Turned out Grandma Pearl had made Mama Sherry write down a few things in her paperwork.  And we were able to start to match these clues with history-tellings aids like maps.  Pearl had mentioned Crossroads.  And when we got our map from Historical Maps we found it right there next to Miracle Run.

It was good to find a map that helped tell the story of place.  We'd been learning a lot from reading local histories too.


"The old Morris Mill is below West Warren," Wiley writes.  "It passed into the hands of Shriver and Santee, then to Woodruff, who contemplated putting steam to it.  Lewis Fox's mill is on Miracle Run, and the Thomas Mill is near the Job post-office" (761).

Lewis Fox Mill, Morris Mill, Thomas Mill


Looking back at some of these places when their populations were tiny compared to large population centers gives us a really good sense of the people being very directly involved in some "politics."

Other things we learn tell us about trends and statistics which made for a “general.” 

So, for example, we see a list of some numbers about the people and there is 1 (one) colored voter in 1882 as opposed to 462 white voters.


That same list of enumerations gives us a people who have 706 horses, 2135 cattle, 6249 sheep, 358 hogs, 196 carriages/buggies, 206 watches and clocks, 11 pianos and melodeons, in 1882.

206 watches and clocks in 1882...that's up from 76 in the year before...must've been a watch salesman come through, or some other innovation in the fields/trends.  This gives us some insight into business of the day.  Where was the technology of watches and clocks at that time?  What was happening in sales and markets that tells us about people interacting with objects of technology? 

Similarly, there is an interesting number difference in watches and clocks of the people in the years 1873 and 1874.


335 watches and clocks in 1873...and only 37 in 1874...wonder what happened there?!

I found the chart on page 763 of Wiley's book. 

We can do some comparison to an enumeration of the Battelle District by County Superintendent Morgan...who reported:

369 males, 350 females--WHITE YOUTH
8 males, 5 females--COLORED YOUTH

for a total of 732 youth...

Part of the 2293 inhabitants in Battelle in 1880. 
West Virginia's 3rd largest district in population.

And all part of the assessed "worth" of Battelle in 1883 at $592,496.


Wiley gives us lists of civilians who served in "offices" like Magisterial Officers, Constables, and, there were some Township Officers and District Officers.

Justices and Constables were Township Offices, as were officers like:  Supervisors, Inspectors of Elections, Overseers of the Poor, Clerks, and Treasurers...

Some of the last names on those registers include:
Wise, Fletcher, Garrard, Anderson, Lemley, Harker, Gump, Haines, Hough, Minor, Woodruff, Haught, Core, Six, Santee, Shriver, Moore, McKee, Eddy, Lough, Hillery, White, Phillips, Tennant, Eakin, Kinney, Keefover, John, McCoil, Stewart, Rice, Spragg, Hennen, Barnard, Russell.

District Offices also had justices and constables.


There is an interesting list of presidential voting, 1844-1884.
In 1864, for example, there were 142 votes for McClellan and 100 for Lincoln.
Later in 1880, Hancock got 259, Garfield 211, and Weaver--only 2.
That tells us something very important about "party politics."


West Warren was the only "town" in the district at the time. 

It had a store, a post office called WADESTOWN Post Office, a church and several houses.  It was situated north of the center of the district on the headwaters of Dunkard Creek (pg. 760 Wiley). 
It was about six miles northeast of Burton.

Burton was a station on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Wetzel County.

Enumerations, Political Numbers, Timepieces, West Warren
The building of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad on the western border of Battelle was an "outlet to market."

Elsewhere in the Wiley book (page 767) there is a poll regarding "Railroad Subscription." 


While Morgantown in three poll dates favored "For" as opposed to "Against" in numbers like...412 to 5 and 582 to 13...people polled in June of 1882 and February of 1883 when asked if they were for or against the railroad in West Warren, Wadestown, and Tuttle's voted quite oppositely.  4 FOR and 400 AGAINST it in West Warren, for example.  And 5 FOR and 414 AGAINST in Wadestown. 

As for a place called Tuttle's...the poll showed 19 FOR and 50 AGAINST.


If we go to the website about Orlando, West Virginia, we get to read about "Life As A Railroad Cook" because of a man named Homer Dick.




O'Brien (in AT HOME IN THE HEART OF APPALACHIA) gives us more insight into a place called Shaver's Fork, West Virginia where a town named Spruce used to be. 

He ties the railroad to the land place instead of a river, and describes, "In the early 1900s, the town boasted a post office, hotel, pulp mill, company store, bunkhouses, and homes.  At 3,853 feet, it was the highest town in eastern America, and the only way in or out was by rail" (195).

We can read lots of different books to come up with a composite picture of West Virginia way back when.  And in that we find out that West Virginia as an American place caught up in big changes to the country and the countryside was not very different from New England or Out West.

O'Brien also tells us that a Great-Uncle of his wife's wrote three books about those "camps" and the men, who often "...stayed on the mountainside for as long as six months before riding a flat car into Cass to 'blow 'er in,' often spending half a year's wages [all] in a day."
 
This sort of rowdiness found in the camps of burly men seems to have spilled over into Grandma Pearl's personal life.  While we don't know all the details from back then, we do know that Pearl and Ben didn't work out as a married couple. 

He wasn't a nice person, he wasn't nice to her, everybody did say.  And this had to suffice for the story of what happened to Pearl and their children, why Pearl had to move away from her family, go to Michigan.


Apparently it was one of those situations where people had to make very difficult decisions.  When that happens, a lot of times, people can't help but point fingers and saddle the blame on somebody.  Grandma Pearl had a heap of blame put on her and it made her feel sad about West Virginia and not want to talk much about anything.


By 1930 when the big bust happened Pearl had to make tough decisions about staying with Ben Wilson, or, staying in West Virginia despite Ben Wilson.  He'd proven more committed to his fiddle playing than to a little life with Pearl and the babies.

She decided to go to Michigan.  

She didn't go all alone.  Charlie McVicker presented himself as a more loving suitor and Pearl married him.  They moved to Skidway Lake in Michigan where they raised the daughter Betty June.  Pearl left the daughter Louise with her folks, Elias and Ida Mae Fox, in West Virginia.

It wasn't until years and years later, well into their adult lives, that Betty and Louise made a reunion happen.  They thought it comical then, to see how very different from each other they looked.

We seem to find Pearl on at least two Censuses that fateful year.  One shows her married to Ben/Glenn Wilson and the other shows her by herself with two children.  On the move was a common phrase during those times.