Historic Travels - Williamson, West Virginia

 I want to post this article from my own personal perspective a little more than some of my other posts. This is the area whereI spent the first few years of my life. While my memories of Mingo County are few, I know that my heritage runs deep here. My mom was born and raised in Mingo county and my grandmother was too.

I have traced my heritage back many generations, much of that heritage lies in the southern coal fields of West Virginia and Kentucky, and a little in Virginia too. I have some deep roots here so when I visit, it isn't just a random place to explore for me, I have lots of family history here, unlike other areas where I travel.

These locations are places I know and want to share, there is still lots in the area I have not yet explored, but I hope to add a little more to my knowledge of these areas as I travel there to visit from time to time.

Mingo County was named for the Iroquoian Mingo people and it the newest county in the state having been formed in 1895. The largest city in Mingo county is Williamson, with a population of just over 3,000 people. The land in which Williamson was built, once belonged to a man name Anthony Lawson of Logan County (Lawson buried in Guyandotte). In 1858, the land was transferred to Benjamin Williamson. Eventually, what was once just a cornfield was sold off as town lots to form the city of Williamson, which at the time was located in Logan County. The town was incorporated in 1894 and J.B. Williamson was elected the first mayor.

My great grandfather was an Italian immigrant, arriving in the US as a young teen. He gained US citizenship and I first found him listed in the 1910 census, living and working among other Italian immigrants as a coal miner in Mingo county. He was married to my great grandmother before going off to fight in WWI, she was born and raised in the area.

Today, my great grandparents are buried in the old cemetery called Fairview cemetery. The cemetery is over 100 years old and it sits on a hill, some areas are extremely steep with some graves appearing to be near impossible to reach. My grandmother told me of a time she was attending a funeral and had to climb back up the hillside on her hands and knees. The cemetery today looks pretty run down, abandoned even. My last visit was a few years ago and the difference over the years is very noticeable. My grandparents lived just a few blocks away from Fairview cemetery, and my grandmother has told me the story of how my mom "ran away" to the cemetery once, and how angry my grandpa was when he found her hiding there.

One of my favorite buildings in Williamson is the old Williamson Memorial Nursing School that sits right next to the old Williamson Memorial Hospital. It sits high up on the hill and can be seen from the downtown area. It was part of the original Williamson Memorial Hospital was built in 1918. However, that hospital was destroyed by a fire.

In 1928, Dr. George Conley and Dr. Russel Salton co-founded and built a new hospital on College Hill. In 1948, Dr. Salton's son, Dr. Russel Salton Jr. took over the operations at the hospital. My grandmother had both of her children at this hospital. Dr. Salton Jr. delivered both my uncle and my mother here.  My grandmother has always spoken fondly of hospital and Dr. Salton Jr. (he passed away in 1992). The old hospital was used until a newer facility was built in the 1980's, but was still being used for offices until 2014 when it was permanently closed.

The main hospital building it thought to be haunted, however, I have not discovered any specific stories. One tragic event that occurred at the hospital may have led to a ghost story: a man was thrown from the second story of the hospital, and presumably died as a result.  As of 2018, the Tug Valley CVB has opened the building up for to the public for haunted history tours in October.

My grandmother pointed out another cemetery that I was unaware of and is near the old hospital. Just down the hill a very small cemetery, which almost seems out of place today, lies the Williamson family cemetery. It's located on College or Hospital Hill as it is known, and the old section is enclosed by a concrete wall.

Aside from old abandoned hospitals and cemeteries, something else I like to photograph are old bridges. There is a green truss bridge that spans the Tug Fork River from Williamson, WV to Route 119 in South Williamson, KY. The bridge was built in 1950 was called the Tug Fork Bridge. I noticed that the bridge was dedicated to a man named Pete Dillon. I had to ask my grandmother about it, because I recognized the name, as she had spoken about him before. So, she called her first cousin Pete to inquire, and we discovered that the bridge was indeed named to honor him. He had been a long-time employee of the city of Williamson, and they chose to honor his hard work by dedicating the bridge to him. I have never met him, but I think it is great he made such a great impact on the city that he had a bridge named for him.

There is really a lot to this little community that I have yet to explore, I have been many times but never stay very long. I always stop at the cemetery to visit my great grandparents' graves. If conditions related to the Covid-19 epidemic improve, I will likely travel back down later this year to explore more and take some new photos. The history in the area is very rich, there are some very interesting places to explore like nearby Matewan, WV and the Hatfield and McCoy sites though southern West Virginia and Kentucky. I will likely share my travels to these areas in a future post.


Photos on this page - Old Williamson Memorial Nursing School, and abandoned apartment complex. All photos taken in 2020. All photos on this site are property of Melissa Stanley unless otherwise noted. 

Spring Hill Cemetery - Huntington, WV

Spring Hill cemetery was established 1873, just two years after the city of Huntington, West Virginia was incorporated. Today, the cemetery has over 80,000 burials. The cemetery started with around 30 acres but has expanded over the years to 110 acres currently. The oldest known grave dates to 1838, however, the first official burial wasn't until 1873. The name of the cemetery is believed to come from an old spring house that once stood near where the first bodies were buried.

One of the most locally well-known memorials that stands at Spring Hill is for the victims of the Marshall University plane crash of 1970. The crash killed all 75 people on board, including 37 members of the Marshall University football team, as well as coaching staff, boosters and crew members. Six of the victims that died in the crash were unable to be identified and are buried at the memorial site.

Many of Huntington's earliest families and citizens are buried here. In fact, in the early years of the cemetery, many bodies were reinterred here from other smaller cemeteries and family cemeteries. Large obelisks and private family mausoleums bear the names of many of these early settlers and leaders of Huntington and Cabell County.

There are over 300 Civil War soldiers buried at Spring Hill, many of whom were killed in battle. At least two that are buried here were killed during the Confederate raid on Guyandotte in November of 1861. Two Civil War Generals are buried in the cemetery, Confederate General Albert Gallatin Jenkins and Union General John Hunt Oley.

According to an article published in Huntington Quarterly, a newspaper article from 1918 reported that there had been more buried that year than during other similar periods. Records indicate that over 1,000 burials that year. The article also states that high number of interments was likely due to the worldwide Spanish flu epidemic that hit Huntington in 1918.


The history of this cemetery is captivating, but even if you don't know much about the history or the stories of those whom are buried here, the cemetery is still a beautiful place to talk a stroll. The artwork of old intricately carved stones and stained-glass windows that bring color and light into the darkened mausoleums are mesmerizing. In the spring, the flowering trees and bushes are bright with colorful blooms. While a cemetery can bring sadness and memories of loss, I find wandering through this cemetery to be peaceful as well as it being a place of wonder and tranquility.

Spring Hill is known to have a few rumors of mysterious paranormal occurrences too. While there aren't many specific stories of hauntings within the cemetery that I could find, one thought comes from the possibility of restless spirits wandering over from the State Hospital that is located directly across the street from the cemetery. The state hospital is the second oldest in West Virginia, created in 1897. A fire at the hospital in 1952 killed 17 people.

Many people simply associate cemeteries with being haunted, that the spirits of those buried here roam free, or even come to visit their own graves. I am not sure if you will find any ghosts if you wander through Spring Hill, but I highly recommend a visit whether you are looking for ghosts, history or just a nice place to go for a walk.



Photos on this site are property of Melissa Stanley, unless otherwise noted. Historic information sources: Find a grave, Huntington Quarterly & The WV Encyclopedia.