When That Rough God Goes Riding

There’ll be no more heroes They’ll be reduced to zero When that rough god goes riding Riding on in Van Morrison I got an email the other day that started with the greeting “Motherfucker!”. It wasn’t meant to be a friendly slap on the back – it was more of a threat. And it came […]

Blennerhassett Island

Walter Timothy Crofton (Papoo) was an Irish tough who put himself through Georgetown University on the GI Bill, supplemented by driving a cab around DC. He always loved the Jesuits – rooting for Notre Dame whenever they weren’t playing the West Virginia Mountaineers. He returned to Parkersburg, West Virginia and when we visited in the […]

The Trial of Sheriff Sid Hatfield

My great great uncle, LP Somerville, ran away from home to fight in the Spanish American War that made Teddy Roosevelt famous as well as President. Like many of the mountain settlers in Appalachia, LP was proud, adventurous, self-reliant and patriotic. Even ornery. That did not make him unique in West Virginia. I can remember […]

The Whiskey Rebellion (Part 2): The Dreadful Night

In 1781, Hugh Henry Brackenridge left the relatively cosmopolitan city of Philadelphia to ‘make his bones’ in what was known as The Wilderness. He settled at The Forks (where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers meet to form the Ohio) – or  present day Pittsburgh. He lived through the first open and armed rebellion in the […]