Haskell Hazen Cunningham was born October 10, 1896 in Flatwoods (Wirt County) WV to Randall Austin and Virginia Ellen McKenzie Cunningham. In 1902, Virginia became ill and was taken to Parkersburg WV by horse and wagon and from there accompanied by a 7th Day Adventist nurse to Philadelphia via train. Virginia Ellen died in Philadelphia and was buried there (1903). Haskell’s family moved up the valley from the Joy family site to a log house south of the knoll in 1904, and later to “Dean’s Ford”, near the Hughes River.
In 1912, Randall sent Haskell, sister Zanna, and brother Hart by train in September to Shenandoah Valley Academy in New Market, Virginia to continue their education. They returned home for Christmas. Wikipedia says “SVA did not operate in 1913-1914 because of extreme financial difficulties.” Family stories say the school burned. SVA was a Seventh Day Adventist boarding school.
As a Seventh Day Adventist, Haskell was a conscientious objector in WWI (“noncombatancy”). He served in US Army from September 4, 1918 to May 7, 1919 as a cook at Camp Lee in Virginia. After the army, he sold religious books in southern West Virginia, including McDowell County, and was often invited to dinner to meet unmarried daughters.
Haskell moved to Battle Creek, Michigan (1922-1924 timeframe) perhaps intending to work at the Sanitarium where his brother Mitchell worked. He is listed in Battle Creek City Directory (1924) at 35 Onieta Street, a short distance from the Sanitarium, living with brother Mitchell and his wife Emma.
In 1912, Randall sent Haskell, sister Zanna, and brother Hart by train in September to Shenandoah Valley Academy in New Market, Virginia to continue their education. They returned home for Christmas. Wikipedia says “SVA did not operate in 1913-1914 because of extreme financial difficulties.” Family stories say the school burned. SVA was a Seventh Day Adventist boarding school.
As a Seventh Day Adventist, Haskell was a conscientious objector in WWI (“noncombatancy”). He served in US Army from September 4, 1918 to May 7, 1919 as a cook at Camp Lee in Virginia. After the army, he sold religious books in southern West Virginia, including McDowell County, and was often invited to dinner to meet unmarried daughters.
Haskell moved to Battle Creek, Michigan (1922-1924 timeframe) perhaps intending to work at the Sanitarium where his brother Mitchell worked. He is listed in Battle Creek City Directory (1924) at 35 Onieta Street, a short distance from the Sanitarium, living with brother Mitchell and his wife Emma.
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In 1928 Haskell traveled to Albany GA to meet Eunice Rose Gore, who lived with her mother. Family members say they met via an ad in a Lonely Hearts Club publication. After Haskell arrived and met Eunice and her mother, the couple took a walk and were married before they returned to the house (August 18th). Their first son, James Timothy, was born March 23rd the next year in Albany, Georgia, and a week later Haskell returned to Michigan. Soon after, Eunice gathered up her young baby (James) and rode a train to Michigan to be with her husband. Haskell was working as an inspector for General Motors, but did not stay at the job very long.
By 1930, they were back in West Virginia, where second son Eugene Dewey was born at Little Island Run in Wirt County. Around 1931, during the Great Depression, Eunice wanted to return to Georgia to visit her family. Haskell initially resisted, telling her they did not have the money. Eventually, he paid his brother Hart about $50 for a Model T Ford for the trip. Haskell had never driven before and had to get a quick lesson from Hart. When they drove as far as Charleston WV, a man at a service station agreed to drive him through Charleston because he had never driven in town before. Another man followed them and brought the driver back to the service station. About Oak Hill WV, the Model T began having problems until someone showed Haskell how to rough up the belt for the water pump so it wouldn't slip. At night the family slept in the car. Jim remembers waking up one morning in a field and watching Haskell work with the car until he could get it started. On the way to Georgia, Haskell wanted to stop off in North Carolina and visit someone he knew that sold books. He also thought North Carolina would be a good place to live. In the end, they never made it to Georgia, the family occupying an abandoned house in the woods at Steadman, North Carolina as caretaker for a house ¼ mile away. Son Forrest was born July 1932 while the family lived there. While they were living there Haskell injured his foot. He jumped out of a moving vehicle so the driver wouldn't have to stop after giving him a ride. He came home with a bleeding and badly injured foot. It took some time to recover. Son James said his first memory of North Carolina (probably 1932) was waking up in the car in a field - he asked where Haskell was and she said he went to look for food. The 2nd place they lived was in Harrisburg, near Charlotte. In the fall of 1934, their only daughter Carolyn was born. During the stay in North Carolina, Haskell's family had little to eat, and few clothes. A neighbor gave them some food, milk and clothes. Haskell canvassed homes selling books. He also swept floors for cornmeal, doing any job he could. Haskell once told me telling me that while he was in Raleigh, he was walking down the street and came across a slice of bologna lying on the sidewalk after not eating for a few days. A black man spotted the bologna at the same time and he commented that "it sure looks good, massa". They sat down, split the slice, and ate it. At some point, the family lived in a big house in Moncure North Carolina.
In August of 1935, Haskell and family somehow obtained the money for Greyhound bus fare (most likely from Mitchell or Randall) and returned to West Virginia from North Carolina. Haskel came back to help his father Randall with the farm including four cows, Haskell’s sister, Zanna, had been trying to fill in. They initially moved to Newark, in Wirt County, West Virginia, because there was a Seventh Day Adventist church/school there. Unfortunately, the school burned down and they then moved to Flatwoods, then Freeport, then Flint Run, finally settling on Little Island Run, within five miles of Elizabeth.
HASKELL and EUNICE CUNNINGHAM
Among other pursuits around 1937-1938, Haskell sold honey in Ritchie County. I’m also told that he collected oil money, but this may not have started until after his father died in 1939 and he inherited land with an oil well (Haskell and brother Holly inherited about 25 acres each). Haskell built what we called the “Shanty by the Sulphur Well" .25 mile down the road from Randall’s old place on Little Island Run, on the opposite (south) side of the road. The house stood in the clearing immediately to the east of a big maple tree. There are still foundation stones left (as of 1987). Originally the house had no floor. There is a sulfur well beside the house site. The well is just to the west of the big maple tree.
There were two reasons for building the house.
1. Separate Haskell’s Aunt Zanna and Eunice.
2. To have a home that was indisputably over 3 miles (the requirement may have been 2 miles) from the school. In these circumstances the school system was forced to pay travel expenses (15 cents a day) for son James to go to school. Tom Ash (father of Roy) was angry about James being paid to go to school.
James says that it was always cool at this house because it was shaded by a stand of trees on the hill
to the south. He also said rattlesnakes would cross the road in front of the house. James was at one time deeded the land with the "Shanty by the Sulphur Well". It was sold by Haskell to Bill Wilson for $1000 to pay for Eunice's funeral.
In 1938 or 1939 Haskell went to jail because sons Jim and Eugene were missing school. Most of this fell on Jim, as he would start of to school and go to the woods instead. Because of this the Superintendent and Sheriff came to the Homestead house (the one Mitchell built on Little Island Run ) looking for Haskell. Zanna was home and told them Haskell was working up in the hills. The men drove on toward Hart's house. When Haskell came home Zanna told him that there were two men looking for him, so Haskell started to the woodshed and saw the two men driving back up the road. Haskell ducked in the woodshed but he was spotted. The men yelled to him and said they knew he was in there. He answered back and asked that he be allowed to pick up some clothes from the house. He was then taken to the jail in Elizabeth for a few days. While he did not want any help in the matter, some one in the community paid his fine and he was released. Jim remembers that the Superintendent and the truant officer took Jim and Eugene home one night and measured the distance from school. The house was just inside the 2-mile limit. Haskell built the "Shanty at the Sulfur Well" to be outside the 2-mile limit. Haskell and Mitchell (Nutter or Cunningham?) marked off the 2 miles with a chain they made out of wire to be sure they would be living outside the 2 mile school limit. The Shanty was built of rough sawed lumber, not 2x4's. It was not built overnight. Dad had a sawmill come in and saw up logs he had cut, and then the lumber was stacked to dry. Haskell built it himself for the most part. Cross members of 1" thick lumber was laid around the bottom, then across the top. Boards were nailed to thee cross members, in a vertical position, then around the middle about 1/2 way up. Green roll roofing was nailed to the outside and pink shanty paper on the inside.
In 1940 Haskell gave up on cows (they were butchered or sold) and made more money when he became a sheep farmer. He had 100-150 head. His income was approximately $1200/year. While farming he usually spent about $400/year on a store tab. Son James later told me the tab was at Nash Store at Wilson Fork about $1200 a year and he paid it annually after the sheep were shorn.
In August of 1943 Haskell sold the "Shanty by the Sulphur Well" to brother Holly, when he, Eunice, and son Eugene left for Parkersburg. Haskell took a job at Casto Rubber Company where he put synthetic roofing rubber/tar on roofs during the construction at Viscose until 1945. (Viscose is situated where the Ames #2 shovel plant now stands). At some point he was threatened by a co-worker with a shovel. When asked about it, he would simply say, “I took it away from him”. Haskell was barrel chested and tall (6’ 4”), but was gentle and always looked for a peaceful resolution to conflict. Haskell didn't think factory work was healthy so he quit and took a job at Law Wholesale, a vegetable wholesaler, near the present Juliana Street Bridge ramp on the north side.
After school was out in the spring of 1944 - Zanna, James, Forrest and Carolyn moved from Wirt County to 610 Lubeck Avenue (Nicelyville) in Parkersburg to be with the rest of the family. Carolyn, Forrest, and Aunt Zanna came in the moving truck. They did not go down to sulfur well house and pick up their Mom's trunk which contained photos and rare coins. Haskell went back for the trunk a few months later. Johnny Jones had moved into the house unbidden after the family left and taken everything of value. Haskell bought the house on Lubeck Ave. for $2,000.00 and was concerned about paying such a high price. He sold the house in the fall of 1946 for $3,000.00 and moved to Fort Boreman Hill (above 4th Avenue) in the fall, paying $1,000.00 for the house. A steep, narrow dirt road from Fourth Avenue provided the only motor vehicle access to the house. The road, now known as Honeysuckle Drive, often washed out. Haskell did not own a car in his later years, and access to the house was usually on foot via a steep trail originating near the intersection of Fourth, Lubeck, and Camden Avenues. The house did not have electricity until the 1950’s, with Forrest and James doing the wiring. Indoor plumbing did not come until the 1960’s. Previously, water was supplied to the kitchen sink with by hand pump from a cistern. Drinking water was carried by bucket from a spring a few hundred yards away in the woods. Haskell was gave special attention to the garden, fruit and trees he planted around the property. There were Apple, Peach, Cherry, and Paw Paw trees, plus many berries including white, yellow, and red raspberry.
Haskell worked with a contractor building houses near the Parkersburg City Park from 1947 to around 1953. During that time (1952) Eunice passed away. In 1953 took a job at G. C. Murphy as a janitor.
Haskell worked with a contractor building houses near the Parkersburg City Park from 1947 to around 1953. During that time (1952) Eunice passed away. In 1953 took a job at G. C. Murphy as a janitor.
HASKELL AND GRANDDAUGHTER JENNY AT THE SPRING
Haskell died in Parkersburg WV on March 13, 1986 at St. Joseph’s Hospital
Cause of Death- Respiratory Failure - contributing - Pneumonia/Longevity
Dr. M S McIntosh signed death certificate.
Funeral Services at Kimes Funeral Home (Sunday Mar 16 2 PM) Parkersburg WV.
Rev William Snider spoke at the funeral.
Cause of Death- Respiratory Failure - contributing - Pneumonia/Longevity
Dr. M S McIntosh signed death certificate.
Funeral Services at Kimes Funeral Home (Sunday Mar 16 2 PM) Parkersburg WV.
Rev William Snider spoke at the funeral.
EUNICE GORE CUNNINGHAM
Haskell’s wife, Eunice Rose GORE was born November 22, 1890 in Calhoun County Georgia. She was the daughter of William S (Captain) Gore and Mary Ellen FERREL
From her journal (1928):
"Well, I have married to H. H Cunningham of Elizabeth West Va."
Next entry:
"I have been married almost two months now, will be 18(th) of this month and am going home to morrow, 10th of Oct. I am starting home to see Mama, Uncle, Sister, Bro and all the kinds".
-Journal entry from Oct 22 1928 says Eunice weighed 95 pounds.
-earlier entry: "from 18 of April 1912, I give myself to the Lord".
When the family lived in the “shanty by the sulphur well” in Wirt County WV, Eunice would park her rocking chair next to the pot bellied stove in cold weather and drink coffee. The house was drafty and had a dirt floor. Her best friend in Wirt County was Ida Hester, a black lady. Due to her illness while living in Parkersburg, Eunice spent time at St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1951, and in Kelley Nursing Home from April of 1952 until her death. She was anxious for the arrival of her first grandchild, and thought the baby had been born at one point due to a dream. Grandson Daniel was born in June and he was brought to the nursing home to visit Eunice. Soon after, she lapsed into a coma and died (June 21) a few weeks later. Eunice was buried at Evergreen South Cemetery, Parkersburg WV.
Eunice's obit appeared in the Parkersburg News (WV) on 6/23/1952:
"Mrs. Eunice Cunningham, 59, of 4th Av., Parkersburg, died Saturday evening at the Kelley nursing home. Surviving are her husband, H. H. Cunningham, three sons, James, Eugene and Forrest Cunningham, all of Parkersburg: and a daughter, Miss Carolyn Cunningham, of Parkersburg. Funeral services will be held Monday at 3 p. m. from the Kimes funeral home, and burial will be in the Evergreen cemetery. Elder T. J. Jenkins will officiate at the services."
Principal cause of death: Cerebral Metastases (1 month) - Contributing: Carcinoma of Colon (8 months).
Eunice did not have a social security number according to her death certificate.
From her journal (1928):
"Well, I have married to H. H Cunningham of Elizabeth West Va."
Next entry:
"I have been married almost two months now, will be 18(th) of this month and am going home to morrow, 10th of Oct. I am starting home to see Mama, Uncle, Sister, Bro and all the kinds".
-Journal entry from Oct 22 1928 says Eunice weighed 95 pounds.
-earlier entry: "from 18 of April 1912, I give myself to the Lord".
When the family lived in the “shanty by the sulphur well” in Wirt County WV, Eunice would park her rocking chair next to the pot bellied stove in cold weather and drink coffee. The house was drafty and had a dirt floor. Her best friend in Wirt County was Ida Hester, a black lady. Due to her illness while living in Parkersburg, Eunice spent time at St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1951, and in Kelley Nursing Home from April of 1952 until her death. She was anxious for the arrival of her first grandchild, and thought the baby had been born at one point due to a dream. Grandson Daniel was born in June and he was brought to the nursing home to visit Eunice. Soon after, she lapsed into a coma and died (June 21) a few weeks later. Eunice was buried at Evergreen South Cemetery, Parkersburg WV.
Eunice's obit appeared in the Parkersburg News (WV) on 6/23/1952:
"Mrs. Eunice Cunningham, 59, of 4th Av., Parkersburg, died Saturday evening at the Kelley nursing home. Surviving are her husband, H. H. Cunningham, three sons, James, Eugene and Forrest Cunningham, all of Parkersburg: and a daughter, Miss Carolyn Cunningham, of Parkersburg. Funeral services will be held Monday at 3 p. m. from the Kimes funeral home, and burial will be in the Evergreen cemetery. Elder T. J. Jenkins will officiate at the services."
Principal cause of death: Cerebral Metastases (1 month) - Contributing: Carcinoma of Colon (8 months).
Eunice did not have a social security number according to her death certificate.
CAROLYN WITH MOTHER EUNICE ROSE GORE CUNNINGHAM 1945
