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VALLEY HEAD -- The Valley Head community will be coming together for the 2023 Homecoming event Memorial Day Weekend.
The weekend is backed with several events including a meet and greet, a pancake breakfast, presentations and much more. Festivities will begin on Friday with a meet and greet event from 6-8 p.m. The event will allow residents and visitors to reminisce and talk. There will be light refreshments
On Saturday, the Valley Head Fire Department will host a pancake breakfast from 8-11 a.m. at the fire hall. At 10 a.m., the Mingo District Historical Society will host an Author's Table at the Post Office Porch. Author Eloise Caroland will be signing copies of her book "A Mountain Man and the War Between the State."
Caroland was born and reared in Hazelwood in the Tygart River Valley of Randolph County. She expressed interest in family history from an early age. She is now retired having been self-employed as a genealogical records researcher.
She received a BA degree in 1956 from Morris Harvey College, now the University of Charleston, in Charleston, West Virginia. She worked on the graduate level at the University of Louisville in social work and at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Kentucky in anthropology.
The book about her great-grandfather was first published in 2018 and was written as a legacy to his descendants. Caroland felt that it was important for them to understand why their ancestor fought for the Confederacy and the effect it had on his life.
The book follows the life of William Taylor (Billy T.) Ware, the son of a farmer in Western Virginia, now West Virginia. Billy T. was only 19 when he joined the Confederate States Army soon after the State of Virginia seceded from the Union in April of 1861.
The first year of the war he fought in the mountains of Pocahontas County near his home in Randolph County. Fighting under General Robert E. Lee, he saw action led by Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign and fought in other battles, including Antietam and Gettysburg. Captured at the Battle of the Wilderness in May of 1864, he was imprisoned at Point Lookout, Maryland. The last nine months of the war he was held at the notorious Elmira Prison in New York. The book follows his experiences during the war and his life after he returned home.
Local authors Steve Bodkins and Don Teter will also have their books available for autographing and purchase. Syl Fretwell, Mingo Historical Society president, will have the recent edition of the "History of the Mingo Indians" sale plus historical bookmarks and local pictures.
At 11 a.m. on Saturday, the Calvary Assembly of God church will be selling hot dogs and hosting a silent auction at the church. The annual parade will begin at 1 p.m., followed by a pulled pork dinner and entertainment by Rodger Ware at the old Valley Head garage.
At 5 p.m., at the community center, Don Teter will do an historical presentation on "Prohibition in Randolph County." The presentation includes a variety of interesting and amusing stories, such as arrests and near-arrests of some of his ancestors, and inside stories by the Randolph Enterprise's local correspondent reporting from a prohibition prisoner.
Events on Saturday will wrap up with a Gospel Sing at 7 p.m. at the Valley Head United Methodist Church.
On Sunday at 2 p.m., a memorial service will be held at the Valley Head United Methodist Church.
Events will come to a close on Monday, May 29, with a Memorial Day service at the Civil War statue on Mingo Flats Road which will be led by Ellen Doyle at noon.