Sandy Hevener

Dear Bro. Sandy Hevener

As Virginians scrambled to recover from the war that split the state, many moved. Adam Snyder urged his brother-in-law, William Hevener, to join him in a move to the new state of West Virginia. Adam was an attorney and William a political leader who handled large sums of money. Snyder wrote: "The infernal Radicals have us in a bad fix in this state. We have not got the rights the Negroes formally had. We can not practice law, hold office sit upon a jury or vote without taking the "test oath" a specimen of which I enclose. "If we can not get these laws and "test oaths" modified or declared unconstitutional (as they certainly are) by them this Country, I will be compelled to leave here ... ... "No Southern man can bring a suit against a Union Radical in this State, on any debt or contract which existed prior to April 1865. This State is controlled entirely by an ignorant, corrupt and unprincipled set of "Jack-legged Methodist preachers"-family Adam moved to Lewisburg West Virginia. His brother-in-law stayed. Much of his family, neighbors, including Colaw, Snyder, Lantz, Life, Wimer moved west and wrote these letters home. The family letters from 1780 through the 1880s herein glimpse into personal and economical challenges of the times.