Gilbert Museum - A Walk Through Time

09/22/2026

Hello again in an earlier post about Catherine Buchanan who married Isaac Spratt , a question was ask if Catherine was any relation to a fellow who lived in Gilbert many years ago and as I’m older than dirt, I remember That man and everyone that remembers him as Biddle Buchanan, he lived in a big two story house in the lot where the State Farm insurance office is now, I remember going out to Rutledge’s store with my dad one cold winters evening ,and Biddle invited us in to warm next to his big fireplace, I also remember him as a kind hearted person.
And yes he was related to the same Catherine Buchanan who was Isaac Spratt’s wife,sometimes it takes a little while to find things but the information is out there. Just some more of Gilbert’s history.

09/21/2026

Just doing some more search this day , the headstone here is for the mother in law of John Stafford, she is also buried in the cemetery where John Stafford is buried, her husband Isaac Spratt died in Tazewell Virginia in 1860 and is buried there , it is said that he had went to Tazewell to visit some of his children there and became sick and died there, and is buried there , I tried to find his grave but could not, Isaac and Catherine’s home was in the area of where the Gilbert Foodland is now.

09/21/2026

This is the headstone of John Stafford ,first settler to stay in the Gilbert area , he is buried in the cemetery on th hill at the mouth of Staffords Branch, a true pioneer.

09/21/2026

This is the final resting place of Levisa Spratt Stafford , she was the wife of John Stafford and her grave is in the Presbyterian church yard in Gilbert , click on picture to see the whole post.

09/21/2026

I thought I would do a little search this evening and found this picture of Alex Stafford , he was a son of the original settler who first settled in what is now Gilbert WV, just a touch of history for our area.

09/20/2026

As the area of Mingo County was at one time Logan County , I thought this story of one of the early families in the area would be a good article for the Museum page.

JOHN WESLEY WORKMAN—A DESCENDANT OF SETTLERS IN LOGAN COUNTY.

John Wesley Workman, shown here in a worn but treasured photograph, lived on the West Virginia side of the Tug River, in the vicinity of Logan, the county seat. For many years, he worked on various timber crews, earning his living in the rugged mountain country that his ancestors had helped settle generations earlier.

The Workman family is traditionally regarded as being among the first white settlers in the Logan region. Their arrival came shortly after the American Revolutionary War, when the rugged Guyandot Valley remained a remote and largely unsettled frontier.

According to the historical research and writings of George T. Swain in 1927, James Workman and his two brothers, Joseph and Ni**od, established themselves in the area in 1794. The three brothers built a simple log cabin and planted corn on an island in the Guyandotte River. The island had previously been the site of an American Indian settlement and was later known as Midelburg Island, in present-day Logan.

Before building their cabin and beginning their new lives there, the Workman brothers reportedly had to clear away remnants of the earlier settlement that occupied portions of the tract.

In the fall of 1796, James returned to the area with his wife and children from Wythe County, Virginia, an area now associated with Tazewell County. The three brothers and their families continued carving out homes and livelihoods along the Guyandotte River, remaining in the Logan region until around 1800.

Generations later, John Wesley Workman remained proud of the remarkable heritage passed down to him. His life connected him to a family story that began on the frontier, when the earliest settlers were clearing land, planting crops, building cabins, and establishing communities in what would eventually become southern West Virginia.

04/17/2026

At the bottom of this picture is the name Oyvanenita , which is a Shawnee name for the river, which means River of Rocks, which I think fits the area.

04/16/2026

A couple more of pictures that David Fox has colorized , great job by the way, this was a way of life in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s,before the railroads came.