| A MORE THAN HUMBLE ABODE
Collapsing Starcher cabin in deep woods...
... is barely standing
Bob Weaver 2024
Resting on a hillside above the juncture of Henrys Fork and the West Fork of the Little Kanawha (near Rocksdale) is a still standing clapboard dwelling, a humble abode to at least three generations of Starchers.
Historian Ralph Carpenter led the trek to the remote dwelling through thick and briary brush.
Papered wall from the 1940s
Ralph Carpenter explores ruins...
... of historic Starcher dwelling
Saplings used for rafters
First it was a two-roomer, with two more rooms added later, the roof joists made from sapling trees, heated by a wood burning stove and lit by kerosene lamps. Nearby a dug well and a little flatland for growing.
The first resident on the property was likely Jehue Starcher (1845-1874), son of Adam and Phoebe Starcher.
Jahue Starcher went off to the Civil War at age 16, enlisting in the Moccasin Rangers, Co. A, 19th Virginia Calvary and was captured and released. He married Susanna Kerby in 1868, daughter of William Kerby (1800-1881) who came to the Barnes Run-Hur area about 1830 and owning large acreage. Jahue died shorty after their marriage at age 28. He's buried in the Gibson Cemetery near the homestead of his grandfather Phillip Starcher.
Later living on the homestead was his relative Slathiel (1845-1930) and Sarah Elizabeth Slider Starcher (1844-1932), family members saying she had native American blood. She was the daughter of Jacob Slider (1803-1861), the first Slider coming to Barnes Run in 1849.
Slathiel was the son of William "Billy Bluehead" (1822-1894) and wife Nancy McElwain (1816-1871), "Bluehead" being the son of original settler Phillip Starcher, he being the founder of the Dry Hill Bluehead Church (Egypt Ridge) and the Walnut Grove Church (1858).
The Starcher line continued to live in the humble abode until they moved to Parkersburg about 1950, long abandoned.
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