Hopefully, someone might have some info regarding this occurrence. It has been a brick wall for several years!

Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) newspaper article dated November 27, 1923

Find Skelton Buried in 1864

Workers Unearth Bones of Man Shot as Disloyal

Point Pleasant, WV- Nov 25.

With the finding of a skeleton, workmen grading a new road on the Big Kanawha river near here solved a mystery which has baffled every attempt of people in this section to solve since the disappearance of Enoch Jeffers a prominent settler, during the dark days of the Civil War.

The fact that the skull of the skeleton contained a bullet hole and certain articles found in the rude and badly decayed box containing the skeleton, convinced those who examined the find that the bones were those of Jeffers.

According to stories which have been current here ever since Jeffers disappearance, he was captured by a group of Union sympathizers, given a “woods trial” found guilty of treason to the United States and shot. The finding of the skeleton corroborates these stories, authorities say.

More than a score of years ago, a county road was laid out so that travelers since that time have been passing over the box that contained the answer to this section’s baffling Civil War mystery.

Jeffers, according to the stories, was “too friendly with the south” and made statements that reached the Union sympathizers.

A different version of events:

Per Mason Co. WV Cemetery Books Vol. 3-Cooper Dist. Pgs. 146-147: Enoch Jeffers Grave-Located on the Pat Wilson farm home and tenant house, on the hill above Route 62, near a huge stone is the grave of Enoch Jeffers, a resident on Union District, lived near Arbuckle on 13 Mile Creek. The date is unknown but during the Civil War, Enoch Jeffers was very ill with measles. After being ill for some time he was not able to join the Union Army (co. unknown). Soldiers went to his home and forced him from his bed. In his weakened condition Jeffers walked with them until he became so tired and weary that he could go no farther. He fell in a state of exhaustion as they were passing the Cooper farm near Eight Mile Creek, now the Wilson farm. It was here that he was shot by the soldiers and left dying. He was buried the next day where his body was found. Older residents state that the grave was found when the road was being built many years later. At this time the grave was made by the large stone.

Enoch Jeffers married Mary Ann McGuire in Mason County on Dec. 2, 1850. This couple had three children. Mary M. Jeffers died in childbirth on March 10, 1861. George Craig of Arbuckle who lived on the farm, presently owned by Gus Douglas, took the eldest child of Enoch Jeffers. He was educated with the Craig children, later became a Presbyterian minister.

Query: Does anyone have access to local West Virginia newspapers for the November 1923 time period to see if there is additional information on this mystery? Also, any old family stories (positive or negative) about this? I would greatly appreciate whatever info you might have available.

Sherry