I've been reading a biography about The Musical Carter family who came from
near the Clinch Mountain area of Southwest Virginia. The Carters were very
famous country singers in the 1920s until now, really. They were also directly
related to June Carter who married Johnny Cash. In this book, Will you Miss me
When I'm Gone? The Carter Family & their legacy in American music by Mark
Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg, Richmond, Indiana is mentioned.
In one passage the authors write, "So in 1911 Pleasant (A.P. Carter the
originator of the music group) followed his father's path to Richmond, Indiana to
take a temporary job as a carpenter on the railroad. More than twenty years
earlier, a Bay's inlaw named John Smith had married an Indiana girl, moved up
north, and found work on the railroad. Since that time, the Smiths had provided a
pipeline from Clinch Mountain to Richmond, Indiana. Young men from the Valley
were always going to Richmond for high-paying work on the railroad." Another
place I read that there was a "mass exodus from Clinch Mountain, Poor Valley,
and Rich Valley, VA to Richmond, Indiana in the early 1900s".
This Clinch Mountain area where the Carters and Smiths lived is close to
Maces Springs, "Copper Creek", and Gate City, in Scott Co., VA near the Border
of
Washington Co., VA and Benhams and near Bristol, VA/TN. Wise County Virgina
is also very close to this area.
My grandfather Elbert Homer Ramey and his brother Melvin Oliver Ramey Smith
were two of these men who left this area around that time and came to Richmond,
Indiana. I'm wondering if there are other people who are researching
ancestors from this area who came to Indiana. Several of the Carters (who are directly
related to the musical Carters) lived in Liberty, in Union County, IN and in
Richmond, Indiana. Some of the other names that I have found are Ramey,
McMurry, Smith, Taylor, McClain, Addington, Bays, and more. Many of these people are
related to one another. I would like to share information with anyone who has
family who migrated to this area from these places.
Sincerely,
Susan Davis