The Reverend Christian Kuhl's Obituary

Obituary, Nov. 21, 1918
The Braxton Democrat

Transcribed by Lila Powers

Rev. Christian Kuhl, son of Henry and Catherine Kuhl, was born near Baltimore, Md., October 19, 1839, and departed this life at the home of his daughter, Mrs. C. N. Brooks, October 25, 1918, at 3:30 o’clock a.m. having been sick but nine and one-half days, of paralysis.

He was 79 years and 6 days of age at the time of his death, and his going was that of peace and ease. “The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness.” Prov. 16: 31. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord.” Lev. 19: 32.

Left: Christian Kuhl

Right: Emsey Heater

He was united in marriage to Emsey E. Heater October 28, 1866. To this union were born six children, two boys and four girls. The youngest girl (Martha R.) preceded him to the Spirit Land January 5, 1879, at the age of six years. He leaves to mourn their loss a loving, devoted wife, five children, eight grandchildren, two brothers, one sister, two half sisters and one half brother, and many friends and acquaintances who have loved and revered him for many years. Their children are: Mrs. Cornelia N. Brooks, of Burnsville, W. Va.; Mrs. Addie Nicholson, of Hettie, W. Va.; Mrs. Rosa H. Benecke, of Titusville, Fla.; Luther J. Kuhl, of Frametown, W. Va.; and Robert F. Kuhl, of Clarksburg, W. Va.

He was a man of strong convictions and would stand up for what he thought was right, and would endure all kinds of hardships for its furtherance. He was true to the principles of his convictions. He was a Confederate soldier during the late civil war, having enlisted at Glenville, W. Va. In Company D, Thirty-first Regiment, Virginia Volunteers, under Captain John E. Mitchell, on May 31, 1861, and served the cause for which he fought faithfully, bravely and heroically. He was four times wounded, the last time seriously, on March 25, 1865, in the charge of Ft. Steadman, having been shot in the right shoulder. He was then captured and sent to Lincoln hospital in Washington City, and was there when Lee surrendered, and did not get home until June 1, 1865. He was distinguished in service, having been promoted to the rank of orderly sergeant for meritorious conduct. He was always at his post of duty, was never absent without leave, and was never punished for any offense during the entire war.

Brother Kuhl was converted to the religion of Jesus Christ when about 21 years of age and joined the M. F. Church, South, in 1866. He was a very active church worker. He was licensed to exhort in 1866, was licensed a local preacher in 1888; and was ordained a local deacon September 18, 1892, by Bishop J. C. Keener at Clarksburg, Va. He preached until November 16, 1901, eighty-one sermons. He always helped to support the Gospel and helped his pastors with their revivals. He administered the ordinance of baptism to quite a number of persons, both children and adults, and filled the place of class leader, Sunday-school superintendent, etc., and also married quite a number of couples.

Above, left: Emsey with daughter Cornelia

Above, right: Christian and Emsey (Heater) Kuhl

Below, left: Christian Kuhl’s Family
. . . Front row (L-R): Christian Kuhl, Emsey Ellen Heater Kuhl, Hezekiah Stout, and Rebecca Kuhl Stout.
. . . Second row (L-R): Luther J. Kuhl, Robert F. Kuhl, Rosa H. Kuhl, Lewis Brooks.
. . . Third row (L-R): Elisha A Nicholson, Laura Addie Kuhl Nicholson, Cornelia Kuhl Brooks.
Photo is from Dave Kuhl’s Collection.

He was a farmer by occupation, but had bookselling and colportage as side lines. He would raise his yearly crop, then he would go out and sell books of various kinds. He was colporteur for the American Tract Society and sold $1,116.86 worth of books and distributed $161.18 free. He also supplied many destitute families with cheap Bibles and Testaments from the American Bible Society.

Brother Kuhl was very earnest in his home religion. Shortly after he was married he and his faithful companion set up their family altar and continued it as long as they kept house to themselves. Night and morning would they have prayer, and they led all of their children to be professors of religion, and when the parents were away from home, the children would each take their turn conducting the family worship.

Brother Kuhl marked hymn No. 605 in his church hymnal, saying the words fit him, dated June 5, 1910:

We may say of him:

“Servant of God, well done!

Thy glorious warfare’s past;

The battle’s fought, the race is won,

And thou art crowned at last.”

“Nobly thy course is run,

Splendor is round it.

Bravely thy fight is won,

Victory crowned it.”

“In thy warfare of heaven,

Grown old and hoary,

Thou’rt like the summer sun

Shrouded in glory.”

“I cannot say, and will not say,

That he is dead; he is just away!

With a cheery smile, and a wave of the hand,

He has wandered into an unknown land.

Think of him faring on, as dear

In the love of there as the love of here.”

The above was taken from an obituary written and read at the funeral service of the deceased in the home of his daughter by his pastor, Rev. U. S. G. Allen.

We wish you to publish the above in the Braxton Democrat.

Mrs. Emsey E. Kuhl

A Photo, Film and Bio of Christian Kuhl (1839-1918)

by David Kuhl

To the right is Christian Kuhl displaying his blood stained and bullet riddled CSA battle jacket at Gettysburg in 1913.

This picture of Christian Kuhl is preserved by the Library of Congress. The picture was located by a total stranger who saw the name in reverse on the glass plate and searched for Christian on the Internet. He found where I had published Christian’s Civil War memoirs written in 1911, he e-mailed a link to the image. My second cousin, Lila Powers, who is also a great grandchild of Christian, observed that this century-old image is so clear that you can see the individual hairs on Christian’s wrist. Readers are encouraged to pull up the original photo.

The Film

Above is a video of Christian Kuhl wearing his Civil War uniform at Gettysburg in 1913. It shows Christian wearing his CSA battle jacket. Note the bullet hole in the right shoulder at the point of the shoulder. Also note the bullet hole (large tear) in the center of the back. This video is from

near the end of the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War. Thanks to my youngest son James Christian Kuhl for locating this video.

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Down the left side are scenes of four of the battles in which Christian took part:

top: Pickett's Charge, depicted by contemporary artist

Don Troiani

second: Battle of Petersburg

third: an aerial view of the Battle of Fort Stedman

bottom: Siltington Hill, where the Battle of McDowell took place, as it looks today.
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In 1913, the State of Pennsylvania and the US Government sponsored the 50 year reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg which was fought in July 1863. 50,000 soldiers who fought on both sides attended. Christian’s unit served in Pickett’s Charge. The still picture and the video were both produced in 1913. The video continues with the 75th anniversary in 1938.

Christian was wearing this jacket on March 25, 1865 during the Battle of Petersburg when he was shot and captured. According to records preserved by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the US Army surgeon who treated Christian stated that Christian’s wounds consisted of “a mini ball entering at the head of the humorous and exiting near the first dorsal – a severe flesh wound”. Christian was taken to City Point, VA (now Hopewell) then placed aboard the hospital steamer the State of Maine for a trip down the James River and then up the Potomac River to Washington, D.C. where he was treated at Lincoln Army Hospital. He signed the Oath of Allegiance on June 10 and was released on June 14, 1865. The siege of Petersburg had degraded to trench warfare.

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The Biography

As acting company commander of Company D of the 31st Virginia Infantry Regiment CSA, “The Gilmer Rifles”, 24 year old First Sergeant Christian Kuhl had been ordered to take Fort Stedman. He led his men across three lines of entrenched federal troops and took the fort. When promised support did not arrive, he was attempting to lead his men back to CSA lines

when he was shot and captured. This was the last of his four wounds suffered during the war and the last of the 33 battles which he fought in the war.

A description of Christian’s wounds is also published in the regimental history series for the 31rst Virginia Infantry Regiment CSA. These books were published in Lynchburg, VA. A copy is available in the Biloxi, MS library.

Christian told his grandchildren about his wounds and wanted them to be sure that they understood that he was shot while he was charging and that he was not shot in the back while running away.

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On May 31, 1861, 21-year old Christian and his 19-year old brother John went to Glenville where they enlisted under Methodist Minister John Elam Mitchell in the CSA. Did they know what they were getting into? Or were they just caught up in the moment and perhaps just getting away from home? Both paid dearly for this decision.

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Christian's younger brother John, serving in the same CSA company, was mortally wounded at the Battle of McDowell on May 8, 1862. His father Henry Kuhl was hung by the Yankees on May 9, 1862. Two brothers, William and Henry, served the Union during the Civil War. Christian told his oldest daughter that he lost his father, a brother and everything he owned during the war. After the war, Christian and his brother Conrad, with others, built the Methodist Church, Jobs Temple using hand hewn logs. This church is on the National Register of Historic Buildings, is still in use and is located near the intersection of Job Run and the Little Kanawha River 9.5 miles west of Glenville, WV on Route 5.

According to his family Bible and family tradition, Christian was born October 19, 1839 in Baltimore, MD a few weeks after his family arrived from Prussia (now Germany).
There is some question about when the family arrived and from where with different information being stated by different researchers.

After the war, Christian was licensed to preach and was ordained in the Methodist Church. He also farmed and sold books to earn a living. He and his wife Emsey (Heater) Kuhl had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood and three of whom have living descendants.

According to the family Bible, Christian died October 25, 1918 at age 79, in Burnsville, WV from the Spanish flu. He and his wife Emsey (Heater) Kuhl are buried in the K of P Cemetery in Burnsville.

One grandson was killed in WW II. A grandson of his brother Conrad and a son of his half-brother George were also killed in WW II. Their names are all immortalized on the Veterans Memorial in Charleston, WV.
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Kuhl Family History on Line

Many other relatives fought in WW II and subsequent wars. One of our goals as a family is to ensure that each of our war heroes is honored with a biography on the West Virginia Veterans' Memorial site.

We are also building a family website

Outlines of the family are provided at:

Henry Kuhl (1802-1862)

Henry J. Kuhl/Cole (1846-1919)

Henry Harrison Kuhl/Cole (1860-1926) 

Mariah (Kuhl) Rutherford (1862-1936) #26

Alice (Kuhl) Rutherford (1857-1947) #28 
Rebecca (Kuhl) Stout  (1849-1928) #782

The Kuhl Family Today

We are also collecting e-mail addresses for a free family newsletter by e-mail. The newsletter will be distributed using the bcc feature to protect your address from spam.

The Kuhl family has held an annual reunion in Glenville, WV in August every year since 1938 with the exception of two war years when gasoline was rationed.

Christian’s CSA jacket was donated to Beauvoir, a CSA museum in Biloxi, MS and the last home of Christian Kuhl’s old commander in chief, Jefferson Davis. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage to Beauvoir and the jacket has not been located. After Katrina, 2500 artifacts were taken to Jackson, MS for preservation. However, the jacket is still missing.

If you have questions about the Kuhl family, contact me:
Dave Kuhl210 Glen Eagles Drive
Ocean Springs, MS 39564-9041
e-mail: dbkuhl@bellsouth.net

Music in the Hills: Music Makers

Music Makers Part 2 of 3

All through the 1700s and 1800s the music played in the Appalachians was truly 'folk'.
Voice, fiddles, dulcimers and later banjos were used for personal and group enjoyment.
Musicians considered food and drink and enjoyment payment enough.
Contact was limited to the immediate area as travel was difficult,

so the musicians and their sounds were local.

But in the late 1800s transportation was becoming easier,
and the advent of recorded sound in the 1920s brought commercial popular music to the hills.
Mail order and mass production made instruments more accessible.
Radio stations started barn dances with live performances of local talent, and styles began to cross over.
.cc.c.c.c.c.~ Paraphrased from Appalachian Traditional Music: A Short History by Debby McClatchy

.It is at this point, in the early 1930s, that this entry begins..

The cover of the Jan, 1941 issue of Promenade: A Magazine of American Folklore

by David Parmer

In the 1930s and ‘40s in the Oil Creek watershed musicians performed for enthusiastic audiences of family and friends on the back porches of an evening, at square dances in homes, even occasionally outside the busy stores and restaurants in downtown Orlando. They also traveled to take part in evetns like nationally broadcast Major Bowe's Amature Hour and the Gilmer County Amateur Musical Talent Show. Some of the performers that we remember today are the Cole brothers Harold, Elzie, Slim and Dana, who were from Three Lick. On Clover Fork were fiddler Marion Blake and his brothers Emery, Bunk, Amos and Ed. Their musical cousins, including Sarah (Blake) Singleton, lived south west of Orlando, on Bragg Run near Gem in Braxton County. James, Charles and Olive and Forrest Henline lived on Oil Creek. Cousin Red Henline from Upshur County played the fiddle in the area.

The Musicians

Marion Blake (b. 1888)

“WMMN wanted my dad to come to Fairmont and play music on the radio,” Wayne Blake related, “but my mother said ‘No,” because she didn’t want him to leave home.” Many old timers sang the praises of Marion Blake, the fiddle player. “He played by ear. If he heard a piece once, he could play it,” said Marion’s son Lijah "Dock."

Left: Marion Bake and his future wife Ethel Skinner
Right: Bunk Blake, musician and Marion's brother

Marion was the son of Stuart Scott and Ivy Jane (Riffle) Blake of Clover Fork, which was the hotbed of fiddle playing. “All of my dad’s brothers could play: Emery was a fiddler; Amos played the fiddle and guitar; Orville, also known as “Bunk” played fiddle, and Ed played the guitar,” Wayne Blake recalled.

Master fiddler Marion Blake had two serious bouts with typhoid fever. This may have been the cause of the poor eyesight which plagued him most of his life. When he was asked to play at dances which would last until the wee hours in the morning, he had to have a “pair of eyes” to get home. His sons, including Wayne and Dock, would go with their father to the square dances to carry instruments and a lantern and also to guide their father's way. Doc said that his father played at many venues, from beer joints to the annual high school alumni gatherings at Burnsville High School where Doc graduated in 1948.

According to his son Wayne and Harold Cole's daughter Marilyn (Cole) Posey, young Harold Quinton Cole would visit senior musician Marion’s home and play into the wee hours of the morning and make it home just in time to get ready to go to work. Marion and Harold probably didn't know they were third cousins, sharing their Blake heritage through grandparents Lucy Alice Blake (Harold's grandmother) and Stewart McClung Blake (Marion's grandfather) who were sister and brother.

Jack (b. 1872) and Biddie (b. 1878) Blake

and their Family

Jack and Biddie Blake

As ducks take to water, the John Jackson and Biddie (Bragg) Blake family took to music. Jack was himself a fiddler and Biddie b. 1879, was an inveterate jaw harp player and singer of country ballads. All fourteen children of this family played music on multiple instruments with uncanny skill from an early age. Several were also skilled in making the wooden instruments of the hills: ducimers, fiddles, guitars. This line of the Blake family was settled near their mother's family on Bragg Run, about ten miles southwest of Orlando, between the towns of Gem and Copen.

While we don’t have any recordings of Biddie performing we do have Georgie Carr of Gilmer County singing, in the 1980s, an old style ballad telling of the death of railroad worker Gene Butcher in 1912, "The Ballad of Eugene Butcher."

To see a video of a jaw harp being played in the Appalachian tradition click here.

Blake sisters Lona, Sarah and Macel and cousin Mabel Dean

Sarah (Blake) Singleton (b. abt. 1914)

Sarah Blake, whose career as a fiddler was long and celebrated, was the fourteenth of Jack and Biddie's seventeen children. When she was young, she listened to the music coming off the bow of her father.

Sarah is the most celebrated of the children, but by no means the only accomplished. Several of her siblings were fine musicians so there was always a trio available to play for square dances anywhere in her neighborhood and several were accomplished carfters of fiddles, dulcimers and guitars. By the age of twelve, Sarah was playing her father’s fiddle, and by fourteen she was playing for square dances. Like her Orlando cousins, Sarah played in many places -- at Falls Mill, in Weston, for radio station WBUC in Buckhannon and in private homes. During her many decades of fiddle playing, Sarah remembered the principle of music taught to her by her father, “If you don’t have a certain time to the tune, you may as well not play it.” Sarah heeded her father’s advice and always prided herself that the dancers who were dancing to her music never wanted to stop.

Left above: Sarah Blake

Right: Sarah Blake

Left below: Macel Blake

Macel (Blake) Overall (b. abt. 1918),
Another of Those

Incredibly Musically Talented Blake Girls

As the youngest of the Blake children, Macel grew up listening to her older brothers and sisters play music, and watched as they made many of their own musical instruments. Not content to be an observer, Macel could pick out a tune before she started school on Bragg Run, and mastered the guitar and dulcimer at an early age.

With so many older siblings, Macel’s musical skills were not in demand at the many square dances played by her brothers and sisters while she was growing up, so her musical offerings were made primarily at home, school, and at small gatherings.

Cole Brothers

Marilyn (Cole) Posey remembers, “My father, Harold Quinton and my Uncles Alvin (Slim), Dana and Elzie [They were the sons of Charles Quinton and Rissie (Blake) Cole.] all played music. Together they were what we call the old time back porch singers. They went from home to home and played till all hours of the night. The womenfolk got the easy job! Feeding the folks who attended.”

Young Harold (b, 1916) Was First

“From the age of six, my dad wanted to learn to play the guitar,” said Marilyn (Cole) Posey, “but of course he had no guitar and no money.” In the early 1920’s, there was little money to spend on musical instruments in the Cole household on Three Lick and the prospects of Harold reaching his goal of having a guitar were slim. But, at the age of six, Harold managed to get a job working for cash, in a hay field. He earned 50 cents, which was a lot of money for a six year old in 1923. The matter of working in the hay fields was trifling if it could produce a genuine, strings-and-all, guitar. Harold Quinton Cole thus embarked, at the age of six, on a musical career which would last over sixty years.

Although he was the youngest of the Cole brothers, Harold Cole was the first of them to learn to play a musical instrument, and perfect it he did. Harold won the annual Gilmer County Amateur Musical Talent Show many years in a row during the 1930’s, passing on the opportunity to tour professionally with the talent show.

Right: Click on the blue boxes to play the songs. The two Harold Q. Cole songs are the property of Marilyn (Cole) Posey. Please contact her before downloadin either tune.

Left above: Harold Quinton Cole

Left below: The Gilmer County Music Men, Cole brothers

And the Brothers Joined In

In short order, brother Alvin “Slim” learned to play the guitar, brother Elzie mastered the banjo, and brother Dana also learned how the guitar strings worked and the harmonica, also. Although the Cole brothers were first known as the “Gilmer County Music Men,” they soon became known simply as the “ The Cole Brothers.” Their music making became well known throughout central West Virginia. The Cole Brothers played wherever they could find someone who wanted a musical group. Schools, churches, private homes, night clubs, and many a front porch were serenaded by the Cole Brothers. Eventually, Slim and Dana moved to Ohio for employment and played music for the enjoyment of the “West Virginia community” of Akron. While he was in military service in Texas, Dana played on radio station STAR.

Harold's Recording

n the early 1940’s, a young Harold Quinto Cole made instant recordings of three songs. In the February, 07 entry The Cole Brothers Band, Marilyn (Cole) Posey told us of how she became the proud owner of the record made by her father, the master guitarist, and Marion Blake, the master fiddler. One of the songs Harold and Marion perform on the recording is the Chicken Rooster Blues.

Chicken Rooster Blues
Late last night, I went out
To get me a chicken or two
But when I heard the old shotgun
Boys, I sure did skidoo.

Grabbed my sack, made for the door
But I didn’t get away in time,
For as I went around the corner of the barn
Boys, I sure did get mine.

Well the guy that shot at me last night
Must have been a sawed off squirt,
For when the buckshot hit, the seat of my pants
Boys, it sure did hurt.

I went home, went to bed
But I couldn’t sleep at all,
For every time I closed my eyes
I could hear that Rooster squall.

I got up, sittin by the fire
When I heard someone outside,
Come in through the gate, upon the porch
Like to jump outta my hide.

Sheriff come up, knocked on the door
Along about a half past eight,
Said Mr. Sheriff, whatta you want
He said I’ve come for you.

Well, I grabbed my pants,
Jumped out the window, started off to run
About that time he grabbed me by the collar
And said, I got you, you son of a gun.

Was down in jail for 90 days
Its home sweet home to me
I’ll get another sack of them chickens
The day that I go free.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ words by Harold Cole

Charles (b. 1919), James (b. 1918), Olive (b. 1914) and Forrest Henline

There must have been something in the waters of the Oil Creek watershed which was responsible for the many musicians who learned the craft of string bending. Or perhaps the common denominator is the genes of the Blake family. The children of cousins Stuart Scott Blake and John Jackson Blake have already been mentioned in this story, as have the children of Rissie (Blake) Cole. The children of Amos and Charlotte (Blake) Henline, Charles and James, with older sister Olive and younger brother Forrest, also inherited the Blake genes, through their mother Charlotte. The Henline siblings entertained many avid fans in central West Virginia during the 1930’s. Charles and James, like Elzie and Dana Cole, continued to perform in southwestern Ohio after they moved there in the 1940’s.

Right, above: James and Charles playing for family.

Left Charles Henline and his mother's brother Walter Blake.

Charles and James Henline began playing string music at an early age and as with all of the musicians featured in this story, loved what they did. Roughly the same age as the Cole brothers, the Henline brothers grew to maturity in the 1930’s and played in many of the same venues under the name Buzzardtown Tongue Twisters. Charles and James, first with their older sister Olive and later with their younger brother Forrest, regularly played for schools, in private homes, private clubs, on radio shows, and for record producers.

Charles and James made instant recordings of several songs during the early 1940’s, which are now part of the musical archive of the State Archives in Charleston.

To the right are several immediate recordings: "Goofus", "Darktown Strutters' Ball". performed by James and Charles in 1943. Note that these were made more than a half century ago and they are quick “snapshots”, not the finished products of studio sessions. Click on the blue blocks to listen to the recordings.

Immediately below the recordings by Charles and James is a recording of Amos Henline's Cow, words by Charles, sung in 2007 by Charles' daughter Jackie (Henline) Bowser.

Like the Harold Cole’s Chicken Rooster Blues, Charlie Henline also wrote a song from their daily life: Amos Henline's Cow. The song was recorded for OrlandoSToneSoup in 2007 by Charles' daughter, Jackie (Henline) Bowser.

. . Amos Henline's Cow

In the big high hills of Braxton County

Lived a cow one time.
She was a cow, A real live Jersey cow,

She belonged to Amos Henline.

Her name was June, her color was maroon,

But on one fine day

She strolled down to the B & O track,

Just to pass the time away.

In the high hills of Braxton County

On the rails of the B & O line,

She tried to carve her name in a big freight train.

When it hit her, it was a shame –

Oh June, into pieces she flew

Into small enough chunks

That would make hamburger stew,

Oh, they found her horns in the hog pen,

And her tail a’hanging on a clothes line.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ words by Charlie Henline

Earl “Red” Henline (b. 1923)

Another virtuoso on the fiddle with Orlando roots was Earl “Red” Henline. The grandson of Lloyd and Virginia (Slaughter) Henline, Red learned fiddle playing at an early age. His grandfather Lloyd, who was more commonly known as “Tank” and had a reputation for trading knives, also played the fiddle. Red’s Orlando cousin Bill played a little fiddle as did his cousin Betty Henline who was first married to a Fox and later married Francis “Sweet Milk” Blake, son of Marion and Ethel Blake.

Left: Red Henline and his wife Theresa

Right: Tank Henline

According to Red’s daughter, Charlotte (Henline) Reger, “Music seems to have been a pure gift with him all his life.” Red performed on Ted Mack’s “Original Amateur Hour,” was the champion fiddle player of five different states and played with the Sons of the Pioneers. Another member of the Sons of the Pioneers was Leonard Slye, who is better known as Roy Rogers, the singing cowboy. Red appeared on local radio and televisions shows with Little John Graham and Cherokee Sue. Red lived most of his life in Upshur County but was a frequent visitor to Orlando. He was generally acknowledged as the best fiddle player in Upshur County.

Later Generations

Descendents of Oil Creek Musicians musicians continue to love and perform music. Below are three examples of how the heritage of folk music continues in the twenty-first century.

Descendents of the Tongue Twisters

Music making continues in the blood of the descendents of these musicians. Olive (Henline) Brannan’s daughter Joyce was a music teacher and Joyce’s son Donald Lambert continues with the fiddle/violin.

Earlier in this entry Charles Henline's daughter, Jackie (Henline) Bowser, sang her Uncle Charles' song, Amos Henline's Cow

Left: Don Lambert, Jr. rehearsing with his grandfather's violin
Also, see the entry for Sep ‘07 Continuing a Musical Tradition

Lijah “Dock” Blake

Dock Blake, who grew up in Orlando, said he learned to play music from his dad, Marion, and really enjoyed attending dances with him. “It was a great experience, everyone had a good time, and I guess that is why I love it so much.” Dock plays at the Lewis County Senior Center on Tuesday nights at six o’clock p.m.

Right: Lijah "Dock" Blake

Left below: Stanley Blake

Stanley Blake

Stanley Blake recently passed away He was the son of Vayden Blake, mentioned in Part 1 of this series on the music of the Oil Creek area. Stanley enjoyed attending the Blake-Riffle Reunion and would sometimes sing at the reunion. He usually selected a song by Ernest Tubbs, who was his childhood idol. After the Vayden Blake family moved from Orlando to Cowen, Stanley was a member of a musical group from Craigsville.

The Slim Quinton Gospel

Two children of the Cole Brothers, Marilyn (Cole) Posey, daughter of Harold Cole, and Charlie Cole, son of Alvin “Slim” Cole, find their fathers’ love of music and performance flowing in their veins. First cousins, Marilyn and Charlie, adopted portions of their respective father’s names and formed the Slim Quinton Gospel to carry on their love for music.

Instruments of choice for Marilyn and Charlie in their musical presentations are the mandolin and guitar. A late comer to playing an instrument, Marilyn indicated that she first wanted to learn to play the guitar but found that instrument too big. So, instead she adopted the mandolin as her instrument of choice. Charlie has been playing a guitar for fifty-five years.

Left: Slim Quinton Gospel: Charlie Cole and Marilyn (Cole) Posey

Marilyn says that the Slim Quinton Gospel likes to give a human touch to music and let it touch the heart. Marilyn and Charlie enjoy playing at the Lewis and Braxton County Senior Centers, at churches and family reunions. “The more you can get the audience involved in the music, the more meaningful it is,” said Marilyn. She mentioned asking elderly Sarah Wilfong to come on stage with them to sing, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” in a performance at the Lewis County Senior Center, and what a thrill it gave Sarah to be asked to participate. It was all the more poignant because Sarah died the following week. Marilyn also thinks that senior citizens who grew up with gospel and country music are those who most enjoy of their performances. Marilyn reflected on a performance at the Red Lick Methodist Church, too. "We sang 'Mountain Railroad' and when we were finished a lady in the audience stood up with tears in her eyes and said that her mother had passed away and that her mother always sang that song. So, when we went the next time to the church, this woman was present again and we asked her to come and sing her mother's song with us." It was a powerful experience.

One of the chief rewards of these music makers has been bringing joy to those who listen and for most it is their great reward for a lifetime of practice. There are often very personal reasons as well. Marilyn (Cole) Posey shares this story. "My mother, Mary Lee (Bee) Cole, died in May 2007. At our 2006 Cole reunion, Cousin Charlie and I sang some gospel music. When we were finished, my mother came up behind and put her arm around me and said, "Your Dad would be so proud of you right now, and I want you to know I am proud of you too." No one will ever know what this statement meant to me, coming from my mother who didn't care for gospel music.

In 2007, my mom had known I was learning to play the mandolin and I had asked her if she wanted to hear me. She said "No, I want you to surprise me at the Cole reunion this year." I said 'Okay Mom!' She died 5 weeks prior to the reunion, so she never got to hear me play. These two memorys will remain with me forever. But one thing I am sure of.......my mother and dad have the "best seat in the house" when Slim Quinton Gospel performs.

Musicians in the

Irish Community

The musicians named above were the descendents of the Oil Creek watershed’s pioneer settlers. The Irish immigrants who fled the potato famine and formed a community in the Oil Creek watershed after the Civil War brought their own traditions with them. How much the two traditions shared and blended is hard to say.

John Kilker Carney recalls that his cousin John Vincent Carney Sr. played the fiddle and was a good vocalist. John Vincent’s sister Margaret was a good piano player. Kilker was also quite impressed at the number of Irishmen who played the harmonica. When asked the names of those who played the mouth harp, he said, “Everyone.”

Left: John Vincent Carney, Sr.

According John Michael Moran, his father, Mike Moran, once said that another Irish virtuoso on the fiddle was his brother-in-law Mike McDonald of Canoe Run, and later Weston, who “had the best bow of any one I’ve heard who played the fiddle.” John Michael recalls that his father, Mike Moran, was also a good fiddle player and could play the harmonica. John Carney, Jr. also recalls that his uncle, Mike Moran, played the violin and his aunt Marge (Carney) Dolan played the piano at a gathering at the Dolan home at the Sunnycroft Golf Course near Clarksburg.

John Michael Moran remembers that for many years, the three Catholic churches, St. Bridget’s, St. Bernard’s, and St. Michael’s, had a dance featuring plenty of Irish music at the Bright Star Skating Rink at Roanoke. One year in the late 1930’s, the dance was held at Mike Moran’s Wholesale building in Orlando. John Michael, who was a pre-teenager at the time of the Orlando dance, said that his mother, Marguerite, loved to dance, as did his father, Mike, and his godfather, John Brice.

Left: John Michael Moran

Reminiscing about violins, John Michael Moran recalled that his dad sold a violin to Byrne Dolan of the Hotel Dolan when Byrne was young, and when Byrne died, Mike went to Byrne’s estate sale and bought the violin back. His dad knew a good violin when he saw it. And Mike Moran loved the music of the Emerald Isle.

Right: Thomas Bernard "Byrne" Dolan

Also according John Michael Moran, his father Mike Moran once said that another Irish virtuoso on the fiddle was his brother-in-law Mike McDonald of Canoe Run, and later Weston, who “had the best bow of any one I’ve heard who played the fiddle.” John Michael recalls that his father, Mike Moran, was also a good fiddle player and could play the harmonica. John Carney, Jr. also recalls that his uncle, Mike Moran, played the violin and his aunt Marge (Carney) Dolan played the piano at a gathering at the Dolan home at the Sunnycroft Golf Course near Clarksburg.

In Closing

Music has blest the human condition from time immemorial. There are songs to praise birth and songs to lament death. There are songs to announce the pathway to a hereafter. Uncle Zeke, in one of his tongue-in-cheek columns, announced that a certain coon hunter would no doubt ask St. Peter if it were permissible to bring his faithful coon dog and gun with him through the pearly gates. Undoubtedly, St. Peter would not consider frivolous a request that fiddle, guitar, or claw hammer banjo, and maybe a pair of clogging shoes, be allowed to cross to that beautiful shore.

. . . . .

Comment by David Parmer
On December 3rd, 1937 a school carnival was held at the Orlando School and was attended by over two hundred people. One of the features of the carnival was a fiddle playing contest to determine who was the best fiddler. The contestants were Mike Moran, John Gallagher, Marion Blake and Edward Blake.

And the winner was ………….Edward Blake.


Comment by John Allman
My grandfather, Gaver Allman, played violin with the Knights of Columbus band in Orlando sometime between 1905 and 1915. His love of music transcended his strict Methodism and some of its strictest adherents who kept Catholicism at arm’s length. Another member of the Knights of Columbus band was Mike Moran who also played the violin. My grandmother, Mishie (Mills) Allman, gave piano lessons in Orlando during the 1910’s and 1920’s.

Comment by Luella (Cole) Ferri and Hazel (Cole) Riffle
Our father was Jesse Cole, son of Henry Harrison Cole and Mary Jane (Heater) Cole of Three Lick.
Our father learned to play the fiddle when he was young. When we lived on Oil Creek, our dad used to play music with the Henline brothers, James and Charles, and also with Fred McCord who played guitar. Our father also played music with his brothers, Chuck and Dane, and with cousins, Clarence and Philip Dolan.

Some of the tunes we remember them playing was “The Twelfth of January,” “Soldier’s Joy,” “The Blue Danube Waltz,” “Red Wing,” and “Sally Gooden.” The musicians on Oil Creek would go to each other’s homes at night and play music and also played for square dances.

Our father was a very good fiddle player and to our ear was just as good as the fiddle players on the Grand Old Opry.
In 1935 our family moved to Gassaway. Although our father still played the fiddle after moving to Gassaway, he usually played by himself and for his grandchildren.
Our brother Larry still has our father’s fiddle.

Right: Jesse Cole

Comment by Donna Gloff:
The first mention of music in Orlando lore is from a letter written by little Ethel Posey, age 10, in 1894. In it she says that when she stayed with her Uncle L. M. [Lucian Minor] Hopkins in Gilmer County they “had music and a general good time.”

Comment by David Parmer
An interesting tidbit arose during the writer’s interview of Marilyn Posey concerning her choice of the mandolin as the instrument she elected to master. Marilyn indicated that her first choice of an instrument was the guitar but she found it “too large.” John Blake, son of Vayden Blake, mentioned that all of his sisters played the fiddle, except for Betty Lou, who did not play because she was left handed. People who do not play instruments for the most part are unaware of circumstances which affect the choice musicians make in selecting their career instrument.

Left: modern, manufactured instruments: Banjo, Guitar, mandolin.

Note: The following sites provided background info which was particularly useful.
ttp://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/appalach.htm.html

ttp://www.downhomeradioshow.com/2007/07/rufus-crisp-feature-episode/

http://mikeseeger.info/html/2_hist.html

Henry Harrison Cole of Three Lick

Marilyn (Cole) Posey's extensive collection of family photos and her research on the Kuhl/Cole family are the basis for this entry and have been the basis for several entries that run from the Civil War through the 1900s, including

. . . Feb '07 A Family Torn by the Civil War

. . . Mar '07 A Bountiful Repast At Old Col. Yancey's

. . . Jan '07 Henry Cole Died a Hero

. . . Mar '08 The Rose and Her Bud

David Parmer, in fine Stone Soup tradition, has taken Marilyn's material and contributed additional material from his extensive resources, including Ruth Mick and Mrs. Clifford Wine.

Right: Henry Harrison Cole

by David Parmer

Henry Harrison Cole's Grandfather:
Henry Kuhl, Immigrant and Pioneer

Henry Kuhl was born in Bendorf, Prussia when the boots of Napoleon’s French army were marching across and laying waste to central Europe. He was still a youth during the second Napoleonic war, which ended at Waterloo. Kuhl’s native Prussia was deeply involved in both conflicts, and as with most wars, it is the common man in uniform who bears the most casualties and the families of the common soldier who do the most weeping.

Prussia was a state of landed gentry. Huge estates were owned by a few aristocrats. There was little opportunity and even less future in war-like Prussia for a common man like Henry Kuhl; so like his Scotch-Irish, German and English counterparts of the previous century, he set sail with his family for America, the land of opportunity, and hopefully peace, for a common man. He was thirty seven years of age when his immigrant ship set anchor in Baltimore harbor in 1839.

A Braxton County Beginning

After arriving in Baltimore Henry Kuhl, his wife Catherine and their three sons, William and Conrad who were born in Prussia and Christian who was born in Baltimore, migrated first to Lewis County and then to hilly, west central Braxton County and a farm on Toms Creek, a tributary of Cedar Creek. The Kuhl family arrived in Braxton County before 1841. By the time the census taker in 1850 found his way to Toms Creek, the Henry Kuhl family had increased by three more children, John, Henry and Rebecca.

The Kuhl farm on Toms Creek as it looked in the late 1900s.

The Kuhl family lived a hard-working, productive life for the next decade creating a productive farm from virgin timbered hills. In 1861, Henry Kuhl, in the placid, verdant hills of his Braxton County farm, once again heard the sounds of guns, a reminder of his Prussian youth.

The Civil War
The Union troops came as an invading army. As do most invading armies, the soldiers, mostly from Ohio, took what they wanted from the local farmers and threatened those common folk who did not pledge loyalty, in act and deed, to the Union cause.

Throughout northwest Virginia, in the area that would become central West Virginia, the loyalties were divided between the cause of the Union and continuing allegiance to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Spies for each competing faction were everywhere. Union sympathizers were reported to Confederate-leaning partisans and southern sympathizers were reported to the Union occupiers. Acts of cruelty, murder, arson and robbery were committed in the name of each side by neighbors who prior to the invasion had lived peacefully, side by side.

The Casper Prislor Affair
During the early days of the Civil War in what is today central West Virginia, strangers were particularly viewed with suspicion. Unfortunately, one of those strangers, a Union soldier, sympathizer or camp follower by the name of Casper Prislor came skulking to the out-of-the-way farm of Henry Kuhl. The Kuhl farm had earlier been victimized by thieving Union soldiers. The suspicious Prislor was killed by a wary Kuhl and a farm hand named Hamilton Windon. This regrettable act was reported to the Union army whose officers arrested Henry Kuhl and Windon for murder. They were tried by a military tribunal and were hanged at Sutton as an example to local farmers that violence against the Union cause could have fatal consequences.

Henry Kuhl's Son Conrad Kuhl, Confederate Prisoner
The second oldest Kuhl son, Conrad, had been present at the time his father and Windon had killed the Yankee Prislor and was arrested along with his father and Hamilton Windon. Marilyn Cole Posey, great-great-great-granddaughter of Henry Kuhl, who has done extensive and important research on the death of Casper Prislor, reports that the military tribunal found that Conrad was not a principal in the murder of Prislor, but was nonetheless involved. Conrad was sentenced to imprisonment for the duration of the war and ordered to wear a ball and chain on his ankle for the time of his imprisonment.

According to Thomas Bland Camden in his article published in the Weston Democrat in 1927, he was imprisoned along with Conrad Kuhl at the notorious Federal prison camp at Camp Chase, Ohio for the duration of the war. Camden reported that Conrad could easily slip in and out of the ball and chain fixed to his ankle. Camden also reported that Conrad became a skilled jewelry maker while in prison and that Conrad had fashioned a nice ring for him with his initials, “T B C,” inlaid in the ring. In addition to Fort Chase, Conrad Kuhl was also imprisoned at Fort Delaware.

Henry Harrison Cole's Father:

William Kuhl, Farmer and Union Soldier

In 1860, just before the Civil War, William Kuhl, then twenty-six years of age, married Mary Hefner. William and Mary Kuhl, according to the 1860 census-taker, were living on a farm on Rocky Fork in northeastern Gilmer County. Mary was the daughter of Peter and Susannah Hefner who lived on the adjacent farm. Another neighbor of William and Mary Kuhl on Rocky Fork was James and Rebecca Ratliff and their six children, among them a son named Henry F. William Kuhl’s farm on Rocky Fork was about fifteen miles from the farm of his father Henry Kuhl on Toms Run.

Left: William and Mary (Hefner) Kuhl

After the outbreak of hostilities in the spring of 1861, William Kuhl soon received word of his father’s implication in the death of Casper Prislor.

William Kuhl Changes His Name to Cole
William, the older of the two Kuhl sons who had emigrated from Prussia, disapproved of his father’s implication in the death of Casper Prislor and felt that the family name had been disgraced by the act. Maybe to atone for the act of his father, William joined the Union army, and as a statement of his denunciation of his father, changed his name from Kuhl to “Cole” on his enlistment papers into the Union army, and thereafter went by the name of “Cole.” William’s younger brother, Henry J., following the lead of William, also joined the Union army under the name of “Cole.” There must however have been some uncertainty regarding a change of name by William because the 1870 census-taker reported William’s last name as “Khule” and in 1880 the census-taker still reported it has “Kuhl.” Obviously, since the family name was still being spelled as “Kuhl” as late as 1880, there is an inconsistency within the family tradition as to when the spelling of the name changed. William and Mary’s children however seemed to be consistent in spelling their last name as “Cole,” which became the accepted spelling of family name thereafter. When our Henry Harrison Cole married Mary Jane Heater in 1882, the official record of the marriage lists his name as “Cole.”

Henry's Parents William Cole Family
Quiet times again returned to central West Virginia after the hostilities of the Civil War. It was still a hard life, scratching out a living for a large farm family on a hilly Rocky Fork farm. Notwithstanding the difficulty in making a living, William and Mary Cole were fruitful and multiplied. By the time of the 1870 Gilmer County census, William and Mary were the parents of four children, our Henry Harrison, aged nine, Peter, aged five, Lurana, aged three, and Sarah, aged one. The 1880 census reported that William and Mary were the parents of three additional children, Susanna, aged nine, Elizabeth, aged six, and Lovey, aged three.

William Cole continued to farm during his lifetime and also, according to his great, great granddaughter Marilyn Cole Posey, operated a grist mill at Blackburn on lower Rocky Fork. Mrs. Clifford Wine of Indian Fork recalls the remnants of an old mill which were stored in an old barn on her father’s property on Rocky Fork, once believed to be a part of the William Cole farm. William died in Gilmer County in 1891. His widow, Mary, passed away in 1914. William and Mary are buried in the Blackburn Methodist Church Cemetery.

Left: #1 is Toms Creek, #2 is Rocky Fork and #3 is the confluence of Grass Lick and Three Lick.

Henry Harrison Cole

Henry Harrison Cole, the oldest son of William and Mary (Hefner) Cole, and Mary Jane (Heater) Cole were Gilmer County residents from the time of their marriage in 1882 until 1901. From 1884 until 1899, they became the parents of eleven children who were born in Gilmer County. The oldest child Bessie was born in 1884, Ida in 1885, Mabel in 1887, Susan Rosetta in 1889, Charles Q. in 1890, twins Lana and Laura were born in 1892, Simon in 1895, Jesse in 1897, and a second Susan Rosetta in 1899. After the family moved to Lewis County, two additional children, Verdie Elizabeth and William H., were born to Henry Harrison and Mary Jane (Heater) Cole in 1902 and 1906.

Left: Son Charles Quinton (center) with his sons Alvin "Slim" and Harold Quinton.

Right: Daughter Bessie Cole, wife of David Wimer, then wife of Uncle Zeke's good friend Rufus Blake, in her later years.

Henry and Mary Jane Cole Move to Three Lick
In 1901, Henry Harrison Cole purchased a one hundred thirty acre farm from Aldinah (Cosner) Bennett and George Hezekiah Bennett, her husband, in the vicinity of Three Lick and Grass Run and moved his family to the outskirts of thriving Confluence. This farm at one time had been owned by David N. Godfrey, a well-known Orlando resident. There Henry took up general farming and raising his family for the next twenty-five years.

First Row: Simon Cole, Bessie (Cole) Wimer Blake, Henry Harrison Cole, Susan Rosetta Cole, Verdie Elizabeth Cole (on lap), Mary Jane (Heater) Cole, Jesse Cole.
Second Row: Nellie Wymer, David Wymer, Furman Wyer, Mabel (Cole) Wyer, Charles Quinton Cole, Laura Cole, Cora Wimer, Ida (Cole) Wimer

Henry H. Cole's Demise

The Summons
Pete Moran, the Orlando postmaster, sorted the mail from Weston which had arrived on the early morning train on a February morning in 1926. Among the many letters in the mail sack was a letter from the Circuit Clerk of Lewis County addressed to Henry H. Cole of Route 2, Orlando. Pete dropped the letter in the box of Alva Barnett, the Route 2 mail carrier, for further sorting and for delivery.

Henry Cole was a farmer and lived with his wife Mary Jane near the mouth of Grass Run of Three Lick, just north of Orlando. The mail carrier, Alva Barnett, usually reached the home of Henry Cole in Grass Run area late in his delivery route, which took a circuitous route by way of Posey Run, Rocky Fork, Indian Fork and Three Lick. Arriving in the Three Lick area in mid afternoon, Alva dutifully slid the letter for Henry into his mail box and nudged his horse along on down Three Lick. Mail was eagerly awaited by rural patrons. Henry Cole opened the important-looking letter and found a summons from the Circuit Clerk of Lewis to report for grand jury duty in the Circuit Court of Lewis County for the March 1926 term of court. Henry knew his duty and meant to comply.

Jury Duty
Serving on jury duty in 1926 in Lewis County was no easy obligation to fulfill for a rural citizen from the southern Collins Settlement District. There were no passable roads from Three Lick to Weston in the winter of 1926 and a trip to Weston meant a trip by rail. Serving on a jury may also have required that the jury pool be available for court for a number of days without the possibility to return home at the close of each day’s court session.

Town Run
In 1926, Weston was a bustling town and was the center of commercial activity in Lewis County. Glass plants flanked the outskirts of the town and gas well drilling contractors were busy. Main Street was full of prosperous stores. The Insane Asylum loomed large in the town’s identity and economy.

Town Run in 1926 was a thickly populated section of Weston, dotted with modest frame homes which were primarily occupied by the glass plant workers, asylum employees, railroaders and shop workers. Located on the southern end of town, it was also convenient to the Lewis County Courthouse, the place Henry Cole was to report for jury duty.

A Deadly Fire
In 1926, Minnie Radcliff, a fireman for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, lived with his wife Jessie and his six children on Willow Street in the Town Run section of Weston. Minnie generally worked between Weston and Grafton. Minnie was the son of Henry F. and Eliza Radcliff. Henry’s parents, James Ratliff and Rebecca Ratliff, lived on Rocky Fork in Gilmer County during the 1860’s and were neighbors of William Cole, father of Henry Harrison Cole.

We don’t know why Henry Harrison Cole was staying with the Minnie Radcliff family in Weston on Friday night of February 26, 1926 awaiting jury duty which did not begin until the following Monday. Maybe the early family connection as neighbors on Rocky Fork led Henry to seek a bed at the Radcliff home and spend a few days visiting. Whatever the reason, it was a fateful, and fatal, decision by Henry Harrison Cole.

At some point in the evening, fire broke out in the Radcliff home. During the confusion, Mrs. Radcliff became convinced that one of her children was still in the blazing house. Hysterically, Mrs. Radcliff proclaimed this belief and Henry, who had been standing on the street watching the blaze, went back into the inferno in search of the child. Maybe his inability to find the child caused Henry to stay in the burning house longer than was wise. Henry Cole of Three Lick perished in the blaze as the burning house collapsed. Henry H. Cole was never known to be a courageous or noble man, but now he is remembered as a hero. As a footnote to his death, the newspaper account of the fire reported that the child who was supposedly in the burning house, had been out of the house all along, safely in the arms of a neighbor.

Left: Henry and Mary Jane (Heater) Cole

A Solemn Return
The corpse of Henry Cole was prepared for return to Orlando by the McKinley Undertaking Company of Weston. There is little cosmetic help for a corpse as badly burned as Henry Cole so a modest casket was selected and according to Ruth Mick, the body returned to Orlando by horse and buggy. Winter travel was difficult in the days of crude country roads from Weston to Three Lick. Flooding on Oil Creek also made travel difficult. After a difficult journey, the casket bearing the corpse of Henry Cole returned to his Orlando home. His widow, Mary Jane, had been seriously ill for several days and fear of contagion prevented her from opening her home to mourners and prevented her from leaving. Mary Jane viewed the badly burned corpse of her husband from a window before the casket was sealed for burial. The raging flood waters of Oil Creek made it impossible for a burial that day and that final act would have to wait until the next day, February 28th. With due solemnity, Reverend Emory F. Keller of the Orlando United Brethren Church officiated at the burial of Henry Harrison Cole, the grandson of a German immigrant and son of a Civil War veteran, as he was buried in the Orlando Cemetery.

. . . . .

Comment 1 by Marilyn (Cole) Posey

William Cole, the father of Henry Harrison Cole, operated a grist mill near Blackburn. The grist mill was located in the meadow on the right at the intersection of the Indian Fork Road and the Rocky Fork Road. The William and Mary (Hefner) Cole home was located across the creek and on the hill overlooking the mill. My great-great grandparents attended the Blackburn Methodist Church and are buried in the church cemetery. William died in 1891 and Mary died in 1914.

Comment 2 by David Parmer

Simon Cole, one of the younger children of Henry Harrison and Mary Jane (Heater) Cole, enlisted in the United States Navy during World War I. In late November, 1918, after the war was over, but while he was still serving aboard the battleship U. S. S. Pennsylvania, Simon received a telegram from home advising him that his teen aged sister, Elizabeth, had passed away. The telegram has been preserved to this day. After his discharge from the Navy, Simon returned to Orlando, married Tressie Sibyl Heater, daughter of Andrew Jackson and Ora (Riffle) Heater, and eventually moved to Gassaway. Simon was a long time employee of the Hope Gas Company. His son, Simon Junior, was also a long time employee of Hope Gas Company and was a long time Mayor of Gassaway. Simon’s youngest son, Jim, recently retired as the Executive Vice President of Allegheny Wood Products, one of the largest lumber companies in West Virginia. Jesse Cole, also a son of Henry Harrison and Mary Jane (Heater) Cole, moved from Buzzardtown [Posey Run area] to Gassaway in 1935 to operate a garage and filling station for his older brother Simon.

Left above: Simon in his Navy uniform
Left: Simon and Tressie Sibyl (Heater) Cole

Comment 3 by David Parmer

The name “Ratliff” seems to be spelled as many different ways as there are letters in the alphabet. Minnie Radcliff, with whom Henry Harrison Cole was staying the evening of his death, was the grandson of James Ratliff of Rocky Fork. Other variations of the name are Ratcliff, Ratcliffe, Redcliff, Redcliffe, Radcliffe, Ratleff. All of the ways the name has been spelled creates problems in genealogy research. Most “Ratliffs” seem to acknowledge that they are still related to the persons who spell the last name differently.

Comment 4

Thanks to David Kuhl who corrected the first name of Mr. Windon with his comment: "The name of the hired hand hung with Henry Kuhl was Hamlton W. Windon not Gabriel.
Dave Kuhl dbkuhl@bellsouth.net"