Edgar Allan Poe

Marker No. Q-29
Charlottesville
Albemarle County, VA

Marker Text:  Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) – writer, poet, and critic – was born in Boston, Mass. Orphaned at a young age, Poe was raised by John and Frances Allan of Richmond. He attended schools in England and Richmond before enrolling at the University of Virginia on 14 Feb. 1826 for one term, living in No. 13 West Range. He took classes in the Ancient and Modern Languages. While at the university, Poe accumulated debts that John Allan refused to pay. Poe left the university and briefly returned to Richmond, before moving to Boston in Mar. 1827. Some of his best-known writings include the Raven, Annabel Lee, and the Tell-Tale Heart. He also edited the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond from 1835 to 1837. Poe died in Baltimore, Md.

Location: On McCormick Road, next to Poe Alley on the campus of the University of Virginia. Erected by the Department of Historic Resources in 2003.

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” - Edgar Allan Poe

  When I stop to look and photograph an historical markers, I am always surprised by the things I learn I never knew. While in Charlottesville for a doctor's appointment I drove through the University of Virginia campus and found this marker about Edgar Allan Poe. I had not realized he had lived in Virginia and went to school here for a short time.

Poe’s room is in the building to the right of the marker.  Click any photo to enlarge.

  The marker is located in front of the place where Poe resided. Poe's room was Number Thirteen, West Range, and is now used as a memorial to him. I did not realize this at the time or I would have taken a photo of the room as well, but links to photos of the room are below.

  Poe entered as a student on St. Valentine's Day, February 14, 1826 while the second session at the University was already under way. The university had only began to accept students for classes in 1825 though the university was formally founded in 1819. Thomas Jefferson, the university's founder and whose home Monticello overlooked the university was still alive when Poe arrived. Poe mentions in one of his letters to John Allan from the university that the Rotunda was yet unfinished, and that books had just been removed to the library. According to some accounts I had read, Poe did get to meet Jefferson and on one occasion had lunch with Jefferson and other students.

Feudists on Trial

Pike County, KY
Marker Number: 1913

Marker Text: Hanging site of Ellison Mounts, Feb. 18, 1890. Seven other Hatfield supporters indicted for murder of Alifair McCoy were sentenced to life in prison. By the time of his trial, Mounts had confessed. He was also found guilty, but the jury recommended the death penalty. Pike County sheriff carried out sentence. This was one of the last episodes in Hatfield-McCoy feud.

Location: On Kentucky Avenue within the Pikeville College campus, Pikeville, KY. Erected by the Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky Department of Highways in 1992.

  Today's marker is the last directly related to the events of the feud.  I have two additional historical markers about the lives of the two main family leaders after the violence ended for the Hatfield-McCoy Feud.  I know of about two additional markers related to the feud I never had the chance to photograph.  As often happens when you are marker hunting you get close but make a wrong turn.  A marker in Pikeville escaped my camera when later I realized I was only about two blocks away from it. 

Marker is on Pikeville College campus and is looking south on Kentucky Avenue. Click any photo to enlarge.

  The trial began in 1889 with eight of the Hatfields and their supporters sentenced to life in prison. Ellison Mounts, who was believed to be the son of Ellison Hatfield, was sentenced to death. Nicknamed “Cottontop”, Ellison Mounts was known to be mentally challenged, and many viewed him as a scapegoat even though he had confessed his guilt.

  Many people living in Logan County, WV and Pike County, KY as well as Ellison Mounts did not believe the Hatfield clan would permit Ellison to die on the gallows. The general feeling in the region was focused on how the Hatfield's would mount a rescue of Ellison.

John Paul Riddle, 1901-1989

Pike County, KY
Marker No. 2251

Marker Text: Aviation pioneer graduated from Pikeville College Academy in 1920. Flew plane under Pikeville’s Middle Bridge on July 4, 1923. Trained as a pilot in U.S. Army, he & T. Higbee Embry founded the Embry-Riddle Flying School in Cincinnati, 1925. Incorporated four years later as part of AVCO, which later became American Airlines. Over

Founded the Embry-Riddle School of Aviation in Miami, Fla. During WWII, trained pilots for U.S. and Britain. Later became Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univ. Inducted into the Ky. Aviation Hall of Fame and Fla. Aviation Historical Society. Received British Empire award and honorary degrees from Pikeville College & E-R Aeronautical Univ.

Location: On Main Street near intersection with Division Streets, Pikeville, KY. Presented by the Pikeville-Pike Co. Tourism Comm. And erected by the Kentucky Historical Society – Kentucky Department of Highways in 2007.

  Eighty-eight years ago this July 4^th, John Paul Riddle flew a plane under the Pikeville's Middle Bridge in Pikeville, Kentucky. I don't know what bridge in Pikeville that might be. I have only been in Pikeville twice and never had the time to figure out where the bridge mentioned was.

Pikeville Collegiate Institute

Pike County, KY

Marker Number: 1533

Marker Text: Established by the Presbyterian Church. Building erected, 1889. The brick was fired on the site, using clay from nearby riverbank. Structure served as school, chapel, and community center for many years. Designated on National Register, 1974; used since then as the Center for Local Arts and History. Oldest surviving school building in Pike County, 1975.

Location: At 118 College Street at Kilgore Lane, Pikeville, KY. In front of the Pikeville City Hall. Erected by the Kentucky Historical Society and the Department of Transportation in 1975.

  Many U.S. colleges had their beginnings during the 19^th and early 20^th century. As the U.S. expanded over a wider territory, many individuals became concerned about education in isolated areas, such as, the Appalachian mountains. Many different Christian denominations were concerned about the education of the children. During this period Presbyterian pastors were instrumental in starting different schools throughout the U.S. with the generous donations of other Presbyterians who supported these expressions of ministry in education. The historical marker about the “Pikeville Collegiate Institute” or also called “Pikeville College Institute or Academy” in Pikeville, KY tells the story of these efforts, which lead to the development of Pikeville College.

Providence Church

Louisa County, VA

Marker No. V-19

Marker Text: Half a mile northeast stands Providence Presbyterian church, built probably in 1749 and little altered since. John Todd, Senior, a founder of Hampden-Sydney College, was pastor for forty years (1753-1793). Hanover Presbytery met there in October, 1762.

Location: On Broad Street, Route 250, 0.4 miles northwest of Gum Spring, VA and the intersection with VA Route 522, on the right when traveling west. Marker is about 0.3 miles from the church which located at 3388 Three Chopt Road. Erected by the Virginia Conservation Commission in 1947.

  My last post concerned a Lutheran log church in Pennsylvania, so today I thought I would post a Presbyterian church in Virginia, which is a rare example of a 18^th century wood frame church. This simple structure stands amid oak and pine, much as it did 250 years ago when Indians roamed the Virginia forests and a group of Presbyterians met to read and study the Bible.

Mark Twain Study

Elmira, New York

Marker Text: Built on East Hill 1874, given to Elmira College in 1952. He wrote “Tom Sawyer” other novels in the study when summering in Elmira.

Erected by the State Education Department in 1956.

Location: On the campus of Elmira College on North Main Street at the intersection with West 7^th Street in Front of the Study.

Marshall Plane Crash Site, Wayne County, WV

Marker Text: On Nov. 14, 1970, 75 people died in the worst sports-related air tragedy in U.S. history, when a Southern Airways DC-9 crashed into the hillside nearby. The victims included 36 Marshall University football players, 9 coaches and administrators, 25 fans and air crew of 5. No one survived this horrific disaster.

Location: Old Route 75, Kenova near the airport, road is a dead end road near the end of the airport runway.

   One begins to think one is getting old when you come across an historical road marker about an event in history you can actually remember, but the Marshall Plane Crash is a one of those unfortunate, but historically significant events. I was a college sophomore when the plane crash occurred and it shocked all college sports teams across the country. Then, while I was living in West Virginia south of Huntington, WV is when they made the movie “We Are Marshall” which recalled the events at the time of the accident and the events at the University in attempting to rebuild their football program.

   A chartered jet airliner carrying the Marshall University football team, coaches and a number of prominent Huntington residents crashed in flames on its approach to Tri-State Airport Saturday evening on Nov. 14, 1970. There were no survivors.

   Southern Airways of Atlanta, Ga., said its two-engine DC-9 was carrying 70 passengers and five crewmen. The plane was returning the Marshall football players, most of the coaching staff and a group of supporters from Greenville, N. C., where East Carolina University defeated the Marshall team Saturday afternoon.

   The crash occurred about 7:45 p. m. less than a mile west of Tri-State Airport. Weather conditions were poor and light rain was falling.

   The Herald-Advertiser's Jack Hardin, the first reporter at the scene some 250 yards east of WV Route 75 south of Kenova, said:

   "There's nothing here but charred bodies. It's terrible." Bodies and wreckage were scattered over a wide area. Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr. and Dr. Donald N. Dedmon, Marshall's acting president, rushed to the scene.

   Hardin reported a piece of the plane was found on a hillside about a half-mile from the principal crash site. He said sections of bodies also were reported found there, too. Searchers were combing the hillside early this morning with the aid of flares.

   At 12:10 a. m., the first bodies were placed on National Guard trucks. They were being taken to the National Guard Armory at the airport, where a temporary morgue was established. Hardin said recovery crews were running short of bags to hold the bodies.

   The tragedy was the worst domestic air crash during 1970 and it was described by the FAA as one of the worst in history involving an athletic team.  The crash also was the worst in West Virginia air travel history.

   Less than two months earlier, on October 3, one of two chartered planes carrying the Wichita University football team, coaches, boosters and others, crashed in the mountains of Colorado, killing 31 persons, including 13 football players.  The Marshall crash was the second fatal crash at same the airport in 16 days. Three Army officers were killed in the crash of a military plane Oct. 29. A fourth passenger, critically injured, survived. In the earlier crash, the airplane hit a hill 2,700 feet short of the runway, after apparently losing power in one of its two engines.

   This year marks the 39th anniversary of the plane crash that took the lives of 75 members of the Marshall University football team, coaches, staff, community members, and crew. This year, as the University does every year since the tragedy, Marshall's Student Government Association will conduct a memorial service at the memorial fountain which commemorates the tragedy on the campus of Marshall University. The fountain is silenced each Nov. 14 during the annual memorial service honoring the victims of the 1970 Marshall plane crash and remains silent until spring.

   In an interesting personal historical note about Marshall University and the events to rebuild the football program. In a January 10, 2007 article in the Huntington Herald-Dispatch about the movie, “We Are Marshall.” In the movie, they stated that the first coach hired by Marshall to replace Head Coach Rick Tolley who was killed in the plane crash, was not Jack Lengyel but Dick Bestwick, assistant coach at Georgia Tech, he changed his mind after two days and returned to Georgia Tech. What I found interesting about this fact is that Dick Bestwick had been the head football coach during the early 60's at the high school where I graduated in Pennsylvania before he went on to Georgia Tech.

   For more information about the plane crash, visit the WV Historical Site.