John B. Adkins (WV) b. 1888 Informant for Cox
[Adkins contributed 13 ballads and songs to Cox. Notes from Folk-Songs of the South by John Harrington Cox, 1925 follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Another West Virginia ballad-singer is John B. Adkins, whose post-office is Branchland, Lincoln County, in the far southern part of the state, and so I have never had the good pleasure of seeing him or hearing him sing. Thirteen contributions are placed to his credit, among them three of the traditional ballads, namely, "Little Willie" (Child, 49), "Lady Gay" (Child, 79), and "Lord Batesman" (Child, 53). At my request he wrote the following sketch and sent me his picture and a picture of his house.
I am thirty-three years old, born October 14th, 1888, in Cabell County, West Virginia, on the farm where I now live. My situation is the extreme southeast corner of Cabell County, near the Wayne and Lincoln County lines, about twenty-five miles southeast of Huntington. Have never lived anywhere else. I weigh a hundred seventy-five pounds, six feet tall, medium light complexion, black hair and brown eyes. Education limited, as I was forced to leave school at an early age (at sixteen) and have been an invalid and semi-shut-in ever since. For a livelihood I have a small hand printing plant on which I do very creditable
work, such as printing letter-heads, envelopes, cards, tags, etc., and my trade comes mostly by the mail-order route. I also do photograph work on a small scale and have a magazine subscription agency with my shop, and also do repair work on watches, clocks, guns, telephones, phonographs, and other portable machinery that is brought to me, so you see I have quite a variety of things going on at times, and my place is known as "Sundry Service Station," but after all, my earning capacity is small, owing to isolated conditions and ill health.
My parents were both born and raised in Cabell County; Mother is Irish and Father is of English descent. His fore-parents came here from Giles County, Virginia, many years ago. Mother's maiden name was Keenan. She is the granddaughter of Patrick Keenan, an Irish emigrant who came to this country over one hundred years ago and settled at Kanawha Falls, Virginia (now West Virginia).
The old songs which I sent you I learned when a boy, by hearing them sung by different people, some at log-rollings, others at house-raisings, parties, dances, etc., which was the most popular place for some singer to be called upon to render some one or more selections of these old-time songs. Like all boys the "doings" of these older people naturally interested me and I learned some of the old songs by trying to imitate them.