Wyoming County West Virginia

Biography of Dennie Wirt Elkins

Dennie Wirt Elkins was born in Oceana Wyoming County,West Virginia March 19,1879 to George F. Elkins and Serrilda Olida Cook Elkins. 1 of 13 children
Paternal grandparents are Thomas Elkins and Virginia (Jensey) Brown
Maternal grandparents are Thomas G (Doby) Cook and Margaret (Peggy) Brooks
His siblings are Roy Acy,Rice,Lonie,Jodah,Lana,Lettie,Vida,Walter,Carrie,Herbert and Golda Elkins.
He lived on the Family Farm up above the present Oceana High School all of his life.
His first marriage was to Hattie Stewart d/o Robert Stewart and Virginia Allen Stewart and to this marriage 3 children were born Callie Elkins Lambert ,Ottoway Elkins and Millie Elkins Smith.
Hattie Stewart Elkins died shortly after her third child was born.
His second wife Corba Louvinia (Corby) Stewart d/o Austin “Rice” Stewart and Della Myrtle Mae Francis Stewart.
They married in Oceana Wyoming County West Virginia September 17,1915
To this marriage 6 children were born Ulvert Elkins ,Ruth Elkins Bailey, Rita Elkins Bragg ,Myrtle Elkins Johnson, Raymond Elkins and Hubert (died an infant) Elkins all were born in Oceana Wyoming County West Virginia
I remember as a child we lived on his farm just around the hill from him and granny as a child I was always with him when I wasn’t in school.
In the fall after we picked apples we would dig a hole not far from the house and bury the apples we picked off the trees we even covered them with hay and then put the dirt over them in the winter when it was real cold outside me and grandpa would go out sometimes and uncover that hole and reach in an get us an apple that was just like it was when we put them in there.
In the spring when grandpa was plowing he would fix a swing for me in the middle of his plow and off we would go the grandpa me and old prince how big that horse was to this little boy.
I loved growing up on the farm with my grandfather I remember one evening in the cold of winter we saw his light from his lantern as he was coming around the hill to our house when he got there he was all out of breath and excited as he said he had heard it on his radio (which was one of the old battery radios that was as big as a floor model television) we are at war some people called Japanese have bombed a place called Pearl Harbour and the America has said war.
And how that would change all of our lives as his sons would go off to war to places he had never heard of until then .
His sons returned home safely it seemed as if grandpa had aged so much as the worry over his sons had been hard for him.
Grandpa came up the old road across the creek one day and yelled and tell mom he wanted to take me with him to Matheny as were walking a cow up through the field (where the Oceana medical Center now built) and he had feel to the ground he had a stroke I never saw again after that day as he died a short time later in the Mullens Hospital in Mullens West Virginia
Dennie Wirt Elkins died October 9,1950 in Mullens Wyoming County West Virginia
Buried at Chambers Cemetery also known as( Doby Cook Cemetery )on the Hill located above Oceana High School in Oceana Wyoming County West Virginia.

Submitted by; Grandson Danford E. Bragg Sr.
sbragg@mail.woolco.com