This picture was taken by Elza Dixon who has contributed much in preserving the history of families on Keener's Ridge. Robert Daniel Matheny built this house for his bride Sarah Pierson. His brother helped him build the house and was killed while building the fireplace and stone chimney. There was a large kitchen and large back porch that cannot be seen in this picture. This picture and a story about our original homestead was featured in the Braxton Democrat Newspaper a few years ago.

Melvin and Rosie Browning purchased this farm in the early 1900's and moved the family there from Big Otter. This house, pictured above, burnt to the ground in 1924. Mr. Browning had a new house built, the family lived in the grainery until the work was completed. The original farm is still occupied by descendents of the Mel & Rosie Browning. The Rose Hill School is also owned by members of the Browning family. If you would like to know what life on the farm was like for a child please visit my mother's web site. There you will find stories written through the eyes of a child spending her summers with grandma and grandpa on Keener's Ridge.

The Browning's can be found mainly in Kanawha, Logan, Calhoun, Nicholas and Braxton Counties of WV.  In Logan County I found Allen k.m. Browning married to Sarah and the parents of Mitchell m.k.m. who married Charlotte (De)Witte on 11/31/1867. We know that Charlotte was born in Germany in 1845. One of their children was Melvin who married Rosana Starcher, they sat up house on Keener's Ridge around 1918.