Martha Kate Rigg (1831-1900) was sister to my 2nd great-grandmother Nancy “Nannie” Montgomery Rigg. This story about her was shared during a genealogy discussion recorded in the 1970s (exact date unknown). The participants included my grandfather (Willis Hite Farley) and grandmother (Audrey Hale Farley), and my great-aunt (Francis Folsom Farley, known as “Frankie” and “Aunt Aggie”) who was in her 80s at the time of the recording. Aunt Aggie recounts this story told by her mother about Martha:
Martha was the third child, and she was a tiny little dwarf. And when she as born she was so little you could put her body in the palm of your hand and her head on your wrist. When she was old enough to go to school, they had to walk to Gauley Bridge to school and that was 2 miles. She was too little, too frail, to walk. And these two brothers, Steve and Henry, were older and carried her to her all winter on their backs to Gauley Bridge from their home.
Martha married in 1856 and had at least 9 children and lived to the age of 69.
