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When Lee Hill Bobbitt was 16 years of age, his step-mother
decided that he should have a better education. She made arrangements with Joseph Hill who lived near Summersville to take Lee in as
a boarder while he attended school. Lee performed tasks on the
farm of Joe Hill to pay for his room and board. Joe Hill is lit
believed to have been a grand nephew of Permelia Hill Bobbitt. Later
Lee lived with John Hill a brother of Joe Hill.
Perhaps
as important as reading and writing, were the skills of
farming. Lee Hill Bobbitt worked for some of the most successful
farmers of the area. One of these farmers was the legendary "Uncle
Devil Sam McClung". There is little doubt that the character
and personality of Sam McClung had a strong influence on Lee Hill
Bobbitt.
John
Williams Bobbitt, brother of Lee Hill, had met and married
Mary Elizabeth Tyree. After their marriage he and his wife,
several Tyree families, McClungs, Robinsons, and other Nicholas
County families moved to Oklahoma as homesteaders. At the
age of 18, in 1881, Lee Hill Bobbitt made the trip alone to Oklahoma
to visit with his brother John and his family. He lived in
Oklahoma for about two years before he became homesick for his folks
in West Virginia.
In
1884, Lydia Ann Bobbitt, sister of Lee Hill Bobbitt met and
married Hiram A. Gardner of Webster County. Hiram Gardner was
one of three sons of Caleb A. and Elizabeth (Irvin) Gardner. There
was also five daughters in this Gardner family. The mother of
the daughters was anxious for them to marry well-bred Virginia gentlemen,
rather than western Virginia mountaineers. Lee Hill Bobbitt
went to visit his sister, Lydia Ann and his brother in law,
Hiram Gardner. During this visit he met the beautiful, young, Eugenia
Nora Gardner. There was no mistake about his interest in Nora
Gardner, and he was informed by her mother that her daughter was
not available for his company. Lee Hill Bobbitt suggested that
she take her daughters and return to eastern Virginia where their
marriage to a mountaineer could be avoided.
On December 9, 1886, Lee Hill Bobbitt married Eugenia Nora
Gardner. Elizabeth Gardner, the particular mother, prepared the wedding dinner with wishes for the happiness of her daughter.
For the first two years of their marriage the couple lived on
McMillions Creek in Nicholas County. In 1889 they moved to what
is now Cowen, in Webster County. They lived near the Gardner
family and in this location reared their children and lived out
their lives.
The excellent qualities of character, virtue, and personality
that marked Lee Hill Bobbitt were formed when he was a young man.
The good impression that he left on others began when he was in
his twenties and lasted through his one hundredth year.
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