Generations Past

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors and no slave who has not had a king among his.  
----Helen Keller


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Vet Mail Carrier Dies in Williamson

Charleston Daily Mail
Charleston, West Virginia
18 March 1953

WILLIAMSON -- Lewis Varney, 87, who carried the mail by horseback between Ragland and Logan before Mingo County was separated from Logan in 1895, died yesterday at the home of a daughter in Ragland.

Varney liked to recall that he made the 70-mile round trip three times a week and received $1.62 a day.  Ragland is now in Mingo County.

He was the father of Wallace J. Varney, Williamson postmaster; Tom B. Varney of Matewan, a member of the Mingo school board; and Sidney L. Varney, ticket agent for the Norfolk and Western Railway here.

He also leaves three daughters.