EARLY SETTLERS CARVED A LIFE ON DANIELS RUN - Claria Post Office, Starkey One-Room School - What Happened To Frizlehead?
Daniels Run, part of which is paved, and a fork
that has more potholes than you can cuss about
Rock of ages reveals the power of nature
By Bob Weaver
We have republished a number of newspaper columns with the Daniels Run News (Claria) starting in 1900, and will be doing more of those columns starting about 1915, and re-running some older ones.
Only here can your read about "Frizlehead" chasing local damsels or Stockwell being stepped on by a blind horse, or the death brought to the community by diphtheria, or men going off to the mountains to work in the timber, or politicians liking the fair sex too much.
Daniels Run, whose two tributaries stretch to the Mt. Zion Ridge from the West Fork of the Little Kanawha, is a mix of the old and the new, with fading memories of families that carved their lives from the narrow valley and steep hillsides.
By 1900, the creek claimed about 250 citi-
zens, with general stores, a blacksmith shop
a grist mill and the Starkey one-room school.
Old homestead, descendants of the Avery Wood
historical family from the Bear Fork wilderness
While there are several modern homes on the creek,
there are reminders of those long gone families
At the mouth of Daniels Run near the former Village of Altizer stands the Stoney Point Church, an early Methodist log church that served the community, with the Millstone Church of Christ and the Sycamore Baptist Church serving the upper area of backwoods on the Mt. Zion Ridge.
The historic Allen B. Starcher house, still occu-
pied, at the junction of the right and left forks
A cellar house standing on the Holly Nester farm,
Nester a well-known Calhoun merchant and politician
Long standing families, Booher, Kelley, Nitz, Starcher, Allen, Offutt, Goff, Wood, Norman, Nester, and many others.
The Pratt Barr house (above) still standing, purchased in
the 1950s by Bill Jett, who operated a long-time gen-
eral store at Arnoldsburg for many years, and in more
recent times owned by the Satterfield family. Nearby was
the Nitz homestead and Ferris Barr, mail carrier and
photographer,many of his photos are published on Hur Herald
A typical house built in the early part of the 1900s
An abandoned sawmill on the left fork
The late Deward and Byrnadeen Offutt farm house,
Offutt was a lifelong farmer and community servant
At the very head of the left fork is an old homestead occu-
pied by Lester Cunningham, a World War II vet, now deceased
Cray Duelley operated a farm here for much of the 20th Century
Here is a 21st Century sugar cane patch