| Elias Lively rode horseback in 1844 to lands purchased by his father, Joseph, on Paint Creek to clear ground and establish the first permanent homestead in what is now known as Fayette County, West Virginia. When winter came, after making a small clearing and erecting a small shelter, he went back to Monroe County. The next spring his brother Rufus accompanied him, and with two men and two horses they made better progress toward clearing the wilderness and establishing a better place in which to bring a bride. |
| On May 6,1847, Rufus (1823) married Malinda Williams, and on June 9, 1847, Elias married Letha Ann Fleshman, and together the newlyweds trekked through almost trackless forests to the young clearings on Paint Creek. Elias settled at the mouth of Town Creek, and Rufus settled about two miles upstream, at what later became Long Branch community.
The next youngest brother, Levi, in the mid-1850's, brought his family to the large tract owned by his father on Paint Creek, and he settled on Plumorchard Creek, which is located approximately one and one-half miles below the community of Lively, and near the Birt Davis Gristmill, Davis having married one of Levi's daughters. From these three descendants of Joseph Lively of Monroe, have come the greater portion of the Lively families of Fayette and Raleigh counties, West Virginia.
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Elias Lively, or Dr. Lively as he was appropriately called, was one of the most useful men in the county (Fayette County, West Virginia). There was at that time a great many causes of diphtheria and it usually proved fatal. Dr. Lively discovered several herbs from which he made a compound which if administered in time never (?) failed to cure the patient. He was called far and near and was successful in curing many patients of diphtheria when all other doctors, it seemeed, had failed. He lived to a ripe old age and died at his home in the year 1915, at the age of 89. |
| Elias Lively became quite learned in the use of certain herbs, roots, etc., and was able to successfully treat the members of his family of nearly any ailment then apt to be known. His aims were of course necessary since a graduate physician was unheard of in those primitive regions in that era. So, as he learned more and was more successful, his reputation spread until he was called upon to care for those relatives, friends, and neighbors who had moved into the area in the 1860's, '70's and even '80's. |
Dr. Elias was also known for his enormous strength, and each fall, he would drive his team to Marmet, on the S/S of Kanawha River, opposite the Dickinson Salt Works at Malden, and walk the timber "Boom" chained across the river to catch stray logs. He would swing one 100-pound bag of salt upon his right shoulder, and with a little help, would swing another upon the left shoulder, and walk the boom to load his wagon, until he had all he could carry for his neighbors, as well as the store, and his own use. He was known as the only man who could even shoulder and walk with two 100-pound bags, much less walk a treacherous swinging boom! |
