Frank Bunyan Lively [4093]

  General Notes:

SRC: Sonja Whitelaw

"Effie met F. B. "Bun" Lively when she was 12 or 13 years old (1905-1906) when he came to Laurel Creek to do some timbering. He boarded with her father, Jim Johnson. She and her sister Lou were getting ice out of the ice house and he asked her for a piece of ice."

"They were married on December 23, 1908, in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, in the county of Boyd, in the presence of Clara M. Burrell & ? (can't read writing). The minister was T. H. ? (can't read writing). She was 15 and he was 27."

"When they were first married, they lived with Bun's parents, Leroy and Virginia Crawford Lively, on Sourwood Mountain. After their house burned on March 24, 1909, they moved in with Bun's brother "Ran" Lively until they could build a new house. Bun and Ran were in business together (Lively and Lively Lumber Company). Three children were born on Sourwood Mountain. Lester, Opal and Geneva."

"They moved from Sourwood Mountain to Brooks, Summers County, WV, on March 24, 1913, when Geveva was two months old. They also moved the sawmill from Sourwood Mountain to Brooks. The day after they moved to Brooks, a flood took out the railroad trestle at Glenray, WV. If they hadn't gotten across then, they wouldn't have been able to do so, because that was the only way across. They lived at Brooks from 1913 to 1918. Bun ran the sawmill and Effie cooked and kept boarders that worked on the mill. Two more children were born at Brooks. Frank and Millard".

"They then moved to Green Sulphur Springs, where they had bought some property. There was only an old building on the property that had been used as a chicken coop. Effie, who was only 22 and had 5 small children, left the children with someone and came to clean up the building to make it so they could live in it. Layers and layers of paper had been put on the walls to keep out the cold. Lice and bedbugs had made their home there. She spent days boiling lye water and sloshing it on the walls to kill the vermin, as well as to get the filth off the walls and floors. They had brought one bed with them, so they could "batch" while she cleaned. One day, so tired and disgusted she could go no further, she fell across the bed and started crying. She cried for hours. When the emotional storm passed, she rolled over onto her back and looked at the wall. A headline on the paper she was facing said, "IT IS USELESS TO WORRY OVER THINGS YOU CAN'T CHANGE". This struck her so funny after what she had just experienced, she got the silly giggles. She got up from the bed and started cleaning again, with a totally different attitude. This was the philosophy she pretty much lived by for the rest of her life. They lived in this building while Bun cut timber for a new house on Sourwood Mountain. He rented Ross O'Brien's sawmill and sawed the logs, hauled it to Sandstone on horse-drawn wagons to have it planed, then hauled it to Green Sulphur and built the house. Effie ordered plans for the house from a Montgomery Ward Catalog. A standing joke in the family was that there were almost more nails than timber used in building the house."

"The house at Green Sulphur was a white drop-siding one-story house with hipped roof, three bedrooms, living room, dining room and kitchen with a large front porch, with white columns. It was finished in the winter of 1919-1920. Tongue and grooved boards of excellent hardwood finished the interior walls. Cherry was used for most of the wainscoting. The front bedroom was finished in wormy chestnut. That room was never painted, only varnished. They moved into the house on January 20, 1920. The rest of their children were born in the new house."

"The well on the back porch of the house contained iron water, so anything washed in it turned yellow. Water had to be brought from the creek for laundry. Soon, Bun made a storage trough at a spring which was located quite a way from the house. He then piped water into the house. Then, during the crash of the banks in 1929, the money they had in the bank at Meadow Creek was lost. The banker told Bun to come and get the Delco power plant that ran the bank before the authorities moved in. Bun got the Delco and not only provided electricity for the house, but for adjacent chicken house which had been built to raise chickens for sale and for their eggs, which Bun peddled to the coal fields."

"Bun was always involved in timbering and began cutting wedges for the coal mines. When World War II started, the demand for wedges increased dramatically and from that business he accumulated enough money to finally pay off the farm debt and have an easier life."

"Effie became the bookkeeper/secretary/timekeeper/jack of all trades for their various enterprises. With the advent of Social Security and Income Tax, she had to learn all of the rules and regulations in order to keep the books for their business."

"Bun lost three fingers on the mill in the late 1940's. He retired not too long after that. He died on April 6, 1962, about six weeks prior to his 81st birthday."

"Effie died May 13, 1983, about three months past her 90th birthday."

Frank married Effie Caroline Johnson [4117] [MRIN: 1438], daughter of James Beury Johnson [21532] and Eliza Agnes Bragg [21534], on 23 Dec 1908 in Catlettburg, Kentucky. (Effie Caroline Johnson [4117] was born on 19 Feb 1893 in Sandstone, Summers County, West Virginia and died on 13 May 1983 in Hinton, West Virginia.)