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Uncle Dyke Garrett

Clergyman William Dyke ‘‘Uncle Dyke’’ Garrett (December 10, 1841-May 29, 1938) was Logan County’s most famous preacher for the Church of Christ. He was born on Big Creek, the son of John and Eliza Godby Garrett. He enlisted on the side of the Confederacy in the Logan Wildcats (Company D 36th Virginia Infantry) at the start of the Civil War but was made the company’s informal chaplain when it was found he was deaf in one ear. He deplored the war, denouncing it as against God’s will, having evidently come to that conclusion after witnessing the execution of Southern deserters. Previously unordained, Garrett began thinking seriously about Christianity after the war and was converted by Alexander M. Lunsford, who preached in Mingo and Logan counties. Garrett became a circuit rider, preaching throughout Logan County the rest of his life. He was the inspiration for the construction of the Crooked Creek Church of Christ and helped establish a sister church in Logan Courthouse, now Logan.

Garrett married Sallie Smith in 1867, and he and ‘‘Aunt Sallie’’ remained married for 71 years. He was a friend of feudist Anderson ‘‘Devil Anse’’ Hatfield from at least the late 1860s onward, and his greatest fame was for converting Hatfield and baptizing him in Main Island Creek in October 1911. Devil Anse and Dyke Garrett were members of Camp Straton United Confederate Veterans, the social organization that controlled Logan County politics between 1870 and 1915, with Garrett serving as the group’s spiritual leader. Beloved as the ‘‘Good Shepherd of the Hills,’’ Garrett was a fiddler who danced to his own music, and he had a fine tenor voice.

Written by Robert Y. Spence