1887, the doctor told Dovie she would not be able to have any more children. Thankfully that judgment proved to be incorrect as she became the mother of eight more lives.
Dovie, as we're told she preferred to be called, was a great home maker and farm wife. She was a strong believer in Christ and with her husband James Henry, members and regular participants in the Old Order Dunkard Bretheren church. Her husband often sermonized at their local congregation in the absence of the circuit riding preacher that served it. The children they raised report that they were loving but strict in their discipline and that they established high standards.
We know a lot about Dovie because of a pair of excellent articles published in the 1990s by Covington's Virginian Review. The column titled, "Another View with Leonard Jamison," gives a very comprehensive account of Dovie's wedding, her life on the farm and her philosophies of life, as well as a wistful nostalgic view of her life and extended family. I will email copies of the two articles I have, dated November 12, 1990 and January 10, 1996, to anyone interested.
A brief extract of the 1990 article: "Grandma put in as many hours as Grandpa. In addition to the numerous chores, she did everything from making soap and crocheting bedspreads to organizing quilting bees. For relaxation, she sat at her little secretariat in the evening, hummed church tunes and wrote letters...."
She participated in the farm work, planting a garden, raising chickens, gathering eggs produce for sale in nearby Covington, milking cows, canning and preserving fruits and vegetables, making whatever was needed around the house and farm. It seems she never learned to drive, though they had their first car, a Model T Ford, while she was young enough to do so.
Dovie is buried in a family cemetery across the road from the old family farm on Potts Creek Road, Route 18, south of Covington.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Farming,.. craftsmen,... tradesmen,... and entrepeneurs.
The main focus of this blog is individual members of a typical American family of European immigrants. However where individual stories are often thin the farther back you go, a much about their lives can be concluded by looking a the society in which they lived. So from time to time I'm going to include some basic historical information on the times in which family members lived that can give us a better window into their lives.
One thing that struck me on reviewing birth, death and marriage records, census data, and other information is this: almost all of my ancestors prior to 1900 are listed as "farmers." I realize this kind of generic term would have been widely understood or the census takers wouldn't have used it. We don't find much in the way of descriptors, such as "tobacco farmer," or the like. So occupations often have to be guessed at from clues one can pick up on.
Several of our ancestors lived in Shenandoah County, Virginia and the surrounding counties. This probably indicates that they were largely subsistence farmers, meaning they grew or raised everything they needed to feed their own families, but that many probably raised grain (wheat, oats, barley) for sale. Throughout the 19th century, the Shenandoah Valley was such a prolific source of grains for human and animal consumption that it was known as the 'granary' of the South.
Growing wheat was so widespread that it was in the Valley where Cyrus McCormick developed his famous reaping machine (actually at Steele's Tavern in Rockbridge County).
The region had been dominated by tobacco farming in the 17th and 18th centuries, but methods used at the time required tobacco farmers to constantly find new land since this valuable cash crop quickly exhausted lands it was raised on.
Because of these factors, I suspect that even if our earliest ancestors in America were tobacco farmers, they switched over to other principal crops by the 19th century.
Many of the family farmers moved from northwestern Virgina and southern Maryland into mid- and western West Virginia prior to or around the time of the Civil War.
What skills would a 'farmer' of the 19th century have had. Obviously the skills to till the soil, plant and harvest crops, probably buying, raising, breeding, slaughtering and processing farm animals such as cows, pigs, goats and sheep, likely the purchase, breeding, and using horses and oxen for farm work and transportation--all of these were needed. We live in an age where specialization usually divides the various tasks associated into trades or service categories, but it's likely that most everyone had to have basic knowledge and skill in every area, and real specialists were few and far between.
Even lumbering and carpentry, early mineral extraction and blacksmithing were probably much more familiar to all men, though the expense of tools and resources, and the efficiency of specialists caused these areas to specialize earlier than others.
By the mid- to late-19th century, my ancestors were often identified by profession, e.g. carpenter, miner, etc. Many were still 'farm laborer,' or simply 'laborer.' Others found the mines of West Virginia a place to earn a living as this industry got started and grew. West Virginia archives indicate that life and work in the mines was horrifically hard and dangerous. It's been said that during World War I, U.S. soldiers had better odds of surviving on the front lines than miners did in West Virginia coal mines. Mine disasters were frequent; hazardous conditions were the norm. In 1907, the Monongah mine explosion claimed the lives of 361 West Virginia miners. Day-to-day life often resembled serfdom, with management controlling vast swaths of the miners' lives.
Looking at my ancestors career choices, many appear to have done whatever they could to find a better source of income and a better way of life. In some cases, this meant moving into the exchange market. My grandfather's roots in Hamlin, West Virginia no doubt saw him grow up in a world of farm work--lots and lots of farm work--until he got old enough to get a job in the mines. But he and his relatives were widely dissatisfied with the hardships of mine work, so he embarked on an entrepeneurial life in a variety of avenues. At one time he bought trucks and started a trucking company. Later he returned to farm life, but with a clear entrepeneurial slant to it as he produced milk for sale to dairies, beef cattle for sale and even other produce for sale from time to time. I'm still looking for other information on family members participating in entrepeneurial activities but the spirit of the age seems to indicate that many must have.
One thing that struck me on reviewing birth, death and marriage records, census data, and other information is this: almost all of my ancestors prior to 1900 are listed as "farmers." I realize this kind of generic term would have been widely understood or the census takers wouldn't have used it. We don't find much in the way of descriptors, such as "tobacco farmer," or the like. So occupations often have to be guessed at from clues one can pick up on.
Several of our ancestors lived in Shenandoah County, Virginia and the surrounding counties. This probably indicates that they were largely subsistence farmers, meaning they grew or raised everything they needed to feed their own families, but that many probably raised grain (wheat, oats, barley) for sale. Throughout the 19th century, the Shenandoah Valley was such a prolific source of grains for human and animal consumption that it was known as the 'granary' of the South.
Growing wheat was so widespread that it was in the Valley where Cyrus McCormick developed his famous reaping machine (actually at Steele's Tavern in Rockbridge County).
The region had been dominated by tobacco farming in the 17th and 18th centuries, but methods used at the time required tobacco farmers to constantly find new land since this valuable cash crop quickly exhausted lands it was raised on.
Because of these factors, I suspect that even if our earliest ancestors in America were tobacco farmers, they switched over to other principal crops by the 19th century.
Many of the family farmers moved from northwestern Virgina and southern Maryland into mid- and western West Virginia prior to or around the time of the Civil War.
What skills would a 'farmer' of the 19th century have had. Obviously the skills to till the soil, plant and harvest crops, probably buying, raising, breeding, slaughtering and processing farm animals such as cows, pigs, goats and sheep, likely the purchase, breeding, and using horses and oxen for farm work and transportation--all of these were needed. We live in an age where specialization usually divides the various tasks associated into trades or service categories, but it's likely that most everyone had to have basic knowledge and skill in every area, and real specialists were few and far between.
Even lumbering and carpentry, early mineral extraction and blacksmithing were probably much more familiar to all men, though the expense of tools and resources, and the efficiency of specialists caused these areas to specialize earlier than others.
By the mid- to late-19th century, my ancestors were often identified by profession, e.g. carpenter, miner, etc. Many were still 'farm laborer,' or simply 'laborer.' Others found the mines of West Virginia a place to earn a living as this industry got started and grew. West Virginia archives indicate that life and work in the mines was horrifically hard and dangerous. It's been said that during World War I, U.S. soldiers had better odds of surviving on the front lines than miners did in West Virginia coal mines. Mine disasters were frequent; hazardous conditions were the norm. In 1907, the Monongah mine explosion claimed the lives of 361 West Virginia miners. Day-to-day life often resembled serfdom, with management controlling vast swaths of the miners' lives.
Given that kind of record, it’s not hard to understand my grandfather’s aversion to working in the mines, not to mention the family’s strong pro-union sympathies. (He was 22 and working in the mines in the 1920s when the Battle of Blair Mountain took place killing hundreds of miners in open warfare.) Interestingly even today, long after unions have ceased to be needed, many in our family hold these sympathies despite living lives totally different from those of early miners and laborers. (By the way, mining today is NOTHING like what it used to be--today it's much, much, much safer and as technology dependent as every other form of manufacturing today.)
The advent of the industrial revolution in America came with the expansion of economic activity from the self-sufficient farm to more broadly organized production and exchange of goods and services. This brought rise to the entrepeurial opportunity on a scale previously uncommon.
Looking at my ancestors career choices, many appear to have done whatever they could to find a better source of income and a better way of life. In some cases, this meant moving into the exchange market. My grandfather's roots in Hamlin, West Virginia no doubt saw him grow up in a world of farm work--lots and lots of farm work--until he got old enough to get a job in the mines. But he and his relatives were widely dissatisfied with the hardships of mine work, so he embarked on an entrepeneurial life in a variety of avenues. At one time he bought trucks and started a trucking company. Later he returned to farm life, but with a clear entrepeneurial slant to it as he produced milk for sale to dairies, beef cattle for sale and even other produce for sale from time to time. I'm still looking for other information on family members participating in entrepeneurial activities but the spirit of the age seems to indicate that many must have.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Harrison B. Boehm 1820-1870
Harrison B. Boehm was born in 1820 in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, in either Shenandoah or Page County, and died before 1870 in Gilmer County, West Virginia.
The general illiteracy of the era--even official records are rife with spelling and grammar errors--and the common practice of using alternative and spellings of proper names, even by the named themselves, creates confusion. 'Boehm' was the spelling he inherited from his great grandfather who immigrated from the Palatine, 'Beem' was found on more than a few official documents, and 'Beam' is the form the name has taken today and is in the most common use and is the name used in our genealogy for all persons born after Harrison. He was the last to use the Swiss spelling as far as we can tell.
Harrison was born into a farming family in the vicinity of Strasburg, the site of his great-grandfather, Samuel's, farm and no doubt spent his first years working on his fathers farm in the so-called "breadbasket" of the country, the Shenandoah Valley. All indications are that he was a farmer.
Harrison, 25, married Mary Ann Peer, 20, also of Shenandoah County, on September 19, 1843, and had several children, including Ann E. Boehm (1845), William H. Boehm (1847), Samuel Wesley Beam (August, 1849), my great-great grandfather, George Harrison Beam (August 1849), Harrison J. Boehm (July 27, 1855, died 1856), Virginia C. Boehm (October 21, 1857, died 1875 at 18 years), and Sarah M. Beam (1860). Records show that Hirman Myers "of the Methodist Church," married Harrison and Mary Ann.
So by the onset of the Civil War, Harrison had a sizeable family he was supporting by farming, according to census records. His son Samuel (my great, great, great grandfather) was born in 1849 in Shenandoah County, and his next child, George Harrison, was born in 1852 in Barbour County. This seems to indicate that Harrison had moved his family to the west out of the Valley as much as 10 years before the war broke out. The needs of large families common in the era frequently resulted in movements like this as even farms in the rich Shenandoah Valley could support only so many people. Harrison likely moved as soon as his family started to grow, seeking independence from his father's farm and his own land to work. Records show that Harrison's children Harrison J. and Virginia C. were both born in Barbour County, leaving only Sarah, the last, who was born in Gilmer County.
The Appalachian region, which includes Barbour and Gilmer Counties, lived without much civil government during the war as there were many with Unionist sentiment but with a strong population of secessionists as well. Phillipi, the Barbour County seat, was strongly pro-secessionist at the beginning of the war, but was occupied by troops of both sides at various times, becoming largely deserted during the war as the Southern sympathizers were driven out by Unionists and Federal troops. But because of his age and family situation, I think it unlikely that Harrison fought in uniform for either side in the war, and probably stayed near home to try to protect the homestead from competing para-military forces of the two sides moving about the area, and trying to farm in a very hostile environment.
Harrison is a transitional figure in our family's history. He came from the secessionist South, but might well have sympathized more with the Unionists, which would help explain his consistent movement to the west of his birthplace. His children likely continued farming and labor work in their new West Virginia homes, though eventually his grand-children and great-grand children would move into Ohio and from there to points around the world.
Harrison was born into the 3rd or 4th generation of a Mennonite community that was formed and moved into the Valley in the 18th century seeking religious freedom. I know his granddaughter-in-law, Laura Gertrude Gainer, was a regular attender of a church of a fundamentalist evangelical character. I surmise that he and his family lived within the Christian influenced life patterns widely practiced in America at the time, but have no information on his specific religious identification or practice.
I'd like to find a picture of him some day, daguerreotype, drawing, sketch, or whatever, though I realize the chances of such an image even existing are minimal. I'd also like to know what his middle name was. The "B" is intriguing, but unhelpful. I hope to visit his resting place some day as well and get a photo of his grave, which might answer the previous question for me.
The general illiteracy of the era--even official records are rife with spelling and grammar errors--and the common practice of using alternative and spellings of proper names, even by the named themselves, creates confusion. 'Boehm' was the spelling he inherited from his great grandfather who immigrated from the Palatine, 'Beem' was found on more than a few official documents, and 'Beam' is the form the name has taken today and is in the most common use and is the name used in our genealogy for all persons born after Harrison. He was the last to use the Swiss spelling as far as we can tell.
Harrison was born into a farming family in the vicinity of Strasburg, the site of his great-grandfather, Samuel's, farm and no doubt spent his first years working on his fathers farm in the so-called "breadbasket" of the country, the Shenandoah Valley. All indications are that he was a farmer.
Harrison, 25, married Mary Ann Peer, 20, also of Shenandoah County, on September 19, 1843, and had several children, including Ann E. Boehm (1845), William H. Boehm (1847), Samuel Wesley Beam (August, 1849), my great-great grandfather, George Harrison Beam (August 1849), Harrison J. Boehm (July 27, 1855, died 1856), Virginia C. Boehm (October 21, 1857, died 1875 at 18 years), and Sarah M. Beam (1860). Records show that Hirman Myers "of the Methodist Church," married Harrison and Mary Ann.
So by the onset of the Civil War, Harrison had a sizeable family he was supporting by farming, according to census records. His son Samuel (my great, great, great grandfather) was born in 1849 in Shenandoah County, and his next child, George Harrison, was born in 1852 in Barbour County. This seems to indicate that Harrison had moved his family to the west out of the Valley as much as 10 years before the war broke out. The needs of large families common in the era frequently resulted in movements like this as even farms in the rich Shenandoah Valley could support only so many people. Harrison likely moved as soon as his family started to grow, seeking independence from his father's farm and his own land to work. Records show that Harrison's children Harrison J. and Virginia C. were both born in Barbour County, leaving only Sarah, the last, who was born in Gilmer County.
The Appalachian region, which includes Barbour and Gilmer Counties, lived without much civil government during the war as there were many with Unionist sentiment but with a strong population of secessionists as well. Phillipi, the Barbour County seat, was strongly pro-secessionist at the beginning of the war, but was occupied by troops of both sides at various times, becoming largely deserted during the war as the Southern sympathizers were driven out by Unionists and Federal troops. But because of his age and family situation, I think it unlikely that Harrison fought in uniform for either side in the war, and probably stayed near home to try to protect the homestead from competing para-military forces of the two sides moving about the area, and trying to farm in a very hostile environment.
Harrison is a transitional figure in our family's history. He came from the secessionist South, but might well have sympathized more with the Unionists, which would help explain his consistent movement to the west of his birthplace. His children likely continued farming and labor work in their new West Virginia homes, though eventually his grand-children and great-grand children would move into Ohio and from there to points around the world.
Harrison was born into the 3rd or 4th generation of a Mennonite community that was formed and moved into the Valley in the 18th century seeking religious freedom. I know his granddaughter-in-law, Laura Gertrude Gainer, was a regular attender of a church of a fundamentalist evangelical character. I surmise that he and his family lived within the Christian influenced life patterns widely practiced in America at the time, but have no information on his specific religious identification or practice.
I'd like to find a picture of him some day, daguerreotype, drawing, sketch, or whatever, though I realize the chances of such an image even existing are minimal. I'd also like to know what his middle name was. The "B" is intriguing, but unhelpful. I hope to visit his resting place some day as well and get a photo of his grave, which might answer the previous question for me.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
George Washington Tingler 1844-1933
GW married Elzenia C. King on January 8, 1966, after returning from a horrific experience as a soldier and prisoner in the Civil War. Elzenia, or Ellen as she is reported to have been called in some sources, was born in Rich Patch also on November 30, 1847 and died December 12, 1910, many years before her husband.
GW and Ellen had ten children including Nancy Ann, Lucinda J., Charles W., Jacob Henry, Molly Mary Watts, Rachel E. (my great grandmother), Richard, Edna M., George McClennan, and Malinda Ellen. GW's remains lie in a grave in the cemetery of the Lone Star Baptist Church on Potts Creek Road not far south of my grandpa Jamison's farm. His funeral was conducted by Reverend J.B. Daughtery and Reverend H.W. Wriston.
GW is reported to have been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, a church that became part of 'The Methodist Church' in 1939 after his death.
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