West Virginia’s Oracle

By Rebecca L. Boggs

The book West Virginia Oracle was written under the pen name Beck Biggs by Rebecca L. Boggs. It is her true story of growing up in her family in the hills of West Virginia beginning in 1900. Rebecca was born June 11, 1900 and she describes the many experiences related to her family’s difficulties as the family deals with the hardships of poverty and illness. Her father, a circuit riding minister, her devoted mother and she and her twelve brothers and sisters worked tirelessly to keep the family always in food and clothing and with a positive religious belief that God would provide.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669868286

Rebecca L. Boggs

Rebecca L. Boggs was the second eldest of thirteen children born and raised in West Virginia. Her father was an Advent Christian Minister who suffered from frequent illness. In her book West Virginia Oracle, Mrs. Boggs relays some of the events during the years growing up in the 1900’s. The family struggled against poverty and moved several times. She married, raised five children, was a schoolteacher, postmaster, and owned and operated a general store. She is the author of the following books: The Bleeding Hills of West Virginia and Poems and Short Stories. Mrs. Boggs has since passed away.

Book preview

cover.jpg

West Virginia’s

Oracle

Rebecca L. Boggs

Copyright © 2023 by Rebecca L. Boggs.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 02/23/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

850992

Contents

Foreword

Chapter IIntroduction

Chapter IIThe Biggs Family

Chapter IIIOur First Move

Chapter IVOur Second Move

Chapter VThe Trip to The City

Chapter VIThe Biggs Family’s Fourth Move

Chapter VIIPreacher Biggs’s Sermons

Chapter VIIIA Visit to Mommy’s People

Chapter IXThe Twins and The Last of The Biggs Children

Chapter XDepartment of Public Assistance (DPA)

Chapter XIAfter The Investigator

Foreword

The book West Virginia Oracle was written under the pen name Beck Biggs by Rebecca L. Boggs. It is her true story of growing up in her family in the hills of West Virginia beginning in 1900. Rebecca was born June 11, 1900 and she describes the many experiences related to her family’s difficulties as the family deals with the hardships of poverty and illness. Her father, a circuit riding minister, her devoted mother and she and her twelve brothers and sisters worked tirelessly to keep the family always in food and clothing and with a positive religious belief that God would provide.

CHAPTER I

Introduction

This story happened or began to happen before I can remember. The time before is legend. In the beautiful hills of West Virginia and the rolling flat lands of Ohio we made our home. In 1890 we didn’t have the paved roads, cars and airplanes of today. We traveled on plain dirt. There were railroads and steam boats, but not out in the hills and hollows where we lived. A path was good enough, then. The saying among our neighboring hill folks was the Biggs live back in the hills so far you couldn’t stick a butcher’s knife. There was and is still a small stream of clear water, the purest of all mountain streams, free from dust and smog. The hills are rolling and at the foot are low bottom-lands. The creek is called Deer Lick because at one time the deer came close by for salt. That is where Poppie, the Preacher Biggs, was born and reared.

My Pa’s mother was a kind, soft-spoken woman. Everything had to be the best for her. Her ancestors were from our mother state, Virginia. I don’t know if they were English or Irish. Pa’s father was all Irish and came directly from Ireland. Grandpa Biggs was a tall, light haired and fair complexioned man who always said funny things, or so our pa told us. We Biggs children didn’t know either of our grandparents very well. We did know, however, that Grandpa Biggs was an honest man and that he had served in the Civil War. The story goes that he was a spy for the Rebels. He was caught and thrown in prison in the state of New Jersey and tried for conspiracy and sentenced to be hanged. He escaped his capturers and fled back to the West Virginia hills. He was said to have been overcome by the dreadful disease Typhoid Fever and hid out in a cave. He was nursed back to health by members of his family who came to him only after night.

Our other Grandfather wasn’t a Rebel. He was a Union Man. Grandpa Howe lived in Ohio as did Sherman, and he marched with W. T. Sherman to the sea. Grandpa Howe helped win the war and received a small pension for his pay in the cause of liberty, so our mother said. That is why they had more earthly goods and could live in a big house. My great grandfather on Mommy’s side lived in Johnny Appleseed country - in Ohio and were fruit growers. Then my grandfather moved over the Ohio River into West Virginia and he too was a Johnny Appleseed Man. He had orchards of apples, peaches, cherries, and small fruits of berries and currents.

Pa didn’t take too well to raising cattle and sheep. Logging was a big thing in those days. They cut trees down and cleared the hills for grass and fruit trees. He was a student of the Bible from the age of eighteen to his death at ninety two. I could open The King James Version of the Bible and read a verse - St. Luke, chapter 23, verse 34 which reads: Then said Jesus, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. If I stopped for a moment, Poppie would say, Beck, read the rest of that verse. I would look sort of sheepish and finish: And they parted his raiment and cast lots. That is all, he would call out. That’s St. Luke, chapter 23. That is where Christ was accused and delivered to be crucified. Then I might turn to the third Epistle of John, verse 4 and read, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. He would very hastely reply, You can’t fool your old man, that’s John three. Others, school teachers and children would try out his great knowledge of the Bible only to find he couldn’t be fooled.

Poppie had been preaching and traveling through West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, and Kentucky preaching and organizing churches in the faith of the Advent Christian Church. He happened to be in the southern part of West Virginia and Kentucky during the