Take In Hollow Revisited

This new series of photos represent Take in Hollow residents and their lives.
Take in Hollow ~1952




This is a picture left to right Lacy Bolen, Ira Clyde McBride, in front of Ira is His son Ira Wayne McBride the little girl by her self is Loretta Ellen McBride this picture was taken at Take-In-Hollow , WV around 1954



Elmer McCoy provides this excellent recollection of Life in Take In Hollow...

I'm Elmer McCoy, we lived in Sullivan and Take-in was the direction I usually took when I was allowed to leave the house after school or church. I had a cabin on top of most of the hills there, the valley teemed with pheasant and though the squirrel was sparce my brothers and I could usually scare up a dinner that was fittin' with mama's kitchen touch. The old wood cook stove gave a flavor to the meals that I've missed ever since dad went electric.

I knew Lacy and Dorothy and Mr. McBride, as I passed their places in my adventures. There was an old mine shaft at the mouth of the hollow that sank to 300+ feet straight down. Jim Wilson was suspected of killing Betty Todd and dumping her body into the shaft. I was present when the police found her and recover the body. Jim and Betty was residents of Sullivan, and Jim was married to Betty's sister.

Ray Wilson and I were friends and fellow explorers, I bet Lula, Ray and Jim's sister, a quarter, that Ray and I knew where Charlie Miller's moonshine still was and was caught by Charlie trying to take the evidence to her to collect the win. Instead of finding favor in the fair maiden's eyes, I sat striped and embarrassed as she came to the house to collect and laughed at me for being grounded.

In one of the houses that sat on the Sullivan side of the Hollow, Frances (Fox) Holt shot James W. Nicewander as he and a friend tried to beat the door own to Bessie Martin's. Fox was already there and no trial occured. My dad and I took him to the hospital and at 14 I literally carried Mr. Nicewander into the hospital and was handed scissors and told to cut his shirt off. He had been shot from behind and I still remember the shot that didn't quite clear the skin as it passed through.

I know these are bad things that I've written but life was hard and the people had to be to cope. Ray Wilson's dad was one of the coal miners who brought the union into the hills. If you haven't already, check out the movie "Matewan". That was the life that we survived. But the Hollow was a refuge for us as kids. We knew the danger but we knew the trails too. It is one of my best memories. The last time I went hunting up in "Take-in" I saw a black panther. I didn't even raise my Gun, it was beautiful. Raymond Tyree and I watched in amazement as he looked at us a long moment and unhurriedly turned and was swallowed by the forest. Raymond was Crippled in an auto accident shortly after that and died a few years later. These are the memories and ramblings of an old hillbilly. The term used to be an insult but today it is a badge of honor. The wimps didn't survive and a whole lot of the fierce people fell too. I am Blessed.----------------Elmer McCoy.

Thanks Elmer and God Bless you.
Comments? Please mail me..

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