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Wolf Creek Park and Harlem Heights Cemetery Fayette County, West Virginia

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Wolf Creek Park and Harlem Heights Cemetery Fayette County, West Virginia Historic Resource Study: Wolf Creek Park and Harlem Heights Cemetery Fayette County, West Virginia prepared by: Michael E. Workman, Ph.D. Billy Joe Peyton, Ph.D. Graduate Research Assistant: Jessica Sargent-Hill Undergraduate Assistants: Rick Adkins Zachary Crouch Katelyn Damron Ashley Peggs Zane Samples Maxx Turner Alfred Williams September 27, 2019 0 Table of Contents Historic Resource Study: Industrial Heritage of Wolf Creek Park Background 2 Purpose of Study 2 Project Scope 3-5 1.0 On the Waters of Wolf Creek 5-12 2.0 The Civil War Comes to Wolf Creek 12-19 3.0 Coal: Boosterism and Land Speculation 19-24 4.0 Kay Moor and Minden: Trees Above with Coal Below 24-26 5.0 Death Trap: Parral and Stuart Shaft Mines 27-28 6.0 The Coal Boom: 1900-1930 28-34 7.0 Stonehinge: Field Work and Discussion 34-36 8.0 Conclusions: A Multi-Purpose Engineering Station 36-39 9.0 Industrial Site Recommendations 39-40 10.0 Bibliography 41-42 11.0 Measured Drawings and Photographs 43-52 Historic Resource Study: Harlem Heights Cemetery 12.0 Brief History of Harlem Heights 53-56 13.0 Harlem Heights Cemetery 57-62 14.0 Harlem Heights Cemetery Recommendations 63-64 15.0 Graves in Harlem Heights Cemetery 65-151 16.0 Bibliography 152-156 1 Historic Resource Study: Industrial Heritage of Wolf Creek Park Fayette County, West Virginia Background Wolf Creek Park is a 1,059.75-acre multi-purpose development area located between Fayetteville and Oak Hill in Fayette County, West Virginia. It is situated on a plateau drained by Wolf Creek and its tributaries. The Park was established in 2006 to promote residential, light industrial, and recreational reuse of the property, which had been left practically vacant after the decline of agriculture and industry in the last fifty years. Historically, the property supported agriculture, logging, and mining. This report is the culmination of a one-year long study undertaken by a team of historians from West Virginia State University for the Fayette County Urban Renewal Authority’s Wolf Creek Park in Fayette County, West Virginia. Purpose of Study This project was made possible with generous support from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority, under the leadership of Executive Director Christy Bailey. The report is the culmination of a one-year long study undertaken by a team of historians from West Virginia State University for the Fayette County Urban Renewal Authority’s Wolf Creek Park in Fayette County, West Virginia. Work focused on the historical features and associations of the 1,000- acre park, with a spotlight on two historic cultural resources, a stone and concrete industrial structure associated with coal mining, and an African American cemetery, both located in the southern part of the park. Goals of the project have been to document these two sites, make recommendations on interpretation and preservation, and research the historical associations of the sites and the park, itself. The project team consisted of Drs. Michael E. Workman and Billy Joe Peyton, both historians currently involved in teaching and research at West Virginia State University, and Jessica Sargent-Hill, candidate for the M.A. at Marshall University. West Virginia State University undergraduate students assisted in the documentation of the industrial site through a Historical Archaeology Field School course (History 399): Richard Adkins, Zachary Crouch, Katlyn Damron, Ashley Peggs, Zane Samples, Maxx Turner, Alfred Williams. In addition, Jason Lykens photographed the site. Billy Strasser provided valuable assistance as the Wolf Creek Park representative and guide; Sam Chaber assisted in the fieldwork. Special thanks also goes to the New River Gorge Trail Alliance. 2 Project Scope The project team carried out a pedestrian reconnaissance of the property using historic and current maps and valuable input from Billy Strasser and Sam Chaber. No attempt was made to comb the entire property, but existing trails were used to locate and study cultural resources. The team focused its efforts on the stone and concrete structure known colloquially as Stonehinge and the Harlem Heights Cemetery. The team conducted extensive research in the Records Room of the Fayette County Courthouse, West Virginia Archives and History at the Culture Center, Fayette County libraries at both Oak Hill and Fayetteville, and various sites on the World Wide Web geared toward understanding and documenting these cultural resources and the historical associations of the park property. WVSU Historical Archaeology students spent three afternoons investigation the Stonehinge site under the direction of Dr. Michael E. Workman. Some artifacts were collected, but most of the work consisted of cleaning the dirt and debris from the foundations of the structures. Photographer Jason Lyken documented the site with photos and measurements taken for plan drawings. These drawings were later prepared by Maxx Turner. The team then prepared a context and description of the two main resources, with additional work focusing on the historical associations of the Wolf Creek area. Dr. Billy Joe Peyton focused on Harlem Heights Cemetery and conducted research in the individuals buried there and their families. Finally, the team conferred with a representative of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Jeff Davis, as well as Billy Strasser, to develop recommendations for preservation and interpretation of the site. 3 Figures 1 & 2: Wolf Creek Project Area (Fayette Co. GIS Map & Fayetteville, Beckwith, Oak Hill, Thurmond USGS 7.5’ quad maps). 4 Figure 3: Pin shows location of the coal-related industrial site informally known as “Stonehinge” at 38.0033325N, -81.1098242W. 1.0 “On the Waters of Wolf Creek” This section examines the pre-industrial history of the Wolf Creek area using a number of archival sources, including the vast number of land deeds held in the Fayette County Courthouse records room. Deeds and other property records are generally indexed by their location within the county, so the archaic phrase “on the waters of Wolf Creek” was found repeatedly by researchers, so much so that it came to epitomize much of the research. Wolf Creek Park is part of the Wolf Creek watershed, which encompasses 10,947 acres in the center of Fayette County, taking in parts of both Fayetteville and Oak Hill. Its headwaters are located in the southwestern part of the watershed near Lochgelly at an elevation of approximately 2,000 feet, which is reached at several high points within the watershed. For the most part, the stream and its tributaries traverse rolling land with slopes of less than 10 percent, which is unusual for much of Fayette County and southern West Virginia, where steep slopes are the norm. The watershed is often considered part of the larger Fayette Plateau, a section of tableland that also includes the National Scouting Jamboree’s Summit Bechtel Reserve. The stream gradient is fairly gentle, less than 5 percent, until a point beyond its confluence with a tributary, House Creek, where it begins a precipitous decline of nearly 1,000 feet in about one mile as it empties into the New River near the Fayette Station Bridge. 5 The Wolf Creek watershed has played an important role in the history of Fayetteville and Oak Hill. Two important roads pass through the area on a generally north-south axis: U.S. Rt. 19, a recently improved, limited access freeway, and Rt. 16, a two-lane highway that dates to 1847, when it was completed as the Giles, Fayette, and Kanawha Turnpike. Wolf Creek has been a lifeline to Fayetteville until recently as a water source. The creek was dammed near its confluence with a tributary, Short Creek, to form a reservoir, which was utilized for water supply and as a fishing hole until 2008, when the town of Fayetteville sold both its water supply and sewage systems to West Virginia American Water, which now supplies water to the town from a water source near Beckwith. The Wolf Creek reservoir remains to provide water on an emergency basis. It is not completely clear how Wolf Creek got its name, but it is likely that it was derived from the eponymous mammal rather than a family. With its rolling fields, Wolf Creek has long been known for its pasturage of horses, mules, cattle, sheep, and hogs. Much of this livestock went un-corralled during the early nineteenth century, so wolves must have been a great threat. Local governments offered bounties for kills, which had to be proven by presenting a wolf scalp or head. Just two years after its formation, in 1834, Fayette County paid a substantial sum of $2.00 per wolf scalp; in 1841 the County Court upped that bounty to $5.00 per scalp, and then, in 1842 paid $5.00 for an old scalp to aptly-named James Shepherd. The County Court continued this practice until the eve of the Civil War, ordering in June, 1859 that an “allowance of $2.50 be paid for wolf scalps and half price for young ones, and $1.00 for red fox scalps and half price for young ones.”1 One can only speculate on where these wild beasts were killed, but some must have been culled from such an active open range as Wolf Creek. Yet another possible clue leading us to a lupine origin for the name comes from local lore and legend. A ghost known as the White Wolf of Whitlock Farm, portrayed on the web-site “West Virginia Ghosts,” allegedly prowls the farm which neighbors Wolf Creek Park. According to the story, old timers from the nearby communities of Gatewood and Garten attest to knowing, if not believing, the legend. Over sixty percent of the Wolf Creek watershed is forested today, with a few evergreens scattered among the oak, maple, beech, and poplar stands.
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