Uncle Zeke The Bard of Buzzard Town

No museum bears his name; no obelisk marks his grave site. No books have told his story; and no highway marker proclaims where he lived. Only a few are left who knew his name when his newspaper columns were being read throughout central West Virginia from the presidency of Grover Cleveland to the third term of Franklin Roosevelt. Although his formal education spanned but a few months of primary school, his writing and insight belie his lack of academic credentials. He wrote from the heart about issues that mattered to him and was of import to his community and the nation, provoking laughter and moralistic thought. For over four decades he entertained, cajoled, preached and gave his view of the news to his friends and neighbors of Buzzard Town, and to his other thousands of readers. But Uncle Zeke did not seek fame. He did not seek riches. His simple home on Oil Creek, alongside the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad track, is now rotted into the ground without a trace. The Bard of Buzzard Town has lain forgotten, for over sixty years, in a hilltop cemetery in Orlando. Few are left who recall his humor and wit and the pleasure he brought during dark days. He deserves better. This book seeks to introduce a new generation of readers to this humble man of humble birth, who wielded a mighty pen.