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Ross Family, Names the Town of Coco, West Virginia
This is a short story of the Ross family and the town of Coco which was located outside of Elkview, Kanawha County, West Virginia. It was handed down to me in a form of a letter about Coco got its name.
The following is what one of my relatives which I had never met and only communicated by way of letter told me:
"Did you know that Coco got its name from a rooster? My Aunt Forest named it, when she was almost 5 years old. My grandpa and grandma Ross had the first post office. Anyway, Aunt Forest , when she was about 5 and the post office needed a name, she had a story book with a rooster in it by the name of Poco. Poco was submitted but a place called Poca, WV (15 miles from Charelston already had a post office) so grandpa and grandma had to choose a name other than Poco - "be too confusing with Poca, the postal department said," so grandpa then submitted the name Coco instead of Poco."
From what I hear, My great-grandparents, James Marshall Ross and Laura Forest Pitzar Ross, had developed the first post office there where it was ran by the Ross's until about 1951-52. James Ross died in 1936 or 1938 and Laura Ross died in 1958. My grandmother Clara Barton Ross who was married to Loyd Robinson Lowe, took over the post office and she also ran a store there. In some History Notes, I found out that the name changed to Coco in 1888.
Since I've been doing genealogy, I started hunting for Coco, WV and could not locate it on any maps, but I did know my father, James Bernard Lowe was born there and a lot of my other family was born in the town of Coco. When I asked my father about the story, he said yes, that Coco, WV got its name from Forest Ross's story book with the rooster in it named Poco.
Copyrighted © 1997 by Peggy
Engstrom
NOTE: Special thanks to Reece Ross and my father, James Bernard Lowe for helping me to put this story together from pieces of their precious memory.
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