Elizabeth Spears of Wilkinson, Logan County, WV (1984)

On July 14, 1984, Melinda Spears interviewed Elizabeth Spears at Wilkinson in Logan County, West Virginia. What follows is a transcription of Part 1 of the interview:

Today is July 14, 1984. My name is Melinda Spears and I am interviewing my grandmother Elizabeth Spears, whom I call Nini. Nini, can you tell me anything about your ancestry, about your mother and father, what you remember of them?

Yes, actually Melinda I had two family ancestries that I would need to tell you about because at the age of 4 I was orphaned and I had gone to live with my foster parents. There aren’t too many things that I remember about my earliest parents, except my father was very ill for quite a long time and I spent a lot of time with him, in his bedroom. Particularly I can remember how he used to ask me to rub the bottom of his feet with a piece of kindling wood. The thing I remember most about my mother when she became ill and was bed fast was that she had long hair and asked me to brush or comb her long hair each day. Both my parents were ill for quite sometime and really I can’t recall when either of them died.

Do you know what was wrong with either one of them?

At that time it was a case of tuberculosis for one and actually I never knew what was wrong with my father.

Did you have any brothers or sisters?

Yes, I remember my three sisters, whose names were Ann, Lena, and Julia, their ages were in that order. My brother, who was the oldest. The thing that I remember most significantly about my brother was that when my father became unable to work he (my brother) went to work in the coal mines at the age of 16. Of course I learned of this later and during the time he was working he had his toes run over by a motor in the mines and of course his toes had to amputated. Then that brings to my memory one incident that after both my parents were dead. My foster father took me to see my brother in the hospital, which was at that time in the same location where the Guyan Valley now is which at that time was called Mercy Hospital. I had made my first train trip from Ethel to Logan, to visit my brother.

Do you remember how old you were?

I must have been 5 or 6 years old. Incidentally this was in the community of Ethel. My parents lived in one fork of a hollow, while my foster parents lived in another. Anyone familiar with coal camps knows that these were referred to as this fork or that fork of a hollow.

Do you remember what your house looked like?

Yes, I even remember that we lived next door to a church. Years later my sister and my brother returned to visit these particular buildings and of course there were no traces of either of them.

What’s there now?

Just woods, not even any buildings of any kind. At that time there was a coal company functioning at Ethel and I still remember the name of the coal company, Cleveland Cliffs. At which my foster father worked. I can’t tell you anything about where my mother and father came from. Our name at the time was spelled K-A-R-K.

How do you pronounce that?

Kark. It was pronounced Kark. I have never been able to find any material on the name. Nor have ever heard of anyone else having that family name. Have you?

No, I haven’t. You don’t know any of your relatives you mean.

Didn’t have any relatives. I told you, we were orphans. This is what I am trying to say, that I was the baby and of course I was taken by my foster parents, and the other three girls were sent to an orphanage in Wheeling. The reason being we had no family. None what so ever after our parents’ death.

Do you remember anything about you parents’ death?

Not at all. I can’t even remember them having a funeral or anything else. As I told you the only thing I can remember is helping them while they were bed-fast. However, I do remember once my brother went to Wheeling to find out the whereabouts of my three sisters. By this time they had been located in the orphanage and he got a job working in Wheeling for the Intelligencer, which is the newspaper. He actually worked for this company until he retired. I would say that one of the most unique things about our relationship was that at one time we hadn’t seen each other for 18 years.

Gosh, that’s a long time!

Yes, it was. However, they were all worried about me.

Were there any particular games or hobbies that you remember playing when you were younger?

Well, the games that we kids played… Of course, I was raised as you know by myself at my foster parents’ home. But the neighboring kids, we played in a sandbox at a coal mine close by. Of course, we played the usual games of ball, hide and go seek. However, we didn’t have any of the dignified games that they now have.

One of my sisters became a receptionist for, at that time, the bishop, the Catholic Bishop of the West Virginia Deanery. Bishop Hodges, who has since died. One of my sisters became a nun.

A nun, which one was that?

Janie (Lena) and my other sister which I later learned, she was the black sheep of the family, but she is presently living in Michigan and has been married and has a family of 2 children. My sister who was a receptionist for the bishop married into a family at Moundsville and they operated a restaurant until his death. Strange as it may seem right now, all four of us sisters are widows.

My goodness.

My brother is living in Ohio and he and his wife live between Bridgeport, Ohio (which is on the border of Wheeling).

My education began in this one room school at Ethel. Which I have not too long ago visited there. Which of course it no longer is there. However my teachers, sisters two of them, both are still living, Clara Hyer and Inez Gee. They live right here in Mitchell Heights.

From Southern’s Appalachian Oral History Collection, Logan Campus, Logan, WV. Submitted by student Melinda Spears. Transcribed for this blog by Rebecca Bryant.