WELCOME TO SMITH AKERS
The name Smith Akers is a combination of two family names combined. His name was Irvin Smith and her maiden name was Hazel Akers. They were from Matewan, WV and they bought a house just across the border in McCarr, Kentucky and it remained their primary home most of their life. They had 3 sons that moved to NC when they grew up.
A Legacy to Remember
Irvin “Smitty” Smith was a Vietnam War Marine Veteran, wounded in action, and awarded the Purple Heart Medal of Honor for bravery. After his return to KY, he later became the President of the local chapter of the United Mine Workers of America and fought for the rights of over 92,000 union members and over 13,000 active mine workers to receive well-deserved pensions and health benefits. A battle that took almost 10 years to accomplish. Irvin “Smitty” Smith was honored with a 21 Gun Salute at his memorial.
Hazel “Cookie” Smith Akers who supported and stood by Irvin’s side, was a hair dresser that turned her large “basement” into a salon and always welcomed people into her heart, home and business and knew everything that went on in town. She was well loved and active in the community.
Irvin and “Cookie” were very active in the U.M.W.A. and events that helped better the lives of those they served and were highly respected by their peers. This pair championed the causes of the coal community and both left a legacy behind that many may know little about or the impact they made from behind the scenes.
Welcome to Their Home…
Irvin & Cookie welcomed people into their hearts and home with love and knew no strangers. Unfortunately, Hazel passed in August 2019 and Irvin passed in July 2020, so it is an honor to continue the tradition of letting others stay in their home and enjoy all that the McCarr & Matewan Community, which they so dearly treasured, has to offer.
Their house has been nicknamed the “Pawpaw Tree House” because it sits directly across the street from the Registered National Historic Landmark Park of the Hatfield & McCoy Feud Pawpaw Tree Incident. This was a catastrophic event that escalated the feud to new heights, because it was here that three McCoy brothers were captured by the Hatfield clan, tied to pawpaw trees and then shot.
A River Runs Through It
Divided by the Tug Fork River, McCarr, KY shares the state line border with Matewan, WV, home of the Devil Anse Trail Head, which connects to over 800 miles of ATV/UTV trails known as the Legendary Hatfield McCoy Trail System. Being one of the largest trail systems this side of the Mississippi River, this area welcomes thousands of visitors each year that love riding the trails.
There’s more than just trails here, this area is so famous they make movies and documentaries about it. It wasn’t just the Hatfield & McCoys that made nationwide news, there were other battles too.
Coal made the industrialization of America possible, but coal companies took advantage of the area’s resources and people. Coal companies would come into towns and build housing communities called “coal camps” and company stores, which meant that they owned and controlled the housing and amenities workers needed. Coal miners were paid in what is known as “script”, not real cash, so they could only use their script in the company stores that over charged for their products and for their housing. When coal miners began unionizing to gain better working conditions and demand fair wages and real money, coal companies sent in hired corporate “thugs” from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to evict them from their homes without warning.
This sparked the “Battle of Matewan” a.k.a. the Matewan Massacre. Sid Hatfield, the local sheriff at the time, in an effort to stop the unlawful convictions, confronted the men from Baldwin-Felts detective agency and heated words were exchanged. No one to this day knows who fired the first shots, but these shots were heard around the world.
Enraged by the Matewan Massacre and encouraged by other towns going on strikes,
reformed the way the government viewed union rights.
involving workers rights and corporate control
The Smith Akers Logo is a play on words being a combination of the word Smith; used as an occupational name, such as Blacksmith or Locksmith and denotes a professional craft, and Hazel’s maiden name Akers is a play on words for Acre (a unit of land). Hopefully, in the future under this name, there will be “Professional Craft-Acres” for people to display and sell their arts and crafts.
Until then, we hope you’ll come visit the Small Town that made Big History and stay a while in the Pawpaw Tree House and have the time of your life.