When penning the pages of the book, “Daughter of the Elm,” I doubt that Granville Davisson Hall ever thought it would be a book highly regarded as a local favorite for well over 100 years. It is, however, just that! “Daughter of the Elm” came off the press in December 1899 and has intrigued readers for over a century.
A podcast series created through the Clarksburg History Museum has an episode detailing the big elm tree, farm, book, and author. Martha Jett first sat down with me in December 2024 and interviewed me for the episode. A technology glitch forced us to do it a second time, which we did in April 2025. The episode was finally released earlier this year. Martha has done an outstanding job with the series and several interesting topics have been covered during her interviews. It is available through Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and YouTube.
With an interest in local history, the ‘Big Elm Tree’ and the farm on which it grew have always been an interest to me. I have several photos and postcards of the farm as well as a few paintings of structures on the farm, which were painted by the late artist, Deloris Minor.
When driving north out of Shinnston on Route 19, there is nothing left of “Big Elm Farm”. However, the history contained within the community and under the branches of the once famous tree is well-preserved in newspaper articles, photographs, historical publications, and the book, Daughter of the Elm. The book highlights the best and the worst of its characters. I thought an interesting article for this month would be to help highlight the facts contained within the book.
I consider the book to be a witty combination of mostly fact with some fiction. Over the years, when the book has become a topic of discussion, I’ve had people tell me many things, ranging from, “there’s not one word of the book that’s true” to “I believe every word of it.”
It is my opinion that the book details true actions of real people and that Granville Davisson Hall disguised names to protect himself from suffering the same fate as some of the characters in his book. To state the obvious: the large elm tree mentioned in the book did exist. In fact, it won a prize in 1876 for the largest tree of its kind in the United States.
The characters depicted in the book were actual people in real life. Almost all of their names were cleverly disguised by the author. To give a few examples, Enoch May was actually Enoch Nay; Lot Dyson was actually Walter “Walt” Dye; and Loraine Esmond was actually Susannah Everson.
The latter is the first character introduced in the book and is also the subject of this month’s submitted photo. The image was given to me by the late Jack Sandy Anderson and was originally taken by Muta Swiger, an early Shinnston photographer who wanted to help identify history’s mystery from the book.
In addition to people, the author also disguised places: Worthlesston was actually Worthington and Riverside was actually Shinnston. Many early editions have hand-written notes from people who provided the names of the local residents who were defined as each character in the book.
While there are still people who insist that not a word of the book is true, let’s examine some things that absolutely are true.
The Book: The Esmond family lives in an old log house on a farm with a large elm tree.
The Fact: The Everson family lived in an old log house on a farm with the ‘Big Elm’ tree.
The Book: The character Joe Deidrich was a neighbor to the family that owned Big Elm Farm.
The Fact: Joe Tetrick was a neighbor to the family that owned Big Elm Farm.
The Book: George Holmes was a character whose father, Jacob, was a wagon maker in town.
The Fact: George Helms’s father, Jacob, really was a wagon maker in town.
The Book: Across the river from the large elm tree is a stream that comes down and empties into the West Fork River.
The Fact: Across from the location of the former elm tree is Mudlick Run, which really does empty into the West Fork River.
The Book: One of the characters has a girlfriend with the last name of Byers. Her father is a blacksmith and they live in the old stone house.
The Fact: George Siers was a blacksmith who lived in the old stone house with his family.
The Book: The Blue Boar Tavern was a hotel and bar in town. It had a sign out front with a black boar that, over time, the black paint faded to blue.
The Fact: The Red Lion Tavern was a hotel and bar in town. It had a sign out front with a red lion painted on it.
The Book: Joe Deidrich bought property at Laurel Run off of Pete Righter.
The Fact: Joe Tetrick really did buy property at Laurel Run off of Pete Righter.
The Book: Mr. Fontrey operated a ferry for river transportation.
The Fact: Mr. Fortney operated a ferry for river transportation.
The Book: There was a hotel named the Busy Bee, not far from the ferry.
The Fact: There really was a hotel named the Busy Bee, not far from the ferry.
The Book: One of the characters stays at Walker’s Hotel in Clarksburg.
The Fact: Clarksburg really had a hotel named The Walker House.
Several more ‘truths’ come from the book than the ones I’ve listed here, but my point is that Granville Davisson Hall went far beyond disguising characters’ names; he took their disguises off. With adding so much factual detail into his characters’ creation, I’ve always found it hard to believe that Granville Davisson Hall would make up the outlaw activities within the book. For anyone who may not have read the book, some of those outlaw activities involved robbing a bank, stealing horses (oftentimes taking them to sell off in Pennsylvania), robbing a general store, burning of an insured Clarksburg saloon, murder of a Pennsylvania cattle buyer, robbery in the Maulsby Bridge at present day Gypsy, and murder of a friend’s friend.
Regardless of whether or not people believe the events within the book to be true, Granville Davisson Hall should be considered a writing genius! The book has been printed at least seven times over the last 127 years and was considered by Hall to be his most famous writing. Few books, in particular local novels, have held such interest.
To quote the late James V. Morris of Enterprise, he told me one time, “The only people who say “Daughter of the Elm” is not a true story are the ones who descend from the bad guys.”
And that is this month’s ‘story behind the photo’!