JOHN HENRY

Profile: John Henry
In the 7/12/06 post I metioned that one of the most famous workers in U.S. History may have hailed from southeastern W.V. In a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC article (July 1972), Mountain Days, Mountain Voices by Bryan Hodgson, p. 126, he describes John Henry as a "legendary Black man" who "died" ... "while outworking a steam drill" ... near Talcott in the early 187o's". (Talcott is in Summers County)
A Caucasian Haynes family genealogist told me that certain members of his family believe that John Henry may have been enslaved by Robert Shanklin (and he directed me to the Will of Robert Shanklin). ( I think this would be a good subject for the progam "History Detectives").
Also see,
TALCOTT RESIDENTS BELIEVE LEGEND OF JOHN HENRY, Raleigh Register, 7/6/1978 &
http://arts.endow.gov/artforms/Media/Ginna.html &
http://www.wvculture.org/history/notewv/henry.html