1. Buchanan Co, VA; Marriage License #97-001657; Ancestry.com Website.
Gary Jack Atwell; age 21; born 20 Nov 1975 in WV; this is his 1st marriage; 12th grade education;
living at Box 94, Fanrock, WV; son of Darrell Kenneth and Jacqueline (Moody) Atwell; married on
17 Jan 1997 in Grundy, VA; Sally Marie Walls; age 19; born 3 May 1977 in WV; this is her 1st
marriage; 12th grade education; living at Box 94, Fanrock, WV; daughter of Vencil Ray and Maudie
Marie (Hurley) Walls.
1. West Virginia, U.S., Births Index, 1804-1938; Ancestry.com Website.
"Name Henry A Bias
Gender Male
Race White
Birth Date 3 Mar 1898
Birth Place Boone, West Virginia
Birth County Boone
Father J R Bias
Mother Vesta E Bias
FHL Film Number 570596"
2. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918; Ancestry.com Website.
"Name Henry Authur Bias
Race White
Birth Date 3 Mar 1898
Residence Date 1917-1918
Residence Place Logan County, West Virginia, USA
Physical Build Slender
Height Tall
Hair Color D. B.
Eye Color Gray
Relative Josh R. Bias"
3. 1920 Census Logan Co, WV; Logan District; taken 20/21 Jan 1920; Page 65 B; Family #23/23.
Listed as Henry A. Bias; age 21; born in WV; single; in household of father, Joshua R. Bias.
4. Boone Co, WV; Marriage Registry; Vol #__; Page 4; Line #__; WV Archives Website.
Henry Bias; age 25; born in Boone Co, WV; single; living at Isom, WV; son of George Bias; married
on 16 Oct 1923 at Isom, WV; Mary Adkins; age 25; born in Fayette Co, WV; divorced; living at Isom.
WV; daughter of Lewis Adkins.
5. Logan Co, WV; WW II Draft Registration Card #5019?; 16 Feb 1942; Ancestry.com Website.
Henry Arthur Bias; age 43; born 3 Mar 1898 in Boone Co, WV; living at Ethel, WV; employed by
Chilton Block, Ethel, WV; name of person who will always know address, Mrs Mary Bias, Ethel, WV;
6' 1-1/2" tall; 205 lbs; blue eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion.
6. FindAGrave.com Website; submitted by Bonita Hager; 28 Feb 2010; maintained by Combs26.
"Henry “Straight” Bias
Birth 3 Mar 1898
Death Oct 1976 (aged 78)
Burial Bias Cemetery
Hewett, Boone County, West Virginia, USA
Memorial ID 48929883"Additional Information Posted:
Newspaper article:
"Henry Bias
"HEWETT ---- Henry "Straight" Bias, 78, of Hewett, Boone County, died Saturday in Boone MemoriaL
Hospital, Madison, after a long illness.
"Mr. Bias, a retired coal mner, was a Baptist.
"Surviving wife, Mary, son, Billy of Hewett; sister, Mrs. Lura Miller of Jeffery; eight grandchildren.
"Service will be 2 p.m. Tuesday in Spencer United Methodist Church in Hewett with the Rev. R.H.
Kennedy officiating. Burial will be in Bias Cemetery, in Hewett. Friends may call from 5 to 9 p.m. today
at Hunter-Hunter Funeral Home, Madison."
7. "Folk Music of the Southern West Virginia Coalfields"; Website (Photo of Henry and Mary shown)
"Henry Arthur “Straight” Bias was living at Ethel on Dingess Run in Logan County, working as a coal miner, when West Virginia professor of English Louis Chappell visited on 26 August 1940 with his portable aluminum disk recording equipment and recorded four of his unaccompanied songs. He sang a spirited version of Child ballad 200, The Gypsy Laddie, that he called Black Jack Davey; it’s a popular ballad but otherwise not collected in the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. He sang the well-known American ballad East Virginia which he called In Old Virginia, and he sang Pretty Little Miss which he called Come Go With Me, a song that had come to America from England and Scotland. He also sang Froggie Went A-Courting, which he called Old Froggie, a song that dates back to a 1549 Scottish text."He is remembered today in the Hewett Creek area of Logan and Boone counties, where he lived for many years, as a singer of hymns at graveside funeral services and as singing for children and adults who’d gather on his front porch, on Missouri Fork of the creek.
"Mr. Bias was born on 3 March 1898 at Turtle Creek in Boone County. In 1900,1910, and 1920 he was living with his father who was a farmer in Boone County. By 1930 however he was living at Lake in Logan County and working as a miner. And then in 1940 and 1942, we find him in Ethel, mining coal for the Chilton Block company. He died in October 1976 and is buried in the Bias family cemetery at Hewett.*
"—Gloria Goodwin Raheja, February 2021.
"Sources: Gloria Goodwin Raheja’s research for her book Logan County Blues: Frank Hutchison in the Sonic Landscape of the Appalachian Coalfields, and the Louis Chappell Collection at the West Virginia University Library’s West Virginia and Regional History Center.
*The Bias Cemetery is on private land and any visits to the gravesite should be coordinated with the landowner.
"Listen to Henry sing for Louis Watson Chappell in 1940:
"Henry Bias Music Collection"
1. Boone Co, WV; Marriage Registry; Vol #__; Page 4; Line #__; WV Archives Website.
Henry Bias; age 25; born in Boone Co, WV; single; living at Isom, WV; son of George Bias; married
on 16 Oct 1923 at Isom, WV; Mary Adkins; age 25; born in Fayette Co, WV; divorced; living at Isom.
WV; daughter of Lewis Adkins.
1. 1920 Census Logan Co, WV; Logan District; taken 20/21 Jan 1920; Page 65 B; Family #23/23.
Listed as Lora A. Bias; age 16; born in WV; single; in household of father, Joshua R. Bias.
1. "Folk Music of the Southern West Virginia Coalfields"; Website (Photo of 6 person band shown)
"John Edward "Ed" Belcher was a Logan County musician and music store owner. He was born March 6, 1889, and died on July 27, 1970. Little is known at this point about his musical endeavors save for his mention in Ivan Tribe's well-known book, "Mountaineer Jamboree: County Music in West Virginia," in which Tribe indicates that Ed Belcher recorded on Brunswick Records with H.M. Barnes's Blue Ridge Ramblers."Logan-area historian, Brandon Ray Kirk, found some family of Ed's and learned a bit about his music. Ed's daughter, Donna Samson, had this to say about Ed Belcher:
"John Edward Belcher was born in 1886 or 1889, the son of James and Mary (Thomas) Belcher. The Belchers lived in Scott District, Putnam County, in 1900. Donna thought her father was from Buffalo Creek in Logan County. She said her family was once heavily involved in the sawmill business. As a young man, Ed played music with his brother Henry. At some point, he took music lessons and learned to read and write music. He could play the piano, banjo, guitar, and “could make a violin cry.” In the 1910s and 1920s, he played the violin in an orchestra during silent movies at the Logan Theatre. About that same time, he also operated a boarding house near the train station (likely a convenient “stopping off place” for Ed Haley when he came into Logan).
"“He always kept music around his home,” Donna said. Belcher played ragtime and loved to play “Falling Water” on the piano in his later years.".
"Donna said her father met her mother Rhoda Mullins (1919-1990) while at a dance in Logan. Rhoda was staying in town with her sister Dixie, who was a local schoolteacher. They were the daughters of George Mullins of Harts Creek. Her father, she added, was some thirty years older than her mother, who was his second wife."According to Brandon Ray Kirk's interview with Wirt Adams, Wirt had this to say about Ed Belcher's musicianship:
"Now Ed Belcher was a different thing altogether. He played all kinds of stuff. He played classical, he could play hillbilly. He played a piano, he played accordion, he played a banjo, he played a guitar. He was a good violin player. He tuned pianos for a living. Well, I’d call him a professional musician. They had talent shows in Logan. He’d sponsor that. He’d be like the MC and these kids would go in and play. He was a head musician. He was good. He could do ‘Spanish Fandango’ on the guitar and make it sound good. He could play all kinds of tunes. I never could play with him but then he could take the piano and make it talk, too. He was just an all-around musician.”
"Logan-area historians, Brandon Ray Kirk, and Kenneth King, both turned up pictures used in this post."
2. Logan Co, WV; Death Certificate #70 012046; WV Archives Website.
John Edward Belcher; age 81; born 6 Mar 1889 in WV; married; husband of Rhoda Mullins; piano
repair, tuning; self employed; living at General Delivery, Mt Gay, WV; son of James and Mary R.
(Thomas) Belcher; died 27 Jul 1970 im Guyan Valley Hospital, Logan WV; due to carido-respiratory
failure; severe dehydration; malnutrion and senility; buried 29 Jul 1970 in Adams Cemetery, Harts,
WV; informant, Mrs. Rhoda Belcher, Mt Gay, WV.
3. FindAGrave.com Website; submitted by Brandon Ray Kirk; 3 Oct 2019.
"John Edward “Ed” Belcher
Birth 6 Mar 1889
Death 27 Jul 1970 (aged 81)
Burial Adams Cemetery
Whirlwind, Logan County, West Virginia, Latitude: 37.9666667, Longitude: -82.1413333
Memorial ID 203535180"Additional Information Posted:
"Ed Belcher was a well-known musician in Logan, WV. He played over the radio, so his influence reached beyond his immediate area."The 1900 census gives his birth information as March 1886; his WWI draft registration card notes his birth as March 6, 1886; his marriage record provides a ca1887 birth year; and his WW2 draft registration card gives his birth as March 6, 1889."
1. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007; Ancestry.com Website.
"Name Rhoda Mullins [Rhoda Mullins Belcher] [Rhoda Belcher]
Gender Female
Race White
Birth Date 21 Dec 1919
Birth Place Harts Creek, West Virginia [Harts Logan, West Virginia]
Death Date 12 Dec 1990
Father George Mullins
Mother Rosa Adams
SSN 233202709
Notes Jan 1938: Name Listed As Rhoda Mullins;
Jan 1941: Name Listed As Rhoda Mullins Belcher;
02 Jun 1993: Name Listed As Rhoda Belcher"
2. FindAGrave.com Website; submitted by Brandon Ray Kirk; 3 Oct 2019.
"Rhoda Jane Mullins Belcher
Birth 21 Dec 1919
Death 12 Dec 1990 (aged 70)
Burial Adams Cemetery
Whirlwind, Logan County, West Virginia, USA
Memorial ID 203535184"