Elias Lively (1825 - 1914)

Ancestors

Husband of Mandanna S. (Canterbury) Lively — married 17 Jan 1878 in Monroe, West Virginia, United States

Descendants

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Biography

This biography was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import. It's a rough draft and needs to be edited.

Fayette & Raleigh Counties Genealogical Society "News Notes" Summer 2001 Vol 18 No 2 : Dennis Keffer Interview by Jeannette Sue Fox - "I'll tell you something about my grandfather. Because he was the first one that the Indians let live in this country. He walked in from Monroe County in the 1830's, I don't remember the exact date. He went down on Town Creek, and he built a sod shanty in the side of a bank. There was an Indian village down there at that time. He was the first white man that they let stay in here. He got in good with them, they learned him about herbs and medicines. He was a diphtheria doctor. He went all over the country for people with diphtheria. His name was Elias Lively. He stayed here two years, then went back to Monroe County and married Leatha Fleshman. Then they came back here and built a log cabin and raised a big family. He had a (land) grant. He came in here surveying, and had over 4,000 acres at that time. He gave land to his brothers and sisters. My uncles used to tell me about in the 'winter time', they would hurry around and get their work done before dark. The wolves were so bad, they had to keep their sheep in the "chimney corner". That is what they called it. The had a pen right beside the house. And they (wolves) would get under the house, and they would heat water and pour on them through the cracks in the floor and run them out. I had an aunt, Mae Davis, who lived over there and she used to tell me stories, she was the oldest, about the Civil War and all that. There was never a Civil War battle in this are, because whenever everyone came through, that stopped down there at granddad Livelys, and he would give them a pone of corn and a piece of beef, both sides, He didn't cut no way. I guess he had these mountains full of cattle and stuff and he had a big old pot, I remember the pot. It looked like it held about 50 gallon and that's what they cooked the meat in. She said that the girls, when they saw them soldiers coming, they hid behind the loom. They had a big ole loom in one of the rooms upstairs." Dennis Keffer goes on to say, "They had a big family to help work on the farm, for food and stuff. Granddad came in here, he had a blue grass farm up near Union in Monroe, and he would take cattle and drive with two dogs, 30 - 40 head of cattle and drive them into Monroe County. He crossed the ferry that was Shanklin's ferry, and it sunk one time with him, and he couldn't swim, so he would grab onto one cow's tail and hang onto her tail until she would get tired, then he would grab onto another cow's tail until he got across the ferry. He said he would go to Jumping Branch the first day. He would stay overnight at I guess there was I guess like an inn, I reckon they had cattle pens or something like that and he would stay overnight and then go on to Monroe the next day." ... "Down Paint Creek there used to be all solid coal camp down in there and now you can't even tell where they were. His farm was out on the other side of Union, way out there. Between Union and Rich Creek, back over in that area, almost to Peterstown. He said that he and them two dogs would take the cattle down there and that it would take them two days."

Reprinted from a newspaper article from March 23, 1963 (by Shirley Donnelly): "Writes J.E. Lively of the community of Lively, in concluding his narrative: 'On the large Lively place what wool wasn't used by the family for clothing and blanket purposes whey would load in a wagon and take to the carding machine. There they would barter it for blankets and coverlets. Such articles, if they could be found today anywhere in the countryside, would sell for $25 or $50 as antique affairs. I still have some of them in my home and when they are put on the bed one doesn't need an electric blanket, no matter how cold the weather gets, to keep warm. One of the main wool manufacturing establishments was in Raleigh County. It was in the Fitzpatrick area and was patronized by wool producers from miles around. Lively's treatise on clipping sheep and working the wool up into usable items of clothing, both bed and personal, seems like an appearance from the dead. No longer is it done. Automation killed it. When they began to weave wool garments on machines the old family spinning wheel was cast aside. Cloth could be bought cheaper and it was nicer in looks. Into the granary loft went the spinning wheel and all the other wooden devices that were used by the women folk on the farm in their spinning and weaving. After the passage of a generation or two and the late editions of the once-large families became interested in their family history, the spinning wheel was brought out from the storage room and dusted off. It then became a sentimental heirloom. Next thing we knew the old spinning wheel was in the parlor, as a popular ballad put it, 'There's an old spinning wheel in the parlor, spinning tales of the long, long ago. Dr. Elias Lively was one of the first permanent settlers in the Paint Creek Community of Lively. The 4,000 acres he first obtained there was a parcel of land which his father, Joseph Lively, got out of the noted Reed Patent on Paint Creek and Plum Orchard Creek. It was in 1784 that Joseph Lively secured this vast boundary of territory. It was not until 1845 that Elias Lively, son of Joseph, came to those parts. In the log house where Elias Lively and his mountain-girl bride went to housekeeping they reared a large family. Those children were C.C., John, Andrew, George, Amelia, Eliza, William, Kennel, Cena, L.C. (Bud), Mertie, and Enoch. Each of these was given a large farm by their father. Elias Lively was a large man and was know as "Doctor" Lively. He lived to be 89. His death occurred in 1915. Lively was an herb doctor who practiced on his own. He was a useful man in a day when even the 'country doctor' was not to be had often in case of illness. The specialty of Elias Lively was his treatment of diphtheria. That was before the days of antitoxin vaccine but the compounds of herbs he devised were reputed to be very effective in treatment of the dread malady of diphtheria. On the other side of the ledger, some old timers have told me that in other treatments some of Dr. Lively's pabulums were almost as severe as the ailment itself!"

Sources

"History of Fayette County West Virginia" by J.T. Peters and H.B. Carden; reprinted by McLain Printing Company in Parsons, WV in 1972; originally published by Jarrett Printing Co. of Charleston, WV in 1926 (published by the Fayette Co. Historical Society, Inc. of Fayetteville, WV) Pg 97 - 99 Land grants issued after 1800 and prior to formation of Fayette: 1858 372 acres granted to Elias Lively at Town Creek

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Michael Lively for creating WikiTree profile Lively-264 through the import of lbd423_699485ef10f1a530d4hb2d_2013-11-13_01.ged on Nov 13, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Michael and others.

U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970 View Image View Record Name Doctor Elia Lively Birth Date 29 Mar 1825 Birth Place Monroe, Virginia Death Date 16 Apr 1916 Death Place Fayette, West Virginia

Year: 1860; Census Place: District 2, Fayette, Virginia; Roll: M653_1344; Page: 341; Family History Library Film: 805344

• WV Marriage Index

Name Letha A Fleshman Spouse Elias Lively Marriage 10 Jun 1847 Monroe County, WVA

Name Elias Lively Spouse Mandana Canterberry Marriage 1878 Monroe County, WVA