R025
Mingo, West Virginia
(2002) Mingo (Mingo Flats) is a small, unincorporated, rural community in Randolph County, W.Va. (not to be confused with Mingo County W.Va., in the western side of the state). It lies within the 2000-acre "wedge lot" purchased by Edward Wood [R003] in 1826 when it was virgin land. See maps Fig. Ib, Fig. R003c, and Fig. R361b. Eight of Edward's 13 (or 15) children, with their spouses, settled in the wedge lot, which is about 45 miles NW of Bath County as the crow flies: Augustus [R361], Mary [R354], Amanda [R350], Martha Ann [R355], Harriet [R353], Elizabeth [R351], Sarah [R356], and John Carter [R362].
Mingo Flats has no town center or conspicuous settlement on the highway that passes through it (Fig. R025a). At one time Samuel H. Wood's General Store [Figure R372b] served as a focal point, but it has been closed for many years. Near it are two Presbyterian Churches (Figs. R025b).
In the 1930s or thereabouts Lewis Edward Wood [R005] occasionally would ask his daughter Elsie [R561] to drive him over to Mingo to visit with his cousins (S133). Woods still live there (many are descended from Thomas E. Wood [R261], rather than Edward Wood [R003]), and they hold an annual Wood family reunion on the first Sunday of August each year (Figs. R025c, d, e, f). Reunion attendees are outstandingly hospitable and welcoming, and they have provided much of the information on this web site. Particularly helpful have been my cousins shown in Figs. R025d, g, and h.
Surprisingly, for a thinly-populated rural community, Mingo has two well-kept public monuments. One [Fig. R025i], a statue of John Logan (Tal gah-Jute), chief of the Mingo Indian tribe for which the community is named (a member of the Iroquois nation), was erected by Samuel H. Wood [R372] in 1920. It is near the churches of Fig. R025b. The other [Fig. R025j] is inscribed "To the memory of the Confederate Soldiers of Randolph County and vicinity. This includes all soldiers Who died on Valley Mountain in 1861 while Gen. Lee Was encamped there… —Camp Pegram No. 1602 UCV Valley Head West Virginia."
Sources: [S017, S030, S031, S077, S083, S096, S097]
