By Bobby Bice
The first of Granville Davisson Hall’s books came off the press in December 1899, just in time for Christmas. I have a first edition copy signed by Granville Davisson Hall and I have read the book several times. It is an interesting ‘story of the West Virginia hills’ prior to the Civil War.
When news reached the Shinnston townspeople of this book being centered on the Big Elm area, it quickly became a best-seller.
In fact, Mr. Hall authored five books, but Daughter of the Elm brought him the most fame.
Granville Davisson Hall was born in Salem in 1837. At the age of four, he moved with his family to Shinnston. His father opened a store at the southeast corner of what is now known as Pike and Walnut Streets (the location of the former IOOF building). As a young man, Granville and his brother opened an apothecary shop in the back of their father’s store. Granville had an interesting life.
Starting out in his father’s store, he also taught school in his younger years. He later became a journalist and was Editor of the Wheeling Intelligencer. He was Secretary for WV’s first Governor and also Secretary of State for WV.
The last several decades of his life were spent living in Glencoe, Illinois, where he died at the age of 96.
Mr. Hall starts the novel by describing notes he had [then] recently come across from a man coming to him thirty-eight years prior. This puts the story being told to Mr. Hall in 1861, but the events within the book begin taking place in the years prior to the War Between the States. A very descriptive first chapter lets the reader’s mind capture the scene of a young girl sitting beneath a large elm, awaiting her lover to cross the West Fork River for his evening visit. Much of the book focuses on the activities of a group of outlaws whose meeting headquarters often took place at the Big Elm farm where the leader of the gang lived.
Several local robberies, an arson fire just outside of Clarksburg, and two murders keep the reader’s interest throughout the easy-to-read book. Local taverns and homes mentioned are true-
to-form as to what existed in town during the mid-1800’s. Mr. Hall ends the book on a happy note, giving the main characters a new life in a new state. However, in real life, the main characters both died very young.
Fame of the ‘Big Elm Farm’ soon progressed with much curiosity as to whether the events in the book were true or not. Very slight variations in character names and places proved easy to decipher the real- life person and place. For instance, the character Joe Deidrich was quickly recognized as Joe Tetrick and Worthlesston was identified in location as being Worthington. Many people even to this day will argue as to whether the outlaw gang existed or not. In my interactions with others, I would agree with a statement that the late James V. Morris once told me, “The only people who say the book is complete fiction are the ones who descend from the outlaws.”
Curiosity also developed from people wanting to see this famed tree. Mr. Hall mentions in the book that it won first prize for ‘the largest tree of its kind’ in 1876 at the country’s centennial exposition (the tree measured over thirty feet in circumference). Locals knew of its existence, but the sales of the book were expanding beyond not only the town’s borders, but also the state’s borders, where people throughout the country wanted to see the tree as well as the other places mentioned in the book.
Soon, copies of the first edition were deemed scarce and the need for a second printing was in the works. Muta Swiger, a Shinnston jeweler and photographer captured images of many spots mentioned in the book and sent the images to Mr. Hall to include in future editions (the 1899 printing had no photos).
Within the first few years of the book’s initial printing, the tree began to die. By the second edition in 1907, it was dead. Multiple causes have been attributed to its death. Some said it was an elm disease that affected many trees in the region. Others blamed the Hood family for the hogs that were kept penned at its base (early images of the tree show where bark was scraped off of the base of the tree’s trunk).
Still others, including the Hood family, blamed the Fairmont-Clarksburg Traction Company for
the damage they did to the roots of the tree while laying tracks for the streetcar. Whatever the reason, the tree remained a popular tourist stop until its skeleton was finally cut down and taken away in May 1917.
The book has been reprinted at least seven times since 1899 and is easily found for purchase.
And that is this month’s story behind the photo!