Notes From Ollie Martin
January 30, 1983


My father was Augustus Lee Biggs and I don't know where he was born. I don't know if he was born in Pine Grove or not, but he probably was. He was the son of James Henry Biggs and Sarah McGhee. I don't remember her middle name, maybe it was Sarah Jane. They had only one son and that was my father. He was the only child. Sarah was short and heavily built. When I was born she was really looking forward to having a girl in the family and she was going to help take care of me since I was the only girl in the family. A year after I was born, however, she died. They said she had dropsy. I don't know what you'd call that now. My grandparents did raise my oldest brother Guy, until my grandmother died.

Grandpa Jim (that's what we all called him) came to live with us after Sarah died. His father, called Uncle Chap by everybody, was married two times (Uncle Chap was Ollie's great grandfather). I forget the first wife's name, but she was the mother toall of Uncle Chap's children. I don't remember how many children Uncle Chap had. There was George--that was the one that was so smart, and Cleve, Henry and Charlie and my grandfather, Grandpa Jim. I expect that that was all of the boys, and then there were two girls--Susan and Mary. Susan married a Ballard and she lived across from the Pine Grove Church in a log cabin house. Everybody called her Aunt Susan, and I think the husband's name was will. Aunt Susan smoked a pipe all the time and always wore a big apron around her waist. The apron always had a pocket and she kept her corn cob pipe in it. She was a school teacher in Oak Hill--somewhere out in that area. He was Superintendent or something like that. Cleve was pretty well educated and lived over near Beckley somewhere, also. George married a woman named Hattie. Charlie was just like my daddy--looked just like him. But I don't remember that Charlie ever married. I don't remember much about Henry either. Aunt Mary married a Campbell--Scott Campbell. They lived out in the Dry Pond area.

I remember a lot about Grandpa Jim. He came to live with us after his wife died. He worked for people clearing land. He cleaned up brush and just cleaned the land. It seems like he always had a job. He was really good. He could clean up a piece of land and have it really looking good in no time. He always had big stacks of brush when he was done. He like to cut wood and he could carry in the biggest loads of stove wood you've ever seen. He would have it stacked to even--I always liked to see him carry it in. He could carry a big zinc bucket of water in each hand and fill them completely to the brim--and he'd never spill a drop. We children always liked to watch him and we always wondered how he could do that. He always kept us in wood and water, and if anyone had a fireplace, he always kept a big fire. He could cut the biggest back logs and carry them in. Grandpa Jim and Sarah raised a girl named Angie. She worked out (kept house) for Hayley (not sure of the spelling, but pronounced Highlee) Acres and got pregnant and had a baby. Grandpa Jim had always been a deacon in the church, but when they "churched" Angie, he never went back. (NOTE: "Churched" meant that the church would not let you come back because you had sinned.) Grandpa Jim was a good man. Never heard him cuss in my whole life and never heard him tell a dirty story, either. He just didn't believe in it. I really don't remember much about my grandmother, Sarah. She must have been a good woman for my mother liked her a lot. They go along good.

NOTE: Up to now we've been talking about Ollie's paternal grandparents, the Biggs. Now we'll talk about the maternal grandparents, the Millers.

My mother was Sidney Jane Miller (Biggs). She was the daughter of Rebecca Jane Campbell and Wilson Miller. They had, I think they had twelve children. There was -- let me see which was the oldest -- I suppose it was Uncle Henry and Mammy (that's what we all called our mother, and our father ws called pappy). Uncle Henry and Mammy were twins. No, Uncle John was the oldest and he was a carpenter and then came in Uncle Henry and Mammy. Then there was Uncle Andy (Blanche's father), Uncle Lundy, Uncle Dick (Richard Shanklin Miller which was a genius). He studied doctoring under Dr. C. P. Bradley in Lindside and was very good, and he was just talented in a lot of things. He was a very good fellow -- seems like everybody just loved him because he was such a good man. One time when he was doctoring he went to this house where they was going to have a baby. When the man came to the door he just couldn't believe he was a doctor because Uncle Dick was so little and so young. It was kind of like Joe Kerwood when Jennifer was born. Joe couldn't believe Patsy's doctor could possibly be old enough to deliver a baby. Anyway, then there was Uncle Bert, Uncle Newt was the baby one, and I believe that was all the boys. The girls were Aunt Susan miller, Aunt Lizzie and Aunt Mary Jane who died when she was in her teens, or at least at a very early age. I think they lost one son when he was an infant. His name was Elliott, I think. I always called Rebecca Jane "Grandman" but everybody else called her Becky Jane. I don't remember anything about Grandpa. He went to the Army and then he didn't live too long when he came home. He died of quick consumption. Somebody said Grandma had been a widow for about 15 years when she died, and she died when I was about five years old. (Note: Grandpa Wilson must have served in the Spanish-American War of 1898.) After Grandpa Wilson died, Grandma had most of those children to raise. She worked out for the Shanklin's and Dowdy's by day. What money she had she made by working out and raising food on her land. And you know where she lived (Note" Becky Jane Hill or Holler down from Wikel), and there wasn't much room to grow anything. Tom has the best picture of that house. It was a long one. I used to go down there with my mother when I was little. Becky Jane was crippled with rheumatism - her hands were all drawn. She was totally crippled, but I don't know for how long. But I used to go comb her hair til I just couldn't stand it any more. Uncle Newt was the youngest child and he moved in with her to take care of her -- he got the home place. I don't know what set of Campbells Becky Jane came from. It was different from the set that Aunt Mary Campbell came from. They wasn't related, I don't think.

Note: Now we'll go back to talke about the paternal grandparents, Grandpa Jim and Grandma Biggs, and Ollie's parents.

Sarah Biggs died when I was a year old, but Grandpa Jim lived until just a little before Dickie was born. It was bad weather and they wouldn't let me come to the funeral. He had bronchitus and that was mainly what killed him -- the bronchial trouble. I think Tom had to sit up with him. He just couldn't breathe very good and had to sit up at night, and I think he had exema on his leg pretty bad.

My father, Augustus Lee Biggs, died when Patsy was three months old. No, she wasn't quite that old. He died of Bright's Disease which was a kidney problem and there just wasn't much cure for a kidney problem. I don't know anything about it -- they just called it dropsy. My pappy was a horse man. He could take a horse and make it do anything. They really liked him because he was so kind and gentle with them. His dad was Grandpa Jim and he cleared land. You could call him a wood chopper. He didn't care a thing for horses that I know of. I don't know how my pappy got into horses. When he was young he always had a horse to ride and animals and I guess he just got into that way. He hauled wood and groceries and the mail by horse.

Mammy was, well let's see, you want to know how many children they had? They had seven children -- Guy was the oldest and he was raised by his grandparents, Grandpa Jim and Sarah up until he was about eight years old. That's about when Grandma died. Mason was next, then Lee, and then I was next. I don't know how come there was four years between Lee and me. Then Jimmy was born after me, and he died when he was eighteen months old. He's the one I loved so dearly. He had inner ear trouble. You can't tell me that things don't stand out in a young person's mind. I really loved him. Not long after he died Tom was born and I don't remember ever taking to him like I did Jimmy. I was disappointed because Tom was so little. When I went to see him after he was born, I thought he would be the same size as Jimmy when he died. When I saw that little thing, I just didn't care for that at all. I rocked Jimmy and fed him, and when he liked it he would always say "more". Tom couldn't talk and sit up when he was born, so I jst didn't have any interest in him at all. Waitman was the last child. He was the biggest, ugliest baby you ever seen. My dad said that. He did. He said, "Look at this ugly little devil." He wasn't that ugly. Waitman made the nicest looking one in the family when he grew up, but he was an ugly baby.

Mammy never did get our supper before 9 o'clock. She'd go vistin' and stay all day -- I'd go with her -- and then we didn't get to eat until so late. Pappy didn't ever seem to care. Sometimes he wasn't home anyway. If he had a timber job, he stayed away. If there was anyplace in the county, Mammy knew about it. Mammy always love to pick apples for people in the fall. She would get apples for picking apples. Mammy had a kind heart. Mammy had an apple tree and everybody in the county got a mess of apples. If anybody new came into the county, she always shared what she had with them.

Here's the funny story about Mammy. Uncle Bert was having a wood getting up at his place in Adkin's Holler (now Lot of Rock Farm). At a wood getting everybody would get wood all day and then that night everybody would gather for string music and just a party. Well, at Uncle Bert's party, Waitman was just a baby and he just wouldn't stop crying. We just couldn't get him to shut up and Maw got aggrivated. She said, "Waitman, if you don't shut up I'm going to give you a dose of California." She meant to say Chloroform! Everybody got a big kick out of that. Mammy often got things mixed up. One time somebody was talking about the Knights of Apithius and she called them the Kit Nips of Philadelphia.

An interview with Olle Lillian (Biggs) Martin
Written down by her daughter, Judith Martin Handley
Wikel, West Virginia