State vs Ellen Fluharty Part 1

The Fairmont West Virginian., May 5, 1905

State vs. Fluharty.

     The notorious case of the State vs. Ellen Fluharty for keeping a house of ill-fame at Mannington, finally came to trial at eleven o'clock. J.G. Jones was the first to witness called for the State. Jones testified that the Fluhartys had lived in the house next to his for two years; that all kinds of drinking and carousing had been going on there at all times of night and day; that a Welsh woman and a woman named Rose Sturgeon had been living at the house; that the reputation of these two, as well as of Ellen Fluharty and her daughter Daisy Blodgett, was that they were prostitutes; that through a window he had seen Daisy Blodgett and a man in a nude state and compromising condition.
     On cross-examination the witness got one on the lawyer for the defense that made even that gentleman himself smile. When asked in what "capacity" Rose Sturgeon lived in the Fluharty house, he said he did not understand what was meant by "capacity" as used.

     "I am not a lawyer," he said.

     "What are you?"

     "I am a man."

     Jones is an honest looking, straightforward man, however, and the effect of his testimony on the jury will be hard to overcome.

The Fairmont West Virginian., May 6, 1905

THE FLUHARTY CASE ONE OF

THE RACIEST EVER TRIED

IN THE COUNTY.

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     In the case of the State vs. Ellen Fluharty, before Judge Kendall yesterday afternoon, the witness L.G. Jones continued his testimony by saying that he had seen several Mannington citizens at the Fluharty house, whom up to that time he had considered respectable.  He swore the Ed. Cunningham, 64 years of age, had made an indecent exposure of his person at the door in broad day light.

     Mrs. E.B. Hayes, a daughter of Jones, gave most startling testimony.  She said that she was at the rear of her father's house one afternoon last summer, when, looking across at the Fluharty house, she saw Daisy Blodgett and a man whom she did not recognize, in a compromising position outside the Fluharty kitchen door.  Mrs. Hayes also testified to being called to the Fluharty house on the occasion of the serious illness of Daisy Blodgett's child, and to seeing on one occasion Daisy Blodgett lying across the bed with one Clarence Fluharty, a third cousin, and on another occasion Daisy's  skirts lifted to a most indecent height while men were in the room.

     Several citizens of the neighborhood testified to the reputation which the inmates of the house bore of being common prostitutes.

     The defense put Mrs. Fluharty on the stand first.  She testified that she her husband and her three daughters slept in the same room.  She said her husband was a very free-hearted man, and never refused admittance to any men or women that came to the house.  She had had trouble with Jones about six months before because of a story Jones had told, so she said, about her younger daughter going to the woods with a man.  She declared that Jones was sore, and not "neighboring" with them any more, and was responsible for all the trouble.  She stated that Rose Sturgeon was turned away from home and came to her for a refuge until she could find work, and that Emma Welch came and stayed under similar circumstances.  She said that men drank at her house.  It was not denied to her friends to drink.  "Most everybody drinks now-a-days."  She admitted that Rose Sturgeon and Emma Welch didn't bear good reputations, but that she had never seem anything wrong with them.

     On cross-examination she admitted that the girls had "beaux," and that she considered it all right for her married daughter to have men to see her.  She became considerably worked up in talking about Jones.  She declared that Jones had had the State's witnesses summoned and that she had something to tell on Jones.  The prosecuting attorney urged her to tell what it was, but she sid she was going to tell the June grand jury.

     At the continuation of the trial this morning the prosecutor had Mrs. Fluharty on the stand again and asked her if the notorious story was true that she herself helped to hold her 14-year-old daughter, Ida Fluharty, while a certain Mannington citizen took advantage of her.  Mrs. Fluharty denied the story.

     Michael Fluharty, the husband of the accused, took the stand next.  He corroborated his wife's testimony about the two girls coming to his home, and said that they slept in the same room with him and his wife and daughters.  He said they usually hung a skirt up at the window when they went to bed.  He said that he had engaged in some of the fighting in the house himself.  He related how Mart Looman had been in the house and gotten into some kind of altercation with "old man Burdine."  He said that Burdine had long chin whiskers, and that Looman was pretty drunk and seized the whiskers.  Fluharty grabbed a stove-poker and Looman let go his hold on Burdine and made for him, whereupon he hit Looman over the head with the poker.  Then he and his son threw Looman out.

     On cross-examination Fluharty said he went to bed usually about nine, but that his wife stayed up with the younger crowd often until a late hour.

     Ida Davis testified to having been at the Furhartys' frequently, and to having been in the kitchen when the son, Alf, was in bed, and in one of the other rooms when the rest of the family was in bed.  She said that a fight which Jones had mentioned in his testimony had occurred after a dance at her house, and that the Fluhartys were not mixed up in it.

     On cross-examination she she said there was no necessity for Rose Sturgeon and Emma Welch to be there so far as helping with the work was concerned. She said that she and Jones were not on speaking terms, that she would speak to him if he would to her, but that she wasn't going to speak first.

     Daisy Blodgett took the stand.  Her testimony was largely a denial of the stories told by Jones and Mrs. Hayes.

     On cross-examination she said she thought fighting would occur "any place," and that she thought there was no harm in her receiving men callers nor in their drinking "a little beer."

     Mr. J.L. Roup testified to going with Mr. J.W. McElroy to try to buy the Fluharty house and admitted to Mr. Lowe that he did it in an attempt to get the Fluhartys to leave the neighborhood.  He said that Rose Sturgeon, Emma Welch and Daisy Fluharty were regarded in the community as common prostitutes.

     Mr. Parks, counsel for the defense, put Fluharty on the stand again at this point and showed that he went to Mannington last night in an attempt to serve a summons on Clarence Fluharty.  Michael said he had searched for Clarence but that he was unable to locate him.

     Mr. Parks then called Nimrod Wells to the stand.  Wells testified to having heard Jones tell his son Alva on the train going to Mannington last night to "go ahead and get that fellow out of the way."

     Mr. Parks spoke strongly against this performance and urged that the prosecuting attorney haul Jones up before the grand jury on the charge of interfering with the course of the law.

     Counsel agreed to take a half hour each to argue the case and began at one o'clock to do so.

     

Big Posse Pursuing Masked Murderers

The Fairmont West Virginian., May 5, 1905

      PARKERSBURG, W.Va., May 5 - A posse of officers accompanied by a large number of infuriated residents are searching Calhoun county for three masked robbers who at an early hour yesterday morning shot to death Charles Berkshire, a farmer living near Brooksville, after inhumanely torturing his wife.  The family were aroused shortly after midnight by the robbers, who, after binding the wife, led the husband to the center of the room, turned up the lights and ordered Mrs. Berkshire to count ten, stating the if her husband did not tell them where his money was they would kill him on the tenth count.   The couple insisted that they had no money and the outlaws pinched and beat the woman and applied burning matches to the soles of her feet.

     Screaming in agony, Mrs. Berkshire finally consented to count ten, and on the tenth count a shot rang out and her husband fell dead.  The fiends becoming frightened, fled, and it was hours afterward when neighbors found the woman in such a pitiable state of collapse that it is feared she will die.

     I have searched but can find no more information about this event.  Nothing - not even if poor Mrs. Berkshire lived. 

Frank Fisher Killed His Sister

The Fairmont West Virginian, June 22, 1906

Coroner Amos Telephoned For

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     A telephone message was received here this afternoon to the effect that Frank Fisher, on the head waters of Buffalo Creek, in Mannington district had shot and killed his sister this morning.  The message stated that the killing was intentional and was witnessed by a sister of the murdered girl.  Coroner Amos was asked to come to the scene of the murder but her has not gone yet.  He and Prosecuting Attorney Lowe will probably go this evening.

     The Fisher home is said to be within a half mile of the Wetzel county line.  Very few details of the affair could be learned at press time. 

The Fairmont West Virginian, June 23, 1906

Was Arrested Then Released

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     As stated in yesterday's West Virginian, Coroner Amos was called to Mannington district yesterday afternoon to investigate the killing of a sister by Frank Fisher.  Coroner Amos started to the scene of the killing, but before her had gotten far from Mannington her met Deputy Sheriff J.D. Charlton, A.F. Millan and Brice Jolliffe, who had been at the scene of the shooting.  They reported that it was impossible to find out how the affair happened and that it was absolutely unnecessary to try to ferret out the facts in the case.  The Fishers seem to be a very trashy set of people, the father and one brother of Frank now serving time in the penitentiary.  The girl who was killed was said to be fairly good looking and had a brighter intellect than the others, but the lives of the whole family are said to be on a very low plane.

     An investigation by the officers failed to establish a sufficient number of facts upon which to base a further attempt and an order was issued to bury the girl without a coroner's investigation and Fisher was released.

     There's no more info to be found about this murder, not even what the girls name was or her age.  The whole thing just seems really strange, and I get the feeling the Fishers may be the inspiration for Deliverance.  Perhaps the police figured it best to just keep their distance!  

Berkeley Castle

Present Day  Image Source

     Berkeley Castle, aka Berkeley Springs Castle, was originally built for Colonel Samuel Taylor Suit from Washington DC.  He first met his wife, Rosa, at Berkeley Springs and the residence was meant to be a place of peace and relaxation. (Apparently Rosa didn't want to marry the guy until he promised to build her a castle - he was 30 years older than her!)  Unfortunately he died in 1888 before it was finished.  After his death the quality of work done on the castle was obviously not as good but, was completed sometime in the early 1890's   You see, in his will he stated that Rosa had to finish the place before she could inherit his money. 

     For the next 20+ years Rosa lived the high life.  She threw parties and spared no expense on her guests.  She hired orchestras and caterers, and even paid for their hotel rooms.  By the time she was 50 she had spent all the money and had to start renting the place out.  She ended up in a tiny house raising chickens until her son took her to live in Idaho.

Image Source

     The castle was put up for auction a few times, and in 1916 it was bought by the Bank of Morgan County. George Cunningham, a local businessman, owned it between 1923 and 1938.  He had planned on turning the castle into a hotel, but it never ended up happening.  

     It was used in 1924 as place to throw Pasttime Club dances, and Friday nights in 1936 the "Old Castle Club" held it's dances.  Writers and artists would also stay in the castle in 1929.  

Image Source

     After Cunningham, Berkeley Castle was owned by Ward Kesecker.  He fixed the place up, did repairs, and even added an addition.  In 1939 a hobby and antiques fair was held at the castle for two weeks.  During this time is was also used by the Monte Vista Boys Camp.
     In 1954 Walter Bird purchased the castle on the creepy castle on the hill.  He's the one who finally figured out how to make some money with the place, tours.  He would make up wild stories about things that had happened there.  You know, murders, battles, ghosts, that sort of thing. He made it the place for tourists to go for nearly 50 years.

       The current owner is a Andrew Gosline who bought the castle at auction in 2002.  He was a retired data processor, from Florida, when he read an ad about the castle and auction.  Well, it was near his birthday and he decided to go check the place out.  He and his sons went and ended up buying the place.  He says, "I really didn't expect to buy it.  It's just one of those things you get caught up in."
      Although sometimes people show up looking for a tour of the place, it's just a residence now.  Mr. Gosline stated, "I find I have to keep the doors locked.  The people try to come in and walk through."  It's just a big castle for two, Andrew and his dog, Duke.
     

Image Source

     The Castle is on the National and State Registers of Historic Places, and can be rented out for weddings.  You can visit its website at berkeleyspringscastle.org and take a virtual tour here.
    

      

     

Mound Day

The Daily Telegram

November 5, 1908

     All the grades in the city schools observed Mound Day this afternoon for half an hour.  Appropriate programs were rendered and funds raised for the preservation of the mound at Moundsville.

     Mr. McConkey presided over the high school and Superintendent Burdette gave an historical account of the mound.  Miss Bertha Bland and Frank White, high school representatives, read sketches.  There was patriotic music.  The fund will be deposited in the bank to be drawn on by State Treasurer Ogdin.

     The Clyclopedia Americana says of the mound:

     "One of the most interesting mounds of North America is that know as Grave Creek Mound located in Moundsville, West Virginia.  The Mound is situated on an artificial truncated mound, some 70 feet high and 900 feet in circumference at its base.  The mound was built by a race superior and previous to Indians, and is the most notable mound in the Ohio Valley.  Its cubic contents are equal to the third pyramid of Mycerinus, but was heaped up by a people destitute of the knowledge of iron, and who had no domestic animals or machinery to aid them.  They were evidently people like the Egyptians, ruled by some one monarch, who was able to combine vast numbers in the erection of one structure, and at the same time, able to provide them with food in abundance.  The mound-builders cultivated the soil like the Egyptians, and had maize for their food, as the date and leek and onion supplied the wants of the laborers on the Nile.  No Indian was ever known to toll in this manner.  No government existed among the Indians that could bring them so much servitude.  The authority of a chief or sachem is too slender a thread for such a people.  It must be remembered that in Egypt to build one of the pyramids required the labor of 360,000 men for 20 years.  This Mound was visited by white men at a very early date, for, in 1818, on of the large trees growing on the Mound bore the date of 1734, and several names cut in the bark were yet distinguishable.  Tomlinson, the owner of the Mound, was induced - by his neighbors and friends in Wheeling - to open the Mound, which he did in 1838.  From the north side he excavated toward the centre an adit ten feet high and 7 feet wide along the natural surface.  At the distance of 111 feet he came to a vault that had been excavated in the earth before the Mound was commenced;  8 feet by 12 feet square and 7 feet in depth.  Along each side, and across the ends, upright timbers had been placed, which supported timbers thrown across the vault as a ceiling.  Those timbers were covered with loose unhewn stone, common in the neighborhood.  The timbers had rotted, and the stone tumbled into the vault.  In this vault were two human skeletons, one of which had no ornaments.  The other was surrounded by 650 ivory beads and an ivory ornament about six inches long.  A shaft was also sunk from the top of the Mound to meet the other.  At 34 feet above the first or bottom vault, was found another, similar to the first.  In this vault was found a skeleton which had been ornamented with copper rings, plates of mica, and bone beads.  Over 2,000 discs cut from shells were found here.  The copper rings, or bracelets found, weighed about 17 ounces."   

The Flatwoods Monster

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5f/Flatwoods_monster_newspaper1.png

       Seven Braxton County residents Saturday reporting seeing a 10 foot Frankenstein-like monster in the hills above Flatwood.

     They said they saw the monster Friday night when they climbed a wooded hill to investigate reports that a flying saucer had landed.

     Mrs. Kathlyn May, Flatwood, said she and six boys, including a 17-year-old member of the national guard, started to search for a bright object which her two small sons said they had seen come down.

     However, State Police laughed the reports off as hysteria.  They said the so-called monster had grown from seven to 17 feet in 24 hours.

     The National Guard member, Gene Lemon, was leading the group when he said he saw what appeared to be a pair of bright eyes in a tree.  At first he thought it was an oppossum or a raccoon but when he shone his flashlight on it, he said, he saw a 10-foot monster with a blood-red face and a green body that seemed to glow.  Mrs. May said Lemon let out a terrified scream and fell over backwards.  She said the monster started toward them with a bounding motion. 

     All of the party agreed that there was an overpowering smell that burned the nostrils and made them sick.  Several of the party fainted and vomited for several hours after returning to town.

     A. Lee Stewart, co-publisher of the Braxton County Democrat, said he and several men armed with shotguns returned with Lemon about half-hour to an hour later, and reported a sickening odor still present.  He said there were also slight heat waved in the air.

     "Those people were the most scared people I've ever seen,"  Stewart said, "People don't make up that kind of story quickly."  Both Mrs. May and Lemon described the thing as having the shape of a man, blood-red face, bright green body, protruding eyes, and hand extended forward and appeared to give off an eerie light.  They said it had a black shield affair in the shape of an ace of spades behind it and wore what looked like a pleated metallic shirt.

     "It looked worse than Frankenstein," Mrs. May said.

Image Source:  here.

     

     Those who saw the monster:

1. Edward May - 13
2. Fred May - 12
3. Tommy Hyer - 10
4. Kathlyn May
5. Neil Nunley - 14
6. Ronnie Shaver - 10
7. Eugene 'Gene' Lemon - 17

      The "Braxton County Monster" has been described by a local insurance man and amateur astronomer as an illusion created by the remains of a gaseous meteor.
     He is Earl Stephens of nearby Belle, whose theory is one of the best offered here on the origin of "the thing" that scared the daylights out of a Braxton County family.
     His theory was advanced after Mrs. Kathleen May and Gene Lemon of Flatwoods returned from New York where they described their experience before a nation-wide television audience.
     It is Stephens' opinion that the meteor, commonly called a fire ball, originated from an electrical discharge in the outer atmosphere, forming the shape of a gaseous ball.

Odor of Sulphur

     "The odor of sulphur was the tip-off," declared Stephens.  "It burns with a green flame accounting for the apparition the people saw."
     Stephens said one of the party apparently flashed their light on the gas ball just the instant before it disintegrated into thin air.  The reflection of the light on the gases gave it the shape the people described, he said.
     The " monster" story came to light a week ago after reports that Mrs. May, Lemon and four youths ran smack into the thing while searching for a strange object they saw floating into the woods near their home.
     They described the monster as about eight feet tall, with red eyes and a green body, topped by a strange pointed mantle.
     However, during a thorough search of the area by county officials the next day only the sulphurous odor remained.
Facts Support Theory
     Stephens said his theory is backed up by the fact the earth entered a meteorite stream on Aug. 24.  He believes the gaseous body may have been ripped from Biela's Comet which has been splitting up during recent years, showering the earth with its fragments.
     During the same period several local residents observed a strange luminous body that was believed to have fallen within a 50-mile radius of Charleston.
     The gaseous theory is further bolstered by the stories of two residents of rural St. Albans, who declared they saw a lighted object float lazily to the ground and disappear.
     A search of that area by two Gazette reporters failed to turn up any....

 [Caption under the picture]   

     THE MONSTER which prowled the hills of Braxton County on Friday, Sept. 12, was drawn by a New York artist from descriptions given him by Mrs. Kathleen May and Gene Lemon, Flatwoods residents who said they saw the "thing."  The two witnesses, with A. Lee Stewart, Jr., Sutton publisher, told their experience on "We The People" television show in New York Friday night.  [The artist's?] conception was featured on the program with a background of weird [music?].  Lemon and Mrs. May hold the portrait which they say is "quite accurate."  The [picture?] was taken in Charleston at the Greyhound bus terminal.

The Waffle Rock Boulder

     Once upon a time there was a rock.  This rock was different from all the other rocks, and the local natives believed it was sacred.  The years passed and the area near the rock became known as a town called Shaw.  This town was located somewhere in Mineral County, West Virginia.

Image Source: here.

     The town of Shaw had a river running through it called the Potomac.  Then one day some engineers decided to build a dam on this river.  To build this dam meant that the town of Shaw would be flooded forever, along with this magnificent rock.  In place of the town and rock would be a lake - Jennings Randolph Lake.  
     Luckily, someone realized that this rock should not be lost to the people, and decided to move it.  Unfortunately, this rock was a big one.  So it was decided that a portion of the rock, now dubbed "Waffle Rock," would be removed from the whole and saved.  
     A portion of Waffle Rock now sits on an overlook of the lake.  This rather large 'hunk' has been dubbed as the Waffle Rock boulder, and has been a tourist attraction since its placement there in 1985.  Another piece of the rock now resides at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.

Larger view of original rock.  Image Source: here.

     Waffle rock is not only interesting to look at, but it's also surrounded in mystery.  No one seems to know just how the strange geometric patterns came to be.  Of course, there are many theories out there.  To name a few:

• Carved by ancient native Americans
• Reptilian aliens
• More aliens/made a landmark
• An alien craft landed on it and left the markings behind
• Electromagnetic fields
• An electrical storm or lightning strike
• Sandstone formed cracks, and over time those cracks filled in with quarts.  Since the two rocks erode at different rates the 'waffle' appearance formed. 

     To me it looks like the inside of a beehive.  Back in prehistoric times lots of insects and animals were ginormous compared to today, so who knows, maybe this is a giant beehive fossil.  Hey, my guess could end up being the truth, right?  Unlikely.  Still, I'm glad that at least a part of it was saved and I hope to see it for myself one day.

Who doesn't like a good mystery now and then?