Appalachian History

"Uncle George Wynn did all the thrashing on the east side of the road that goes through Burke's Garden, north and south. John D. Greever did all the thrashing of wheat on the west side of this road. You know the biggest population was on the east side of that road, all the big families there. The Repass's, Alfred Repass. Grubbs, lots of Kitts, the Kitts, they kind of moved out and then the big bunch of Lamberts came in there, like a drove of sheep pretty near.

"Course Pierce Lambert, some of those Lamberts spelled their name different than others, some Lampert, and some Lambert. All the same I think, they all came from over around Bland. Now Uncle George Wynn he had some daughters that married into the Neel family. I think there was two of them, one married a Bud Heldreth, and one married Tiden H. Short. He had 4 boys.

"Morgan Wynn, Uncle George's oldest son, see Uncle George was married twice. First he was married to a Rhudy, John Rhudy's sister. Then next he married a Henry, Mag Henry, she had a daughter who married a Helmadollar out at Tazewell and then she had a son Will Henry who died in World War I. He is buried down there where my little brother Hubert is buried. So is his mother Mag Henry Wynn. Down next to where the Hoges are buried.

Postcard view of the road through the gap to Burke’s Garden, about 1915. Title continues: ... 'The road today is twice as wide and the bank twice as high.' Courtesy of Louise Leslie.

"This Morgan Wynn when he got married to the old lady Aunt Mag, she was pretty mean to those boys and they all left. Morgan joined the Army and he stayed years and years, until he was pert-in-near dead and they sent him home. He went down to ole Tiden Short's to see Maggie, Mag to live with his sister. He was crazy about buttermilk, and he was sick, they had churned and he drank so much buttermilk that he died, maybe from too much pressure on his heart.

"Levi Wynn, was I guess next and he was a holy roller preacher out there at Tazewell, I mean at Bluefield, Virginia. He was a singing master, too, in Burke's Garden. He used to do a lot of singing there in Burke's Garden. We all sang there. We lived near Laurence Felty's near an old woodshed. Do you know where the old wood shed is? We had it first we sold it to Hoback, then Mr. Gose bought it. Do you know at one time Mr. John Gose owned more property in Burke's Garden then any other man?

"Aunt Belle was there, we called them 'aunt' but they were not, just Aunt Letti, Uncle Fed's wife that was really our aunt. There was three of those girls, Aunt Belle stayed there all the time and Aunt Org married a Foglesong and they had land over in the east end over by Horse Snaps.

"We lived over there where Snaps owned that place in the east end at one time across the hill from Uncle Morg Wynne, from where Betty Meek lived. At that time it belonged to Mr. John Fox, Uncle Frank's daddy. One time Mr. John Fox put a bunch of oats in and they craddled it, and shucked it. Morgan and George were doing the tying. They always worked together, the four of them. After Uncle Pete Fox left there course Mr. John Fox was never satisfied there.

"They went down to Christiansburg and I guess they died and didn't get the place paid for. My dad always said that Uncle Fed Wynn always had the poorest place there was in Burke's Garden. They had so much pea gravel on the place. See my dad used to work for Uncle Fed Wynn when he had the sawmill. See Uncle Fed would go out and cut the trees down, bring in the logs and saw the logs, then build the building!

"He did it all, Uncle Fed Wynn. My dad used to work on the Fed Wynn place and it was the poorest place. He (Fed Wynn) bought the place from Mr. Pat Davis (William Patterson Davis). That's Leon Davis and Add Davis's daddy. So, Tyler Boling used to live---the road used to come through there where Harvey Dillo---and turned and went down and turned the corner by Davis's place where Mr. Mckenna lives now and over by Mr. Rush Moss's place and come out at the corner down there where Mr. Sam Meredith lives. Now we used to live right across the road from Sam Meredith. East of Sam's. There used to be a big wild cherry tree there. At one time there was a circus at Little Creek and they drove them back over the mountain to take them back and elephants and giraffes had no problem and ate the cherries/leaves.

Margaret Greever, born 1879, second from left, being photographed with sisters or friends at the Greever homeplace in Burke’s Garden June 28, 1899. Albert S. Greever may be the photographer under the hood. Courtesy of Edgar Greever.

"That saw mill that Grandpa Wynn bought was brought over there with 6 yoke of oxen, I mean 6 head of oxen, three yokes to pull that saw mill over there. Had to bring a stationary engine. Over the old road where Mary Lou Volun's place now it belongs to Dupont, in that field over there where it joins Bent Moss's place on the side, used to be a big chestnut orchard there. You can still see the old road that used to go up there. We used to live on the corner there.

"I used to catch rides to town on horseback at that corner from Uncle Pete and Mr. Fox and they used to pick me up. I had a blue serge suit, I was in school then, not really in it, but went and they used to pick me up take me to the store with them.

"Those Foxes liked to brag on their stuff, I was great at that and I always liked old people anyway. That was always my delight if I got with old people, I love it. Old Mr. Steve Mahood, the old fellow that lived right down there over by the Snap's silo in the east end, there. Mr. Steve Mahood lived there. He raised a boy, they raised a boy by them, I think he was related to Aunt Ann, I think his name was Crismond. I know his name was Crismond, Doc Chrismond. Old Mr. Steve Mahood, they raised him. He got to be a railroad man and married old man Grubb's daughter, Nannie Grubb. They went to school the same time Dr. Shawver went to school in Burke's Garden. Nannie Grubb, Carl Grubb and Kate Fox."


Bill Brown
January 23, 1981

Edited transcript from an audio tape made by William T. Brown of Burke's Garden, VA. Brown was born there November 21, 1902, lived there until 1917 with his family, and went back to live there at a later date.

source: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vatazewe/Burke.htm

The extremes of wealth and poverty do not now exist and have never been existent in Tazewell. There are many comfortably wealthy men in the county; and, perhaps, half a dozen millionaires. But, with a population of 27,840 souls in the county, as shown by the census of 1920, there are only 53 paupers here.

The paupers are of a class that are unable to work on account of the infirmities of age, or other physical causes, and mental deficiency. Fifteen are entirely dependent and are maintained at the county farm, while thirty-eight are partially dependent and receive aid from the public funds.

The county owns a valuable farm, situated one and a half miles east of the county seat, its estimate value being seventy-five thousand dollars. During the fiscal year which ended the 1st of July, 1919, the products of the farm amounted to $4,890; and the live stock on hand at that date was valued at $8,760. The annual expense for conducting the farm and maintaining the paupers is, approximately $6,000.

Friends at Wardell, VA, August 1911.

As long as present conditions continue society here will be contented and prosperous; and, apparently, it will be best for the county to remain, as it always has been, primarily an agricultural community. Adherence to this system will give comfort and security to the energetic worker, and will not furnish asylum to the idler.

God forbid, that Tazewell shall ever have a system with paupers at the base and idle rich at the top of the social scale. May its social system never be like that of modern England, of which Matthew Arnold affirmed: “Our inequality materializes our upper class, vulgarizes our middle class, and brutalizes our lower class.”

Wealth, great wealth, is now collectively possessed by the people of Tazewell. What will they do with it? Under the spell of modern civilization, shall the rising generation be trained to place a negligible value upon the instrumentalities of civilization that were recognized and utilized by the pioneer fathers; and be taught that money, position, power, idleness, and luxury are the prime essentials of an advanced civilization? This is the gravest question the Christian world has to solve.

What part will the people of Tazewell enact in its solution? Shall civilization continue to advance here on definitely true lines, or retrograde into a refined barbarism? Shall we continue to teach but neglect to practice the great social and political truths of Thomas Jefferson, embodied in the Virginia Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence?


History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia: 1748-1920, by William Cecil Pendleton, W.C. Hall Printing, Richmond VA, 1920

Was Charged With Killing John Stinson on Laurel Creek Sunday, June 30th

November 22, 1935 --

The jury returned a verdict of guilty late Wednesday afternoon and fixed Ed Nelson's punishment at twenty years in the Virginia penitentiary. Two full days were consumed in Judge Buchanan's Circuit Court this week in the trial of Ed Nelson for the murder of John Stinson, on Laurel Creek on June 30th. A large array of witnesses were present, many of whom were present at the killing.

Character witnesses to support the testimony of the witnesses for the Commonwealth were also introduced. According to H. H. Johnson, of Richlands, two car loads and one truck load of people left Richlands on the Sunday of the murder, to spend the day with relatives of Johnson and the Stinsons. Johnson was leading the procession and when he reached a point near the residence of Wm. Vandyke, just over the brow of a hill, he discovered that the road was blocked by a Ford car.

He requested that the road be cleared, and violent objection to moving the car was raised by Ed Nelson, according to Mr. Johnson, who stated that Nelson threatened to shoot any who tried to move the car. Johnson's statement was emphatically denied by other witnesses. Johnson also stated that Ed Nelson came down the road from the Vandyke yard, pushing a pistol in the stomach of Doc Stinson, father of the man who was killed, and turned loose a volume of profanity.

At this point in the proceedings, according to Johnson, Doc Stinson's son, John Stinson, came up behind Nelson and struck him on the side of the head, whereupon Nelson is said to have turned and shot John Stinson, both he and Stinson falling into a creek, on the edge of which the difficulty having occurred. Other witnesses stated that both Stinsons seized Nelson, that the shooting didn't occur until they had reached the creek bed in the shuffle, and that Nelson shot in self defense.

There was evidence introduced to show that Nelson and other associates were drunk. Nelson is alleged to have run, according to Mr. Johnson, from the scene of the crime. Commonwealth's Attorney Jos. S. Gillespie was assisted in the prosecution by Commonwealth's Attorney Fuller, of Russell, Bruce Johnson, and son H. H. Johnson, of Richlands. R.O. Crockett represented Nelson.

Clinch Valley News Folder
Tazewell County, Virginia

source: www.rootsweb.com/~vatazewe/CVN/1935.htm

related post: "One of the oldest Confederate Veterans"


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