From the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, West Virginia, October 29,1903.

MEN GROW TALL IN WEST VIRGINIA

At the Head Waters of Elk and Holy Rivers Giants are the Rule, not the Exception

The Campbells of Monroe County all Men of Powers

At the head waters of the Elk and Holly rivers, where farms lie 3,500 feet above the level of the sea, men grow to be giants. Up there among the clouds tall men, great poplars and giant oaks, seem the rule and not the exception. "A short time since traveling up the Elk", said I just back from the country, "I stopped at the most commodious house I had seen and asked for accommodations for myself and my tired horse. A man ripe with age, tall - he was six feet four and one-half inches in height - and of commanding presence, greeted me pleasantly. I noticed that there was a crowd at his house and took it for granted that a neighborhood meeting was being held until told by my host, Clarence Gregory, that it was merely a family reunion and that his thirteen boys and one daughter, with their families, made up the crowd. The thirteen sons were all more than six feet tall, some of them six feet six inches, and weighed more that 180 pounds. On the day following I crossed the top of the mountain at the head of Leatherwood, where resides Benjamin Hamrick and his nine remarkable sons. Benjamin Hamrick, the father, is 6 feet 5 1/2 inches in height and weighs 185 pounds. Arnold, the oldest son, is 6 feet 11 inches, and weighs 168 pounds. The others are Isaac, 6 feet 5 3/4 inches, weighs 200 pounds; Adam, 6 feet 3 inches, weighs 158 pounds; William 6 feet 1inch, weighs 161 pounds; Eli 6 feet 2 inches, weighs 155 pounds; Felix, 6 feet 2 inches, weighs 163 pounds; Ellis, 6 feet 5 inches, weighs 226 pounds; and George 6 feet 3 inches, weighs180 pounds. There are, it is said, more than one hundred Hamrick voters in the county and every one of them is more that six feet in height. Yankee Bill Hamrick, one of three men of Webster County who wore the blue through the Civil War, lives at the top of Point Wilton, at an elevation of 3,000 feet above sea level. His family consist of his wife, eleven sons and four daughters. All the sons exceed 6 feet in height, while Mr.Hamrick is 6 feet 4 inches. Owing to his extraordinary likeness to martyred President his is frequently spoken of as "Lincoln of Elk River Valley". The Campbells of Monroe, descendants of the clan of McGregor Campbell, are worthy of mention with the best of them. Judge A. N. Campbell measures 6 feet 3 inches in height and weighs 323 pounds. His four brothers are P. J. Campbell, of Hinton, 6 feet 4 inches, 200 pounds ; L.E. Campbell, of Pickaway, 6 feet 1 1/2 inches, weighs 218 pounds; I. N.Campbell, of Pickaway, 6 feet 3 inches, weighs 298 pounds, and N.B.Campbell, of Union, 6 feet 2 1/2 inches, weight 255 pounds. Andrew Cambell, father of this family of big men, is now dead. He was 6 feet 3 inches in height and weighed 250 pounds. He thought nothing of lifting two anvils by their horns, one in each hand, and swinging them above his head.

Benjamin Hamrick, known throughout his lifetime as 'Kelly Ben', was a son of William Hamrick and Jeannette Gregory. His father was one of the first two Hamricks to settle in Webster County, locating on Elk River around 1813 from Birch River in present day Braxton County. His mother was a daughter of Col. Isaac Gregory, Webster County's best known historical personality. Kelly Ben spent most of his adult life as a resident and merchant on Leatherwood Creek . He moved to Webster Springs late in life and died there in 1906. Before his death he donated the land in which he now rests to the town of Addison as a public cemetery. The Benjamin Hamrick Cemetery is not, therefore, a family cemetery although nearly half of the graves belong to members of Kelly Ben's family. Kelly Ben Hamrick married Naoma Mollohan, daughter of old George D. Mollohan of Braxton County. Four of Kelly Ben's and Naoma's children are buried near them, W.G. Hamrick, Jr., Mary M . Hamrick, Eli C. 'Rimfire' Hamrick and Elizabeth Hamrick.