MiamiThe unincorporated communities of Miami and Sharon are next to each other, located southeast of Charleston along Cabin Creek Road, north of Dawes, at exit 79 of I-77. According to Wikipedia, Miami was named after the Miami Indians. They were coal towns a hundred years ago, and were more extensive before the interstate was constructed and homes demolished. I have not found any historical information about these towns thus far. See the map below.
On 17 May 1911, Charles Edgar Pauley purchased Lots 33 & 34 in Miami, Kanawha County, from E.H. Shonk and Pauline Shonk, his wife, for $1,150 (about $33,481.83 today). The deed notes Release Book 20:466 (presumably where the property was paid off). When I was at this office on Monday, January 11, 2010, the staff could not locate this book.) These 45 lots were laid off for the Cabin Creek-Kanawha Coal Company at Miami and recorded on Wednesday, February 17, 1909. The deed requires that no intoxicating liquors be sold on the premises, implying that it was a business.
On Tuesday, 5 August 1919, C.E. Pauley purchased a parcel of land at Miami on the westerly side of the C&O Railway from A.A. Decker and wife, "being lot and premises whereupon store bldg. and residence of grantee now stands." The deed includes an express condition that the grantee not sell or lease said property to L.H. Creasey of Miami without the grantor's written consent. The Deckers purchased this property from D.P. Thomas. On Saturday, 4 December 1920, Charles and Virgie sold this property to the Miami Coal & Coke Company.
After Charles died, Crystal and her husband Robert moved into the "home place" in Miami with Virgie, who had moved from their house a few doors down the road. Shortly after, the family men and neighbors built a two-room house in the back, and Virgie lived there while Crystal's family lived in the main house.
In our 1984 reunion material, Betty Peebles Biedler recounted growing up in Miami in the early 1900s. “The young people of Miami entertained themselves by sitting on the front porch, usually swinging, and talking or going for walks. Since there was one road, one railroad track, a creek next to one of the mountains, and one row of houses between two mountains that went straight up, they created their own entertainment by walking the rails and seeing who could stay on the longest. Other times, they would try to stay on the rails but hold hands across the space, trying to stay on at the same time... Their religion didn’t believe in dancing, playing cards, drinking, gambling, etc. Most of their entertainment was good, wholesome fun.”
She continues, in the springtime, fields were plowed, and gardens were put in. Every family had one. They didn’t often go to the store; instead, they put up (canned, dried, pickled) food at home. Almost everyone had a cow at home that was milked for the family’s consumption. Most houses had a cooling house (cellar) for fruits and vegetables and a milking house for milk, butter, cheese, etc. Sometimes these were combined. In the winter, there would be horse-drawn sleigh rides, quilting parties, or making candy.
The Miami Cemetery was in the Dry Branch area near Cabin Creek. The entire cemetery was relocated during the upgrading of the WV Turnpike. There were 241 graves, but the source lists only the reinterment of 7. [1]
SharonToday, Sharon consists of about 18 residences. It is immediately north of Miami.
Until the 1980s, a rail spur ran from the CSX railroad tracks up a short hollow, serving a coal mine tipple. A tipple is a structure used at a mine to load the extracted product (e.g., coal, ores) for transport, typically into railroad hopper cars. The remnants of the tracks and rail bed can still be seen in the present day along Paint Branch; however, no sign remains of the at-grade crossing of Cabin Creek Road or the trestle that crossed Cabin Creek.
Access to the Sharon Cemetery is hidden behind the few homes at the bottom of Sharon Hill, or what some call Sharon Mountain. There are about 12 houses in the hollow and a church at the bottom to the left as soon as you cross the Cabin Creek bridge. If you park at the church, you can walk up the road and behind the houses, where the path to the mountain cemetery begins. There are generations of graves here. It is a straight uphill hike with a narrow path, one family plot after another. This trek is not for the weary. There are rattlesnakes, and it is steep. The families buried here have mined coal and farmed the Appalachians for centuries. Other family names include Basham, Totten, Burns, Perry, and Harlow. This mountain forest cemetery is covered from top to bottom with flowers left by families who keep their traditions alive. This cemetery is up a steep hill and difficult to reach. I feel for those who had to carry the caskets up this hill. My visit there in April 2010 revealed one large stone with the name Pauley. The top had fallen off the base, and no individual Pauley markers were found.
Relatives known to be buried here:
• George Washington Pauley, Sr.
• Charles Edgar Pauley
• Virgie (Chapman) Pauley, wife of Charles
• Minnie (Chapman) Thomas, sister of Virgie (Chapman) Pauley
• Clara May Thomas, daughter of Peter and Minnie (Chapman) Thomas
• Thomas Benton Pauley, brother of Charles Edgar Pauley, son of G.W.
• Olive (Clark) Pauley, wife of Thomas Benton Pauley
FrameFrame is an unincorporated community in Kanawha County where many of my kin have lived. It is a rural area located about 10 miles north of Charleston, on Highway 43 (Frame Road), at the intersection of 43/6 Robinson Hollow Road. The community was named after a local blacksmith with the surname Frame. [2]
Daniel Pauley (my 4th-great-uncle and brother of Squire) and his wife, Cynthia, settled in this area. Daniel’s sister, Elizabeth, and her husband, Thompson Canterbury, also lived here, and she is buried in the Pauley Cemetery there. Thompson, Elizabeth, Daniel, and Cynthia came as a family group from Boone County and settled in Frame in 1855. Many of their descendants have lived in this area.
NOTES:[1] Kanawha County, WV, Miami Cemetery, Genealogy Trails, online at http://genealogytrails.com/wva/kanawha/cem_miami.html [2] Frame, West Virginia, online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame,_West_Virginia
Updated March 13, 2026