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 My name is Davey Fox; I was born at Harlan hospital in 1962, I have two brother's. Ronald Fox Jr;  Mark and my sister  Patty. I now live in Kalkaska, Mich. That's 18 miles east of Travers City Mich. Ronnie lives in South  Lyons, Mich. Patty lives in  Austin Texas, Mark lives in Las Vegas  Nevada near my mom. My mom and dad is Ronald and Ruby(Fredrick)Fox. My grandparent's on my mom's side was Lee and Myrtle Fredrick and  I miss them very much since their  passing. They lived next to Ott and Irene wynn, across the alley from Bill Ledgers and down the alley from big mommy. My friend's were Orvill Wynn and Jesse Pease. I remember we use to live in the little house across from BMS.  I also remember going to the little church school up from the old RED STORE. We moved to Detroit in 1964. My grandparent's on my dad side was Troy and Georgia Fox. They lived up behind Berly Middleton's store in Redbud, my aunt and uncle James and Phillis Write live there now. My aunt Peanut and uncle Jack Gibson live in grandma and grandpa Fredrick's house now. I try to get down there and visit every chance I get. I would like to see a lot of people that I know, Pauline and David Crider there daughter Lisa . Jan and Andria Wynn, These are very special people that I will never forget. By the way I have been married for 20 years as of sept 5-2001. My oldest son, Davey Jr, is 19yrs old my 2nd son Darren is 17 and my 3rd son Aaron is 14. My dad still lives somewhere around Evart's.  I haven't seen him in years . I would love to hear from him. I told my mom about this site and she would like to hear from some of her old friend's. If anyone has any pictures of my grandparent's or my mom and dad when they were young or know anything about them I would like to hear from you.
 Im glad to be a part of black mountain.
Love the place.
Davey

      I was born in Barbersville, Kentucky in 1928, and moved to Harlan County, Kentucky when I was about four years old.  My family and I moved to Everetts, which was better known as Snuff Street.  My parents' names were George and Mary Thomas.  There were four children, three boys and one girl. Oldest to youngest, it goes Homer, Goldie, myself, and Elmer.  We moved to Black Mountain, house number 1098 in the back alley.  We lived there for awhile, and then we moved to Benita.  We moved around a lot, but I spent most of my childhood in Kenvir, Kentucky.  I attended Black Mountain Elementary School, the old one before they built a new school.  I also lived in Pumpkin Center, and I went to school at "Dizney School."  Then we moved back to Brittian's Creek Boarding House.  I lived there until I married Ruth Hale, daughter of Bill and Myrtle Hale, in 1946.  Before we moved to Dayton, Ohio in 1951, we had two daughters, Elaine and Theresa.  While in Dayton, we had a son named Fred in 1954.  I still call Kenvir my home; my fondest memories still belong to that place.  For five and a half years I worked in the coal mine number 31 while I lived in Kenvir, so I knew a lot of people.  I put a lot of memories into that place, and I'm anxious to revisit where I grew up. Claude Sargeant and I helped to build Brittian's Creek Baptist Church, dedication date September, 1944.  I currently live in Englewood, Ohio at 4311 Forestview Court; 45322. I have four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.  My grandchildren are:  Missy Woodward, 30, daughter of Elaine and Robert Arnold; Andrew, 19, Stacey, 16, and Aubree, 12, children of Fred and Sheila Thomas.  My great-grandchild is Sarah Woodward, daughter of Missy and Tony Woodward, and she is less than a week old. If anyone would like to contact me, you can email me at Wallyman72@aol.com


Kentucky Explorer another Kenvir person story
Posted by Gert on 9/10/2003 20:50:47

Hi all Kenvir friends and OTHERS WANTED TO WRITE A STORY FOR YOU FOUND IN THE Sept 2003 KENTUCKY EXPLORER bY:
Walter Thomas's wife" Ruth hale Thomas. COMING FROM HARLAN COUNTY:

Ruth Hale Thomas.

I was born in Tennessee in 1928 during the depression, My father was William Franklin Hale. But everyone called him Bill Hale. My mother was Myrtle Russell Hale. At the age of three my family moved to Draper in Harlan County. Times were very hard and my dad worked in the coal mines because this was the only work he had previously done. My mother had nine children, eight girls and one boy but he died at birth, I know my mother loved us but she was too busy to love us one-on- one. I was the third child so I looked up to my older sister for my love. My father was a very humble person and was loved and repected by all in the community.

I went to church with my father everytime the doors were open and this was all the entertainment that we had.
We also went to singing convetions and dinner on the ground all over Harlan county, I rememeber this was an exciting time for me, My sisters and I enjoyed participating in plays that were put on every Christmas at the church.  At the end of the program all the children would receive a bag with an orange, apple and candy,
I spent most my life growing up in Kenvir, Kentucky. Known as BlackMountain. Mine # 31, Times were hard, but we didnt know we were poor, because everyone around us was poor also. We lived in a company house that cost $10 per month, I liked to go to school and I went everyday unless I was ill. Seventh and eighth grade I went to school at Pumpkin Center in Dizney, Kentucky, my parents moved back to Kenvir., and I started   high school at Evarts, Kentucky. My attendance was good.. but in my sophomore year my mother broke her arm and I had to stay home for my last semester. I was glad that the next year she told me to go back to school, In 1944 I graduated from Evarts High School, after only 3 1/2 years.

  In the summer  of 1944 I went to Harlan County Kentucky school and took a six week course to be a teacher,This was during WW11 and teachers were needed, I talked to Professor King who was my teacher in the eighth grade and he asked me if I would be interested in accepting a teachers position on Pine mountain. There were three schools at Pine mountain. One was called the Settlement School for the underpriviledged children and two smaller schools called Big Laurel and Little Laurel. I was asked to teach at Big Laurel which was a one room scholl and I taught all eight grades. My father took me over the first time and I was to board with a Missionary lady who came to the mountains from new York. I went home on the weekends and had to ride with the mailman over the mountain to Putney Kentucky.There I caught a train into Harlan then a bus on to my homeI would go through the same procedure on Monday morning back to school.This was quiet an experience for me. My pay was $100 per month,which was very good pay for me..
 
  As I grew up in Harlan I got to know Walter Thomas. At the age of 15 we began to date. He would walk me home after church  and we saw each other at singing conventions. When I came back home from teaching school at Christmas, Professor king said he had an opening at the Kenvir school  and asked me if i would be interested in teaching the second grade. Of course that pleased me because I would be closer to home. Walter and I got married in 1946. and he went to work in the coal mines.We had two daughters in the next two years their names are Elaine and Teresa. In 1951 Work in the COAL MINES WAS SLOWING DOWN..So walters parents George and Mary Thomas decided to move to Dayton,Ohio.Because George had an half sister who lived there.We decided to follow them to Ohio a few months later, In 1954 we had a son who was named Fred. Our children are grown now and we have four grandchildren and 1 great grand child.  I believe Walter and I are blessed..
The names of the Hale girls starting from the oldest are Iva Lee, Marie, Ruth, Frankie, Betty, Mildred, Leta Annez, and Laquata. My name is Ruth Hale Thomas  and I don't agree with the person who said nothing good comes out of Harlan County. I dont think I'm such a bad person. Through the Lord jesus Christ, He made me what I am.
 Ruth Hale Thomas,  Ohio 45322 .

Hey Ruth Hale Thomas wonderful story and I agree with you lots and lots good people come out of Haelan county and all the good also with it. Walter Thomas and his wife Ruth were at the Blackmountain reunion and I did catch him in a picture in my 2003 reunion picture. But I missed getting Ruth this time but she was in pictures last year and in my video. Walter thomas has pictures on the Kenvir Web.
 Yea Ruth Hale Thomas God bless your heart,
  posted by Gert Eachus,Dayton Ohio

I am Edna Stoner--Welborn.  I graduated from Evarts High School 1953.  My dad, Joseph Stoner, was a coal miner in Black Mountain, retiring in the early 1950's.  He died 1968 from Emphysema.  He was a very hard worker, after working all day, he would  work gardening, slaughtering his hogs and calfs milking his cows plus care for his chickens, ,also  making breakfast every morning. He made the best biscuits & steak, gravy and all of us were up at 4:30am everyday.  He always said  we had to have breakfast together before he went  in the coal  mines.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THIS WEBSITE,
Best reguards Edna (Stoner) Welborn

 2-26-2001 I am Elaine Napier,returned to maiden name ,and attended Black Mountain School from 1954 to 1962 and graduated from EHS in 1966. I left Kenvir 2 days after graduation,because I saw no future there for me. I have revisited a few times at the EHS reunion. My family and I lived on the CC road in Black Mountain and the mountains and the "hollers" will ever be etched in my memory. I even want my ashes scatterd there on that mountain when I die. That's what my childhood means to me. It was a difficult and a poor life, but I love my memories of it. I have lost my parents in the last few years. They eventually left Harlan County themselves and made a good life in Ohio. I have always been proud of their accomplicements and of  my  entire family.  Something about growing up there and my parent's teachings made us a proud family. What we gained, we earned. I now live and work in Charlotte,  NC as a registered nurse and all of my brothers and sisters are still doing well,  2 sisters in NC and 2 brothers in Ohio. I am proud of my roots and still yearn to return to the mountains. Maybe not Harlan itself, but a territory familiar to me , such as the Applachians in Tennessee or NC. I gained a strength from growing up there, but also a sense of alienation from the rest of the world,like they cannot know me or some of us, a strong anglo-Saxon, Scotish stock. Did you know that 30 years ago we were considered the last of the truest genetic blend of our descendence? My grandmother at times would throw out a few old Celtic words that i have researched and have taken us back centuries. Me ,weird ? Yes I agree.But I like myself .I quite don't fit here and I would'nt fit there again, so I find myself in a vast middle of two worlds . It's OK.

---

I was born in Kenvir on November 6,  1937.  My parents were Boyd and Bessie Wynn Hensley. I went to Black  Mountain School.  I lived at Bills Creek and Punkin Center.  We lived at the end of the railroad tracks next to Ed and Fred Foltz.  Some of my childhood friends were James and Carl Jessy, Bob and Lloyd Cannady, Jay Peace, Russell Spurlock, Clifford Parsons, Eddie Childers, Kenneth Thedrick, Raymond Slavey, Harvey Pack, and Ernest Sizemore. I have three brothers, Leroy, Harold and Ronald.  My only sister Inez passed away this month.  We left Kenvir when I was 16.  We moved to Baltimore Maryland, were I am still today.  I live in the Pasadena a suburb of Baltimore, with my youngest daughter and her family.  I have 4 children and 9 grandchildren. I still have kin in Kenvir to this day.  Pauline Crider and Ott and Irene Wynn are my first cousins.

If anyone would like to contact me, they can do so at;
720 207th Street, Pasadena, MD  21122  --   (410)437-6669

Or Email at Sk8tbettie@aol.com

 I was born at the Black Mountain Hospital on October 17, 1949 to Juanita Hodges Fuson and Mitchell Fuson.  My mother was one of seven children (six girls and one boy) to Maude Robbins Hodges and Frank Hodges.  My grandfather was killed in the mines there on November 17, 1950.  I have heard the story many times that my father "Mitch Fuson" was with him at the time a roof fall took his life.  My grandfather pushed my Dad out of the way of the fall and was the only fatality that day.  Frank Hodges, nick named "Bunk" was the President of the Local Union at the time of his death there at Black Mountain and an avid union organizer.  I can remember pictures of "John L. Lewis", with the bushy eyebrows being in our home.  We lived in the Old Doctor's Office Building and my Mom and Dad ran the restaurant there.  At one time they also managed the theatre before it was torn down.  I can barely remember being in the theatre.  It was torn down about 1963 or 1964.  When I was in third grade at Black Mountain Grade School we moved across the little walking bridge to the old boarding house, almost directly behind the old company store.  Mom and Dad also bought the old Pierce Drug store and I can remember going in there and finding the "Paper Dolls" and other stuff left from the days when it belonged to Pete Pierce.  On two separate occasions we opened the store as a small Mom/Pop type operation.  Juke box, pin ball machines, and a bowling machine.  This was approximately 1962-1964, we closed it for awhile and again about 1965-1966.  All the kids in the neighborhood use to come to our yard and play football because the boarding house probably had the biggest yard in Doctor's Office camp.  I didn't mean to bore you with details of my childhood, but this has been a great opportunity to find some information about my roots as well.  I can be reached at abarnett@apex.net.