Family Stories 2

As I mentioned earlier, I'll occassionally use this space to chronicle some of my reflections and writings on my family history, particulary the stories that my grandpa Coleman passed down to us. Here's the second part of that journey, tracing how the Dooley family was formed and how they came into what is now West Virginia from Virginia around the time of the Civil War. As my grandpa would tell it...

This story starts in the state of Virginia, possibly Bedford County. There was a family by the name of Hastings and this was in the early 1830s. It was in the spring of the year, and Mr. Hastings owned property over in Monroe County, Virginia (incidentally, this is now in West Virginia). He left home for a few days to go over and check on the property, and had to take the tinderbox and things with him to be able to start a fire to cook.

There were 2 girls in the family; Mary was about 10 and Martha was about 8. There was a younger child also, but I don’t remember if it was a boy or a girl. Anyway, Mr. Hastings had been gone several days, and Mrs. Hastings took the children out in the field to hunt for greens since they grow very profusely in the spring of the year. They stayed longer than they meant to, and when they got home, they found that the fire at home was burned out. Mrs. Hastings got a kettle, and told the girls, Mary and Martha, to go down to Mr. Dooley’s place to get some fire to start their fire again.

When Mary and Martha got there, Mr. Dooley’s fire was low, and it was getting late, so Mr. Dooley called his son, Henry Whitfield Dooley, to come in. He gave him a flint, steel, and tinderbox and said for him to go back home with the girls and build them a fire. He told him to stay at the Hastings place, chop wood, and be a help until Mr. Hastings returned home.

So that is what Henry Dooley did.

Later, that same Henry Dooley married the little girl, Mary Hastings. They were my great grandparents: my mother‘s (Eleanor Mae Dooley Coleman) grandparents on her father’s side.

There is more of the family story, about my mother’s grandparents on her mother’s side of the family--William Poff, and "Talithacumi" Scott; yes that was really her first name! (from Mark 5:41, meaning “Little girl, get up!”- Ed.)

Back many years before, Mr. Poff’s father was a trader and traveled the out woods of Virginia; he would buy, sell and trade and also get furs etc. Typically, he would stop at one family’s home to stay all night, and then would leave the next morning. Later on some folks came to visit the Poff family and asked where the senior Mr. Poff was; they had seen him earlier and could not understand why he was not back home yet. Well, they began to check and trace his path back, and they traced him up to the home where he had stayed all night but they couldn’t find out where he was after that. Finally one of the sons of the family where he stayed told what had happened. He admitted that he and his brother had robbed Mr. Poff, hit him in the head and threw him over the hill. Then, as they headed home after a day‘s work of clearing their land, they saw Mr. Poff alive and trying to revive himself down by the creek. They went down and “did him in” --for good that time.

Now these two sons were hung for that crime, and the younger of the three sons who had talked was locked away. Well sir, on the day when they had the hanging there was a big crowd, and the boys father went up to see his sons be hanged. It is told that he bought a bunch of cookies and then he sat in his wagon eating the cookies as he watched his sons hanging. Afterwards, he drove off with their bodies in the back of his wagon, still eating the cookies...

Well, the younger Mr. Poff married a woman whose name was Lee and they had 2 children--Alfred and Mary. This first wife died and Mr. Poff married Talithacumi Scott. Now her father, Mr. Scott, was a doctor and also a preacher. About this time the Civil War began, and Mr. Scott and Mr. Poff were both pro-Union and anti-slave. The Confederate Army wanted Mr. Scott to serve as a doctor for them, and Mr. Poff, who was a saddle maker, to serve also. They needed them badly, but since both men refused to go, they were arrested and put in Libby prison in Richmond, Virginia. Both managed to escape, and cross the mountains over into the state of West Virginia, because it was in Union hands. Talithacumi Scott Poff, her mother (Mrs. Scott), and Talithacumi's 3 sisters, Esmeralda, Louise, and Eleanor loaded a wagon and left for West Virginia, because they had heard that their husbands were there. As they were leaving in the covered wagon, a black woman rushed out and handed them her infant boy and asked them to take him with them to freedom. (I met him once when I was a very little boy. I also have a picture of the family he stayed with, and he is in the picture). Talithacumi Scott Poff also had a child whose name was Louise Emmet Poff (my grandmother, who was named after Talithacumi’s sister, and a Dr. Emmett).

Family Photo– Date unknown
Woman on far left marked with X is Louise Emmet Poff Dooley, Emmet Coleman’s grandmother. Man on far right, holding child, is the infant handed to the Poff Family on their trek over the mountains, into what is today the state of West Virginia.

So they started off to West Virginia and they were driving along somewhere on the side that was still under Confederate control, and Esmeralda rode on ahead to see if she could find a store. Now Esmeralda was a large, big woman--not fat, but just big boned and tall. Well, when she got back to where they were camping, there were a bunch of civilian men there causing trouble with the women. Esmeralda had a drover’s whip that she used, and she lit in on the men and whipped them for a mile or more out of camp. The story goes that she was really good with that whip and she could cut a button off of a man’s shirt without hurting him. So she really let those men have it good.

The women went on and later they came upon a Confederate outpost and the man in charge there gave the women a good conduct pass. He wrote on it “I will personally hang anyone who molests these women”, and he signed it. The women continued on their way and later came upon a Union outpost. They showed the commanding officer the note and he turned it over and wrote the same thing on the other side, signed it and gave it back to them. Boy, wouldn’t I like to have that note! My grandmother DID see it.

They traveled on down to the New River at Cotton Hill, in Fayette County West Virginia, and camped there for 2 weeks waiting for the river to go down enough for them to cross. They then went on down through Kanawha County and down to Mason County near the Ohio River where they stayed. When the war was over, Mr. Poff came home to Mason County West Virginia, as well as Dr. Scott. Dr. Scott had damaged his eyes and was now blind. He could still preach, but could not practice medicine any longer.

Incidentally, another interesting thing is that Dr. Scott had a friend whose name was Dr. Emmett. Dr. Emmett’s family established the Emmett Hospital in Clifton Forge, Virginia, and it is still in existence. Now Dr. Emmett’s wife was named Louise, and my grandmother was named after her-- Louise Emmet Poff. And then when I was born, there were lots of James and George Coleman’s so I became James Emmet (with one “T”) Coleman.

Also when I was born, my mother, Eleanor Mae Dooley Coleman, had only carried me 6 months. Now it is difficult even today for a 6 month infant to live without all the medical advances and machines. Well, the day I was born, my mother almost died and they thought I was not going to make it, so the doctor just handed me over to someone. Now thankfully my grandma Coleman took over. I was so premature and also had yellow jaundice---they said I looked like I had yellow paint on me. But she took over and kept me alive until Mom was better. They said I was born in the hardest rain storm in the Kanawha valley history, and they had to keep moving Mom’s bed all over the place to keep the rain from leaking in all over her while she was in labor having me.