FOREST HILL W.Va. (Hinton News) – Editor’s Note: Each week, local history collector William Jones shares information about pieces from his collection. In this edition of A Peek Into Summers County’s Past, Jones is discussing a rare photo of a monument unveiling ceremony at a cemetery in Forest Hill.
The photo is a rare original piece of Summers County history. It was taken at the Mike Foster Confederate Monument ceremony when it was unveiled at Fairview Baptist Church Cemetery at Forest Hill on October 15, 1907.
I was recently given this photograph by a good friend and fellow historian so I could preserve it in my collection. A decade prior I had copied this photo when my third cousin on the Thompson side of my family brought several old photographs he had inherited of his grandfather L.W. Thompson for me to copy around 2014. This was one of those photographs, rare but several copies of it do exist and these are two of them.
L.W.’s father, Jessie W. Thompson, my Great Great Great Grandfather is the gentleman if you look at the third man sitting on the left side of the front row and then go back three men to the left. Luckily for history’s sake the copy I had and the original one that was just given to me both had explanations of the event written on the back.
Someone recognized the fact that this would be a historic event and wanted to preserve it for future generations. First I will address the one that I had copied. The daughter of one of the confederates had written the following: “Took at Forest Hill 1907 Unveiling of Mike Foster’s Monument a Confederate Soldier Fairview Baptist Cemetery”. She further explains that she had 6 of her father’s brothers in this photo and her Uncle Jesse, my ancestor. And further states they were the only ones old enough to fight in the war.
Another line that I find interesting is “Lewis Meadows the one that owned the old log house. Orice Thompson’s Grand Pa.” Orice was my great-grandfather. She then writes “I can just remember when Papa brought this picture home. About 7 years old.” The same as she had identified Jesse she identified her father and her uncles Edger, Lonie and Everet.
I would like to point out I have two other photographs from around 1928 of the old log house she talks about, of a large Thompson family event. One of my early relatives, Selvester Thompson, and his wife, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. My grandfather Bernard, his parents Gladys and Orice Thompson, his grandparents L.W. and Delia Thompson, and several cousins are in this particular photo.
I digress, and will relay Judge Miller’s account of the event that he recorded in his 1908 “History of Summers County From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time.” Mike Foster was a humble citizen of Summers County who became a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. He was considered one of the bravest soldiers in the war on either the Union or Confederate side.
He died from wounds received during the war as the war ended in 1865. He was buried at the Fairview Baptist Church Cemetery in an unmarked grave. It remained unidentified until some fellow soldiers who had served with him took it upon themselves to erect a monument at his grave site.
On the previously mentioned date in 1907 Judge Miller described the unveiling and said, “A beautiful shaft was unveiled in the presence of one of the largest, if not the largest, crowds of people that ever assembled within the boundaries of the county outside of Hinton.” About 3000 people were estimated to have been in attendance.”
Did you know the history of that monument? Have you been to the Fairview Baptist Church Cemetery?
To submit historical information about Summers County’s past, send an email to news@hintonnews.com.
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