My stepfather had run away during the war. He followed some Union soldiers, and it seems, he ended up in the new state of West Virginia. He sent for us to come and join him in a place called Kanawha Valley.

It was a long and hard journey. We slept in the open air and cooked over a log fire out of doors. After several weeks we reached our destination. We had arrived at a little town called Malden about five miles from Charleston.

Salt mining was the great industry in West Virginia at that time. And Malden was right in the middle of the salt-furnaces. My stepfather had gotten a job in one of the salt-furnaces and had secured a little cabin for us to live in.