A few days ago I read of a fire in Fort Gay that had destroyed a building and damaged others plus the Fort Gay city hall. I wrote Bill Wellman a note asking if he knew of the house and it’s history plus some other comments regarding the area. If you have read any of Bill’s writing you will know that he has great recall of Fort Gay and the 40’s and 50’s there. I would have to say that Fred Reid also has great recall. Bill sent me the below reply and comments. I think he expresses things that we would all have liked to have seen to the town of Fort Gay. Enjoy.
Hi Richard,
Now that you have opened the door, please allow me to reminisce a bit about that section of town. First, I looked at the Google satellite photo of that part of town and it looks like that was the only building left on that section of the street. As I recall, there were three buildings there when I was young. First, on the corner there was Jim and Fays Tavern. We overturned the outhouse behind that building one year on Halloween and it rolled all the way down to the creek. The next building had Carl Frasher’s barber shop and I visited that shop so many times, most often a reluctant visit. And I believe Carl (or was it Karl?) charged 25 cents per head, sometimes using a hand powered hair clipper. Does 25 cents sound right for that time? The other half of that small building housed the Fort Gay Post Office. Two small grilled windows graced the left wall but I think only one window was ever opened at a time. The wall opposing the entry door was full of mail boxes, each with its own combination lock.
Later after the Post Office moved into the new building across the street a mom and pop operated laundry occupied the Post Office space. I believe I recall who the couple was but can’t be sure because by that time I had been gone from the area for a while.
The third building there, the one that I think burned, was occupied by Lando Smith family. I am not sure if he was the long time resident there or not but I can recall only his family there during that time. During that part of my life Lando was a part-time worker for Ray Ailiff. He may have been retired from some other occupation, I just can’t be sure. He sometimes worked in the store across the tracks and sometimes he accompanied drivers on the truck routes that Ray operated. During my early teens, I accompanied Ray in a lot of his trips selling candy, cookies and notions on routes in WVa and Kentucky. Remember that the three brothers, Ray, William, or Wigg, and Tom had separate routes. I recall traveling up US 52 to Crum and Kermit and some of the ‘hollows’ around the coal camps a number of times. Later on, perhaps in 1950, I recall one trip in particular that was a deciding trip for me. Lando was breaking me in on the routes and we stopped at many small stores that served perhaps one or two creeks and hollers in a given area. On one stop we entered the store that was a raw wooden building, barely more than storage shed. But it did have a covered porch on the front. The door to the store was unlocked but as we stepped in it was obvious that no one was tending the store. We went outside and waited on the porch for a couple of minutes, after which a man greeted us from the adjacent house. His wife soon followed him into the store. After telling him of our wares, they decided to purchase one box of candy. The name of the product was Penny Lunch. It consisted of a 360 count individually wrapped treat that was basically a peanut butter stuffed hard candy log. The price to the store was, as I recall, about $1.60. And, as the name implies, the item was sold for one cent each. Both the man and his wife had to scour several places, even going into the house to retrieve some change, in order to come up with the total price of the product. I dutifully wrote up the order, delivered the box and we left for the next store. Even though all of the other stores we were visiting resulted in orders comfortably larger than that one, they were certainly not the gang-busters sales that I felt we would have to have kept the route going. So that was the deciding day that took me away from the Ailiff Brothers Candy Company, Merchandise Jobbers Extraordinaire, for good.
I am sorry to hear that Fred is suffering from pneumonia now. This is the time of the year that makes getting rid of that malady worse than ever. I knew that he has had to rely on oxygen. I guess all of us ex-smokers can fall prey to that kind of problem at any time. But I can knock on wood that both Ilse and I have been lucky for the past two years, avoiding any serious colds, etc.
We just experienced three days of rain but the total rainfall has only been 1 & 1/2 inch. We are over 14 inches in deficit now for the year.
I expect to receive my Wayne County News tomorrow so I hope they will have a write-up on the fire in Fort Gay. There have been some really disheartening stories in recent issues about the problems in Fort Gay. I think most of the problems reported are on the water system and sewer system. Those systems are about 60 to 70 years old now, maybe older. And they are really in jeopardy of collapsing, I think, judging from the stories. They even had to call onWayneCountyGovt.for assistance and they had to connect on to Lavallette water system just to keep some customers supplied. I am sure you have heard all of this from your visits back there but it so sad to hear stories like that. I also noticed that some people have lost their land and property to tax liens. That area has been passed by the kind hand of commerce, industry and fate, or so it seems to a long distance observer such as myself. Even as a teenager I used to complain about some land owners who, reportedly, refused to sell land to prospective industry builders. Of course large pieces of level land accessible to road and rail transportation comes far and few between. Once I thought that natural gas might bring about a growing industry or at least some small employers who might make the area grow. That is one of the reasons that I cheer for Prichard now with the intermodal facility. Hopefully they can make use of the Big Sandy River too, to add to that facility. It is just a sad thought about my place of growing up. I didn’t do as well in life as I had wished I could have thus far. (Is it too late to claim I am still a work in progress?) But now I wish Fort Gay could have benefitted from some industry for the area and expanded into a more thriving and ever-renewing place.
And it seems that illegal drug sales and use in Fort Gay has reached saddening proportions. But I read very little about the Fort Gay Police Department now.
If you have read this far, it is too late to tell you to just hit ‘delete’. Maybe this is just a vent for sadness on my part.
The happy part of this time is that we just had a joyous Christmas and hope to have a good start in the New Year. All of our family gathered here and we celebrated quietly. Hope you had the same good time.
Bill W.
The Viking Chronicles 