On Tuesday 27 February 1934 the Bluefield Daily Telegraph printed this story:
"AUTOMOBILE PARTY SNOWBOUND OVERNIGHT
Snowbound at Clark's Gap from 4 o'clock Sunday morning until Monday noon,
Dr. and Mrs. J. H. Craft and son, James, of Springton; D S. Hunt Jr., of Matoaka and a young woman from Springton had a dismal week-end.
They left Charleston, Saturday evening, and were halted by the-snow at Clark's Gap about 4 o'clock Sunday morning.
They arrived at Springton at 1 o'clock Monday afternoon.
During their stay on the mountain they obtained shelter in a
small filling station at the Mercer-Wyoming county line.
A son, who was at home, called his uncle, Sam P Pearis, at Mullens,
and found that his parents had passed through Mullens.
Mr. Pearis rode a horse out to the spot where the car was marooned,
and found that the party was sheltered
in the filling station, but that there were no sleeping accommodations.
Mr. Pearis telephoned H. B. Pearis, of Princeton, who got in touch with state road officials.
Monday morning road forces started working on the road from both the Wyoming county end at Mullens and from
Matoaka and about noon the party was able to resume their journey home.
Mrs.Craft is a sister of H. B. Pearis and G. W. Pearis, of this city."
Let me make this adventure a little clearer.
Mullens, West Virginia is about 20 Miles from Clark's Gap. Walking there on today's roads would take approximately 7 hours and on horse might take 5 hours.
Mrs. J.H. Craft is my Great Aunt and the Sam P. Pearis who rode a horse for hours through cold and snow to get to her is my Grand father.
Her name is Hallie Pearis and she was born 26 March 1885 in Mercer County, West Virginia to Samuel Pepper Pearis III and his wife Mary Hannah (Barbor) Pearis. She has 3 younger brothers.
In 1900 Hallie is living with her parents and brothers in an area called East River which is more of a populated place than an actual village or town. It is within 5 miles of Princeton and Hallie went to school in Princeton. By 1910 East River is a Township within Princeton, an unincorporated area and Hallie, her mother, and her brothers all live in a house on East Main Street. Boarding at her house is a Doctor James Harvey Craft. The Doctor and Hallie fall in love and on 30 November 1910 they are married.
In 1914 James Harvey Craft II was born and in 1917 Herbert Barbor Craft is born. A newspaper article from January 1912 says that Hallie's Mother, Mary Pearis stayed with her while she was ill and that they were living in McComas, West Virginia. In 1920 Hallie, her husband and sons are living in the Springton Precinct of the Rock District in Mercer County, West Virginia. This is a coal mining area and Hallie's husband James was a doctor for a coal mine operation. Bluefield is the closest large city to McComas, Springton, Rock and Wenonah where she lived in 1930. Hallie was very involved in the P.T.A. where her sons attended school, she held offices on the Board of her Missionary Group and did most of her shopping in Bluefield. Her involvement in everything and her shopping trips are well recorded in Bluefield papers, She must have been the Kim Kardashian of Mercer County.
On 7 December 1934 Hallie was involved in an automobile wreck and received very serious injury to her ribs, lungs, and head. She was taken to Memorial Hospital in Princeton and at 2:00 P.M. on 9 December 1934 she died. She is buried at Monte Vista Park Cemetery in Bluefield, Mercer County, West Virginia.
Hallie Pearis
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