This piece is a bit different than my usual weekly series. This week I am writing to you for your help. A friend of mine shared a post from Derek Guinn last week. Anyone in this part of Summers County around Lowell knows of the Quinn family and how prominent they were in our early history.
Derek starts the post out by asking for help and explains his situation by prefixing it with this statement: “My Dad is Andy Gwinn and currently lives in Lowell/Pence Springs, WV. My Mom passed away in October 2024. Shortly afterwards, my wife and I came across an antique trunk that contained a massive collection of irreplaceable historic family papers, letters, and photographs that I had never seen before. I was incredibly excited to go through them and learn more about our family’s history and preserve the items.”
He then tells around the same time that a local woman began helping his dad around the house with some cleaning and other chores but then they discovered items started missing around the house. The most disturbing thing then was they found that the antique trunk that Derek had found filled with irreplaceable family documents and artifacts had been completely emptied. Derek and the family are desperately trying to track these items down before they are permanently scattered across the internet or private collections or lost.
Contents of the collection:
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Time Period: Roughly 1880 to 1950.
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Key Content: A large number of World War I-era military letters, loose and framed vintage family photographs, newspapers and clippings, and old correspondence.
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Addresses/Postmarks: Most envelopes feature the surname Gwinn and are addressed to Lowell, WV, Pence Springs, WV, or Talcott, WV.
They are asking that anyone who is “an active collector or regularly browse West Virginia history groups, estate auctions, eBay, or Facebook Marketplace, please keep an eye out for any “lot” of old letters or photos matching these names and towns. If you see anything that looks like a match, or if you have any tips on local dealers in the Summers/Greenbrier/Monroe County area who frequently buy old paper collections, please send me a direct message. These items hold immense historical and sentimental value to our family, and any lead helps. I’m very happy to come across this group and greatly appreciate anything you might be able to do to help.”
I found an early 1900’s postcard in my collection of the young Guinn children around 1900 and sent Derek a copy of it. I have direct historic ties with this family as the Guinn Mansion that was built on the other side of the river from The Graham House was built by Captain Silas F. Taylor, known as “the “Ancient Brick Mason” throughout Summers County.
The photo you see here is found in Judge Millers 1908 History of Summers County: From the Earliest Settlement to The Present Time. The book, authored by James Henry Miller, highlights the professional legacy of Silas F. Taylor. Taylor was a master brick mason celebrated across the region for his skill and honest craftsmanship. One house referenced as being built by Silas is the Andrew Gwinn brick house at Lowell, Derek’s ancestor home place and was where many of the early documents in the trunk came from.
Silas was my great great-great grandfather. He was born in 1820 in Bedford County, VA, and he later relocated to our parts. He died in 1896 and is buried at the Old Greenbrier Baptist Church in Alderson. If you have any tips to find this irreplaceable family collection or could provide Derek with copies of Guinn documents like I did, please email me at greenbrierantiques@gmail.com and I will get you in touch with him.
