2010 Ward Reunion & More About Ward, West Virginia

Please visit my primary website to explore about Ward, WV.  I’ve moved all content about Ward to that site.  I lost my “day job” back in October and since then I just haven’t had time to maintain multiple websites – soooo, everything is now housed at White Oak Attic.

I am writing bios of my own family members (many of them connected to Ward) and I have a file box on the website for storing pictures and documents related to Ward, WV, surnames, and a wide variety of genealogy information connected to Kanawha County West Virginia.

Today, September 11, 2010, is the Ward Community Reunion at Carnifex Ferry Battleground State Park in Sissonville WV…more about that is on my primary site. I’ll be posting photos from the reunion.  Say hello to my friend Scott Stephens if you happen to be at the reunion today.  I cannot be there but he is taking photos to share out here on the web after the event.

You can also become a fan of White Oak Attic on Facebook to see announcements when new content is posted to the website about Ward, WV and you can follow me on Twitter.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

~Lisa

The Ward Hungarian Church

This post hits home for me.  My family includes a number of Hungarian early residents of Ward.  My paternal grandmother, Helen Louise Boka Rider, b. 1920, was the daughter of Joseph Boka and Julia Balint Boka and  my maternal grandmother, Katharine Julia Szasz Kozak, b. 1919, was the daughter of Janos (John) Szasz and Helen Schneider Szasz.  Both grandmothers were born to Hungarian parents at Ward and spent their childhoods in the community. Both families are featured in numerous photos over the years in the Ward Community Reunion books.

The Hungarian Baptist Church congregation was established in 1907 as an effort organized by Charles Steinmetz began meeting in the private homes of the citizens at Ward.  Steinmetz came to the United States in June of that year and 2 months later was invited, along with 92 other Hungarian immigrants, to Ward for work at Kellys Creek Colliery.

The General Manager at Ward, John W. Dawson, quickly arranged for five houses to be built with the stipulation that each home keep up to 16 boarders.

Around 1909 the Ward Hungarian Baptist Church  was hosting Reverend Stephen Orosz about every 3 months to see to needs of the congregation (baptisms, communion, etc.).  He visited the congregation for many years at these intervals from Cleveland, Ohio.

The Steinmetz family returned to Hungary in 1912 for what was intended to be a brief trip for a reunion.  They were unable to return to Ward until 1922 after getting delayed by WWI in Europe. Steinmetz left for good in 1924 and passed away at the ripe old age of 86 November 30th, 1963 in Thousand Palms, California.

The church offered a number of community benefits.  They established a fine Brass Band directed by Steve Matayas and also boasted a wonderful choir.  Steve Boka taught local immigrants the English language as an outreach of the church.  The years after Steinmetz remain largely undocumented.  I hope to find some researchers out there  who own copies of other editions of the Ward Reunion books that may revisit this topic.

Today’s additions to the free file download folder (see the blog role in the right margin) include a couple of photos of the Hungarian Baptist Church of Ward.  One or two photos of sunday school classes for the Ward Community Church, and a few individual photos of Kozaks who resided at Ward (relatives of mine through my grandfather Steve Kozak).

While you’re here, don’t forget to visit the sponsoring site for this blog, http://www.whiteoakattic.com

Interested In the Community of Ward, WV?

I’m pausing for a moment here to ask for opinions.  I have a vast amount of work to do in sharing the information available about Ward, WV.  If there is a particular aspect you want to see sooner rather than later, please send me a note in the comments section of this blog.

I want to point you again to a feature on this blog since it is new. In the right margin I’ve set up a file sharing system.  You can download the information I’ve placed there.  At the moment there are several photos in the general photos folder, one in the churches folder and several in the Surnames folders (Boka, Szasz and Rider).  I also put a few copies of census data I had handy.  There is plenty more to come just from my own stockpile. I hope to attract  contributers, sharing more and more about Ward and perhaps the surnames in the area.

I just published this blog late last night (2/28 around 11pm) and have already had almost 30 visits in less than 24 hours.  I’ll do my best to add more tonight but I have to work tomorrow so I don’t have the luxury of staying up to the wee hours of the morning working on this as I did last night .

Welcome to Ward, WV and please share this link and your comments!

Lisa Isbell, White Oak Attic

The Origin of the Name – Ward, WV

Ward, WV

There are two versions of how Ward came to be called Ward.  The first suggests the community was named in honor of Dr. David Ward, a man who owned most of the land that would later become Ward on Kellys and Hughes Creeks.

Dr. Ward bought 3,551 acres of timber land located on Blue Creek from O. A. Thayer in 1880.  A purchase that undoubtedly contributed to his being known as one of the “Lumber Kings of the West”.  Dr. Ward continued through the early 1880′s with other purchases.  One of the substantial purchases was for 933 3/4 acres of land that was formerly owned by pioneer William Morris.  This land was on the northwest side of Kellys Creek.  He would go on purchasing land that would give him ownership of virtually all of the land surrounding the  two creeks, Kellys & Hugheston-Hughes,  aside from C. C. Lewis‘ holdings in and around Mammoth.

From 1892-1894 the railroad came through the area giving rise to a means to export the coal mined in the area to other parts of the country.  This gives the area a substantial boost in commercial opportunities.  During this period Dr. Ward opts for leasing his land rather than operate coal mining operations himself.  The first operations were actually very small and took place on Lewis’ land at Mammoth.

J. W. Dawson constructed the Kellys Creek Railroad for Lewis in 1895 to connect the four small mines at Mammoth.  This would become the Kellys Creek Coal Mining Co. and Dawson sold his interest around 1898 and left to build Lick Creek and Lake Erie Railroads in Southwestern Virginia.  He also went on to a mining operation in Dawson Springs, Kentucky.

In 1901 Kanawha & Hocking Coal & Coke Co. purchased Kellys Creek Coal Mining Co. and Dawson returns in 1903 to build Kellys Creek and Northwestern Railroads along the creek to Five Mile, which is located about 7 miles from Cedar Grove, a community right next to Ward.

Kellys Creek Colliery Co. was organized by Dawson to mine the coal on the lands held by Dr. David Ward and so is credited with naming Ward. Dawson leaves in 1917 selling his interest to J. A. Paisley, Valley Camp Coal Co. but the name remains unchanged until the mid 1930′s when the oprerations became knows as Valley Camp Coal Co.

The other version of the naming story dates back to 1870.  Ward Hudnall settled near the place that would become Kellys Creek Railroad Station in later years (at Ward).  Dawson bought the land from Hudnall, who evidently failed to file a patent on the land since it was referred to as a “squatters claim”.  So it is possible that Dawson named the community after Mr. Hudnall.

The prevailing opinion is its more likely he named it for the distinguished Dr. Ward since he was a man of great fortune.  His holdings were so vast they would equal the amount of land in the entire state of West Virginia.  It was Dr. Ward receiving the benefits of royalties and lease payments from the mining being done in those early years.  Perhaps both Hudnall and Ward factored into the name choice.

The Pastors of Ward Community Church

The 1984 Ward Community Reunion Committee shared the following list of pastors of Ward Community Church in their booklet printed to share at the reunion and help fund the event.

T.B. Sheldon 06/23/19 to 08/31/20

M. H. Branham 09/01/20 to 08/31/28

B. H. Kessecker 09/01/28 to 08/31/29

Dr. Ross Culpepper 09/01/29 to 08/31/31

W. C. Strohmeyer 09/01/29 to 08/31/32

Dr. Clyde Hensley 09/01/32 to 08/31/33

Mamie Watley 09/01/33 to 05/01/40

From May to September 1940 the following filled the pulpit as a search for a new pastor took place:

Reverends Sexton, George Willis and Dan Burke

L. G. Clark 09/01/40 to 8/31/46

J. E. “Budd” Legg 09/01/46 to 8/31/50

Marion Mullens 09/01/50 to 8/31/51

Another 4 month stretch with no pastor occurs here.

Clarence B. Morton 01/01/52 to 01/31/54

J. E. “Budd” Legg again serves                  1954-1957

Howard Withrow 1957-1959

Ralph Keenan, Clifford Ramsey, Bill Barker, and Bod Dunford serve for unspecified terms following Reverend Withrow.

The Ward Community Church closed in April of 1970 and was torn down later that fall.

The History of The Ward Community Church

From the Cover of the 1984 Ward Community Reunion Booklet

By way of introduction I’ll first say Ward came into existence primarily as a result of the coal mining industry in West Virginia.  I’ll give more about the overall history of Ward later.

This post is about Ward Community Church. Later topics will cover each of the churches that developed in an near Ward over the years, you’ll be able to find them later by category.  All of the posts on this blog will be assigned a category to make it easy for researchers to find them for specific projects.

This church was located at the mouth of Four Mile Hollow in the community of Ward.  Ward was never incorporated as a city in the proper sense so I’ll refer to it as a community.

Having just delved into this project, I’m finding my primary source of information – several volumes of the Ward Community Reunion books – I’m discovering there is some discrepancies in the writings.  The first one I spotted today in preparing this post.

The Reunion Books have this church being built by Kellys Creek Colliery Company in 1919 (actually the Colliery was owned by Valley Camp Coal after it was purchased in 1917 but retaining the name Kellys Creek Colliery Company until the mid 1930′s).

The church was dedicated on May 25th, 1919 with Reverend T.C. Johnson of Charleston Baptist Church, Reverend W.C. Hartinger of Methodist Episcopal Church (Methodist Episcopal? can someone confirm the church name for us) in attendance.  The decision was made early to follow a non-denominational style of worship with visiting ministers from around the area leading the services for time.

The first pastor is reported to be Reverend T.B. Sheldon.  He also served as the Assistant Sunday School Superintendent.

The first executive board meeting took place on a leap year, February 29th, 1920 and the church leadership met at the home of Henry L. Schweinsberg, the General Superintendant of Kellys Creek Colliery (Valley Camp Coal Co.), Emmett Keesey, Schweinsberg, W.B. Crookshanks, Reverend Sheldon, Pendelton Spruce, Ben Wakeman, F.A. Dangersfield and M. Armstrong were the board members at the time, the article isn’t clear whether all of these men were present at the initial meeting.

Spruce was asked to act as Music Director, Keesey was elected Temporary Chairman.  It was decided the board meetings would always be held on the church property going forward and meet the first Monday of each month.  Elections for the board would take place annualy on the first Monday of the year and the Treasurer would issue a report each January and July.  One final decision was mentioned, that the board meetings would always open and close with prayer.

Photos related to this post are available for download in the “Free File Downloads” section of this blog. There is a file labled Ward Community Church.  Take a look and download whichever are of interest. You can find information about me in the “About” link in the right margin.  I hope you’ll visit the sponsor site and spread the word.