Nancy Jane Copney - African-American Life in Preston County

Mary Frances Price Younger and Henry Younger were married on September 1, 1897, at Beverly Hill Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church in Kingwood. Mary was born in Danville, Virginia, on December 3, 1876. She came to Kingwood to work as a domestic for the Crogan family, and, in the 1930s and 1940s, she served as a midwife to several area families. They are pictured here c . 1940s.

Mary Frances Younger was the mother of 12 children. This fashionable c . 1901 portrait includes three of those children, from left to right: Cora Lee, born on May 14, 1900; Laylor Jane, born on October 9, 1901; and Walter, born on November 12, 1898.

This picture of, from left to right, Jean Younger, George Ashby, and Mary Ashby Younger was taken in the 1920s.

Cora Lee Smith and John Younger posed for this portrait in the 1920s.

Mary Price Younger was one of the daughters of the strong, old woman pictured here. Jane Flippin was born a slave in Danville, Virginia.

Virginia Fort, her niece Mary Jane Younger Beckwith, and a dog sat for this photograph, c . 1922. Notice the spats and stockings on the little girl.

This stunning portrait of a man and his dog was taken in the early 1900s. The subject, Joseph Whitley Jr., was the husband of Lula Flippin. He worked as a barber for the African-American people in the surrounding area.

Thomas James Younger was born on June 8, 1879, and eventually married a young woman named Lucy. Dressed in his smart uniform for this portrait, Younger worked as a janitor at the Hotel Luzerne in Belington, West Virginia.

Samuel Younger, posing for this picture with a cigar in his mouth and his hat pushed cockily back on his head, was born on February 11, 1873. Known to friends and family as a great Republican, Younger was a sanitation worker for the city of Kingwood.

Walter Younger is pictured here standing on the wooden bumper of an old automobile. Younger was the son of John Henry and Mary P. Younger and was born on November 19, 1898. He married Henrietta Johnson and had one daughter, Mary Jane. He eventually moved to Cumberland, Maryland.

Elizabeth Selene Smith Younger is pictured here in a hat and fur-collared overcoat when she was just 18 years old in 1931. Born on October 6, 1913, she became the mother of 16 children, including two sets of twins.

This September 1954 photograph shows John Henry Younger relaxing in a chair. Even though he never learned to read or write, Younger was in charge of a Work Projects Administration (WPA) program that distributed lumber and other supplies to qualifying local residents.

The Reverend George Staley is pictured here.