West Virginia Memories

 

                                                  I have always loved history. My Mom and Dad fed this love by buying me many good books and I still remember the thrill of opening a book on the Civil War and being transported to another place and time. I dreamed of visiting the places I read about. I knew so much about Gettysburg and other battlefields that I could be a guide.
For years I made various plans that never seemed to come to fruition to visit these places. Finally, several years ago. Luisa and I were able to make this trip of a lifetime. We flew to Philadelphia and visited Independence Hall and saw the Liberty Bell. We saw where Washington crossed the Delaware River and won the Battle of Trenton on Christmas day of 1776. We headed south and saw the "Star Spangled Banner" waving proudly in the breeze over Fort McHenry, in Baltimore. We toured Washington D.C.; the Capitol, the Snithsonian and Mount Vernon.
We headed south into Virginia. We saw the stone wall at Fredricksburg and Stonewall
Jackson’s death site. We saw the House at Appomattox Courthouse where Lee surrendered to Grant to end the Civil War.
A rainy Sunday Morning found us in Harrisonburg Virginia, in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley. We attended church in the morning and were going to stay in Charlottesville that evening. We had the afternoon to explore.
I had learned from Mom and from Loralee about our West Virginia relatives. I knew that Mary Flinn was born in Pendleton County, West Virginia. I had studied and learned that there was a Bland Hills Road somewhere in Pendleton County. I knew that Mary’s mother, Mahala Raines, was born in Bland Hills. So I had planned to drive over the mountain from the Shenandoah Valley to Pendleton County to look around a bit.
It was still raining heavily as we headed west over the Blue Ridge Mountains. The trees were beautiful, green and dense. The only respite from woodland was an occasional farm clearing. The rolling hills were suitably mysterious peeking in and out of the clouds. We felt as if we were entering another time. The rain slowed and then stopped. Sunshine warmed the fields and meadows and woodlands of Pendleton County. We arrived in Riverton, West Virginia and slowly drove through the small town. I realized that everything was closed because it was Sunday. I thought it was going to be difficult to find anyone who could point me in the right direction. We passed a funeral home. There was a man and a woman sitting on the porch of the funeral home drinking lemonade. I had driven two or three blocks before the Spirit said, "If you wanted to know where the cemeteries in Pendleton County were located who might you ask?"
I turned the car around and returned to talk to the funeral director who was very kind and directed me towards the North Fork Valley. He said, "There are literally hundreds of family Cemeteries in Pendleton County, but there is a more recent Cemetery on the North Fork that has some of the names you mentioned."
Back in the car we drove north over the next range of hills. As we reached the summit a beautiful valley lay beneath our gaze. We stopped, supposing that there were probably not may other such vistas unblocked by trees, and took some pictures. Several hundred yards down the hill a road sign pointed us to "Bland Hills Road". We turned right down a narrow 1 ½ lane road that steeply curved downward around hairpin turns. As we passed farmhouses we looked for names on mailboxes that were Flinn, Bland or Raines with no results. There was one small family cemetery with a stone marking where Arley Bland, who died in World War I, was buried.
At the bottom of the hill there was a memorial to a long forgotten battle of the Civil War where two local men died. One of those men was Eli Parry Bland. We felt like we were getting warm.
A right turn and four or five miles brought us to the North Fork Cemetery. There were Flinn’s, Bland’s and Raine’s buried here but all had died after 1960. Dark Clouds floated above us and thunder rumbled across the valley.
We were about to turn back, but a saw a sign advertising Seneca Caverns, five miles north. I thought perhaps they would be open on a Sunday and I might be able to borrow or buy a phone book from them to locate family names. I supposed the Lord might overlook my Sabbath indiscretion if I were doing family history research. We came to Seneca Caverns which was, indeed open. I went to the Gift shop and inquired about a phone book. The clerk said, "You would have to check with our manager, Steve." I asked her to call him and said I was searching for family who had lived in the valley in the 17 and 1800's, I said the names I was looking for were Flinn, Bland and Raines. The clerk looked amused, "Then you will definitely want to talk to Steve. His Mama was a Bland and his Daddy was a Raines. Steve Raines was happy and excited to talk to me. He introduced me to two of my cousins who were waitressing at the restaurant. "Who you really need to talk to is Guy Bland. Jes go back the way ya come. Jes the other side of the road from Bland Hills Road is Guy Bland Road cuz Guy lives on it. Pass the old trailer house, ain’t no one lives theah,. and the old Bland Cemetery, drop down intuh the holler. Guy lives by the red and white pick-up."
We followed Steve’s directions and came to Guy Bland’s house. It looked like it could have belonged to Jed Clampett. Guy was pleased to see us. He was in his 80's. He said, "Who ya really need ta see is Ruby Swadley. She knows all ‘bout the family. I’ll give her a ring fer ya." He picked up the phone, dialed, waited and then said, "Hey, Ruby, they’s some nice folks from Utah ‘ud like to talk to ya ‘bout the family. Kin I send ‘em over? Great, they’ll be right along." As we left Guy told us, "Y’all come back now."
Ruby Swadley lived in the second house on the right down Bland Hills Road. We had passed it an hour or so before. Ruby Swadley, born Bland is Loralee’s 3^rd Cousin. She was living in a house build by her Great Grandfather Enoch Bland, Son of Thomas Bland, Loralee and my common 4^th Great Grandfather. We had a wonderful talk. She knew about the church and worked with some LDS people on family history. She said this land was the original Bland Homestead. And that Thomas and Rachel Shoulders were buried just up the hill. She said that the overlook we stopped at and took a picture from overlooked the Germany Valley which was also called the "Old Flinn Place". The rock formation just above the overlook was called "Old Tom" because it looked like Thomas Bland reclining in profile. She said that it was probably too cloudy to see, but later, as we left and stopped at the overlook, the sun was out and we got a 2 good photo of "Old Tom".
I parked the car and walked up the hill through the tall wet grass and weeds. The sun came out and the vegetation glowed in the haze. I was wet up to my thighs and later I wondered if there were snakes or chiggers, but I was floating in a happy cloud. I was walking on land that my 4^th Great Grandfather had owned. He had walked here and chopped wood here and had children here. He lived and died here. I looked down on the graves of he and Rachel.
When I returned home, I began to search the internet. ( www.familysearch.org  is a great place to start..)  Based on the information I had received. Now I know that we are related to probably 80% of Pendleton County. It has become a home place. We have found well over a thousand of our West Virginia Relatives.