Everything Tuckahoe

.....Tuckahoe once teemed with people with at least three one-roomed schools. There were homes all up and down the length of the valley as well as up the side valleys. After the coming of the railroad, business boomed. The logging indrustry roared until the 1920s. There was once even a brickyard that supplied bricks for the streets of Ronceverte. You coculd get on the railroad at Tuckahoe Station and go to White Sulphur or Covington, Virginia. Or, you could go accross the country.

.....Before the boom days, folks eaked out a living the best that they could. It was hard. The rich investors had taken up the bottom lands outside the valley leaving the hollows and the ridges for the poor folks. Now the rich are coming in to take the ridges. Many a child on a small poor farm went to bed on a supper of buttermilk (Or what was left of the buttermilk after the cream was gone) and cornbread. Many folks still like that fare today.

.....After the boom times, it was back to scratching out a living again for many folks. For others, moving to Cleveland, Columbus, or Baltimore was the answer. Boom times have never came back to Tuckahoe. Sometimes folks retire and come back, but the boom times have not returned.

photo by Woody Cox

.....About the time that the boom was winding down, the Pentecostal folks of Tuckahoe built the Peniel Pentecostal Holiness Church Building. This was in 1923. It is still in service today. This is an older photo that was made before the coming of Tuckahoe Dam and Lake. We will talk more at length on these things later.

.....At the heart of the valley is the creek and the road. The Creek and the runs of the side valleys carved out the valley. In the last two hundred plus years, the roads have made it possible to travel by other means than by foot.
.....From White Sulphur Springs to the old village of Tuckahoe, the stream is known as Dry Creek. From Tuckahoe to the base of the divide, it is known as Tuckahoe Run. But, it is the same stream. There are many hollows with their streams that make up the Tuckahoe basin. Some are small while others are quite large. From the East, there is State Line Hollow, Allegheny Tunnel Hollow, Alexander Hollow, Broad Hollow, Ramsey Hollow (which was mislabled by the 911 folks as Broad Hollow), and Fletcher Hollow. Rising above the head of Fletcher Hollow is the high point called Fletcher Knob. At its top, the counties of Allegheny, Virginia, Greenbrier, and Monroe West Virginia meet. Above the South side of Fletcher Hollow, Fletcher Ridge runs its course. The road that ascends Ramsey Hollow was once a state maintained road. But, after a series of devestating floods, and since nobody still lived on the upper reaches, the state ceased to maintain the road. The road climbs to the top of a high ridge that is adjacent to Big Ridge near the old farm where Noah and Lottie Sparks Midkiff once lived. They, along with their daughter, are buried on a knoll behind their old house. The road joins Big Ridge Road at the Midkiffs.
.....On the west of Tuckahoe are White Hollow, Bostic Hollow, the Hollow of Laurel Run, Myles White Hollow, and Joe Vance Hollow. Up Laurel Run is the hig falls called Tuckahoe Falls. Locals call the falls Dead Man's Falls.

......In the very early years, the road as far as State Line Hollow, was part of the Sweet Sulphur Springs Pike. From Dry Creek, the Pike ascended what is now Sate Line Road and then down US Route 311 to Sweet Springs. The wealthy traveled between the spa at White Sulphur and the spa at Sweet Springs by coach by way of Crows.
.....At the time of the Pike, the road on up Tuckahoe was probably not much more than a trace. Improvements were slow in coming. Until more recent years, the road was a dirt road that followed in and out of the creek. Now, except for a short stretch, the road is a narrow winding blacktop. When you travel the road today you must use caution and be ready to put two wheels on the berm in order to avoid oncoming traffic.

.....About two and one half miles or so up the hollow, you come to two bridges. This is near what once was the White homestead. William White was born in Ireland and came to America on the Ship Lord Nelson. His son William II was born on board ship. His son James was born at Tuckahoe. William's wife was Rebecca Orr.

.....Just past the State Line Road, you will come to the old Corneilus Caldwell place.
(photo by Okey L. King)

.....Neil's wife was Carrie Ella Alpaugh the daughter of John David and Margaret Vance Alpaugh. Neil's parents were John C. and Catherine Caldwell. This old pond is on the old Caldwell Place.

.....Across the road from the pond on a bench on the hillside is the


McCleary Cemetery. I have had at least two funerals here and have attend others. These tombstones can tell some sad stories.
(Photo of McCleary Cemetery by Okey L. King)

.....Just beyond the Caldwell place is the site of the old village of Tuckahoe. With its railway station and several stores, Tuckahoe was once a bustling place.

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(photo by Okey L. King)

..... Now, the only thing that is left is this old horse and buggy days underpass which is both an eyesore and a bottleneck. The citizens of Tuckahoe tried to get the tunnel removed when Tuckahoe Lake was built, but they could not fight the CSX Railway. CSX also owns the Greenbrier Hotel at White Sulphur. The only thing that was done was that the floor of the underpass was lowered to accomadate the heavey equipment used to build the lake. This only made the flooding worse.

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............1950 Photo by B. F. Cutler

.....This is a view of Tuckahoe Valley made just above the underpass near where the old station once stood. This was the view that met travelers as they came out out of the dark of Allegheny Tunnel. Of course the old folks would have also seen the old depot.

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.....I am grateful for this old photo of the mouth of the Tunnel. I do not know who made this photo. Another version of this photo can be seen on the net. However, I believe that both genealogy information and old photographs are public domain.

.....I have seen a note that said that Tuckahoe got its name in 1884, but it may have been known as Tuckahoe long before that. By 1950, the boom days were long gone. But it has remained an important spot because of the frieght carried by the railway. During World War II, this spot was well guarded. The tunnel exits on the eastern side of Allegheny Mountain at the little railroad town of Allegheny, Virginia on Route 311.

.....After watching for oncoming traffic, you enter and pass through the old tunnel under the railway. On the other side of the underpass, the road winds around a series of curves passing a number of homes. On the left there are the Mines, the Grimmetts, and the Alexanders. On the right you pass the Spence Home, the Ross Mines, and then the Sparks home. Until you reach this point, the road is the same as it has been for years. But, that changes here

.....Just past the Sparks', there rises a high earthen wall. This is the Tuckahoe Dam which contains the waters of Tuckahoe Run to make Tuckahoe Lake. In the early 1970s, a huge flood roared out of Tuckahoe and flooded part of White Sulphur and the grounds to the Greenbrier Hotel. Flooded at White Sulphur was the Bank Of White Sulphur. The bank, the hotel, and the town made up a strong force to lobby for a dam somewhere. Tuckahoe was chosen, and the citizens of Tuckahoe didn't stand a chance. Homes that had been in families for many many years were condemed and bulldozed away to make way for the pork barrel project dam.

This stretch of road is just beyond the church.
Photo by Jonathan King.

.....For less thatn a mile, a two-lane road replaces the onelane. After this stretch, the road is again the road that it has been for years. Many lost their homes and the rest still have to deal with the bottlenick horse and buggy tunnel. It was a lopsided deal for Tuckahoe.

.....Back at the dam, Alexander Hollow comes in from the east. It is a huge hollow. You can look up the mouth of the hollow and see the wall that is Allegheny Mountain. Back at the Alexanders, a logging road climbs the mountain and then winds down and around and then up again to the top of the mountain on Big Ridge in Virginia and in the National Forrest.
.....Accross the valley, Bostic Hollow comes in from Kates Mountain. The waters from these hollows are not contained by the dam and roar on down the valley unabated.

.....At the upper end of the lake, on the Western side of the valley on a bench, lies the old Alpaugh Cemetery. I thought I had a photo of it, but I haven't found it. Here lie Alexanders, Alpaughs, Caldwells, and others. Many of these were once movers in the church across the valley from the cemetery. I have had several funerals here. Before the lake was built, we crossed the creek on a road now covered by the lake. We then made our way up the bottom to the cemetery. Now it is difficult to reach the cemetery.

.....This a view of the lake shore with the church in the distance, The next photo shows my grandson Jonathan fishing. He is also the photographer of some of the photos on this page.

Photo of Feury Cemetery by Okey L. King

.....This is the old Feury Ceemetery, but it probaly should be called the Bostic Cemetery because the number of those folks lying their. Some of the oldest settlers of the area are here including members of the Keyes family. There are a number of graves marked only by fieldstones. I have said the last words for four friends in this old hardscrabble graveyard.

This is the Cox home which is now the last house at the head of the lollow. Woody, Hillman, and Elizabeth Sparks Cox once lived here, but now, only Woody remains. The Williams house was once about a half mile above Woody's, but it burned down one night in mysterious circumstances.