CLAYTON W.Va. (Hinton News) – From the 1870s up through the 1910s the United States saw a large number of inventions for farming, in this case, the “planting” side of it specifically. One of these inventions was created by a person from Summers County, Mr. M.M. Ballangee of Clayton. On Dec. 5, 1916, he was granted a patent for his Hill or Drill Corn Planter.
It was a simple design that could be operated by hand. It was designed to place grain at a variety of distances apart, anywhere from 4 to 18 inches. The advertisement supplies a testimonial from E.K. McClung, the pastor of the Clayton Baptist Church in Clayton, WV at that time.
The Clayton/Griffiths Creek area of the county is well known for its farming heritage, the Ballengee family played a large part in the farming role in the Clayton area of the county. My grandparents Gene and Catherine Jones moved to Clayton after purchasing their first farm when they were married in 1952 prior to purchasing their farm in Pence Springs that remains in the family today.
This new invention could be purchased at the Alderson Hardware Company in Alderson, WV. I’m certain that it could have been bought at locations in Summers County at that time but Alderson is the only place I know for certain.
A copy of this early local advertisement was given to me by my good friend and Summers County historian, the late John Kessler. John collected and researched all areas of Summers County. He knew that my main interest was the eastern side of the county. So when he came across something like this advertisement about an invention in Clayton he would give me a copy of it.
In researching this piece in my collection I uncovered that M.M. Ballengee was also a reverend. In the Jan. 8, 1936 edition of the Hinton Daily News there was a column for “Ramp News.” The Ballangee family was multifaceted much like the Graham family in early Summers County history.
It states that Rev. M.M. Ballengee was conducting regular services at Ramp Baptist Church on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings. I then found an article that was written when he died in 1957. He passed away at his home on Monday, Dec. 9, 1957, in Bellepoint. It further talks about him having been born July 5, 1879, in Clayton, where he had spent most of his life before retiring in 1952. At that time he and his wife moved to Hinton.
It later says that he was the son of D. G. and Delphia Flint Ballangee. I haven’t traced the lineage yet but I can almost say with certainty that he and I are distant cousins. The Thomas side of my family brings the “Flint” name to my family from the Clayton area. My great great grandmother was Effie Della Flint Thomas of the Clayton/Griffiths Creek area of Summers County.
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