By Suzanne Stewart, The Pocahontas Times
MARLINTON, W.Va. — It’s common knowledge that Pulitzer Prize winning author Pearl S. Buck was born in Hillsboro, but there’s another female author who may not have set foot in Pocahontas County, but could trace her family roots back to Hillsboro, as well.
Mignon Good Eberhart, who was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, July 6, 1899, was the great-great-granddaughter of Pioneer Richard Hill and Nancy McNeel, who lived in Lobelia.
While he was working on the Richard Hill family history, Harrel McCarty, of Lewisburg, noticed that the family included a famous author with a very successful career.
“It was in the McNeel family record,” he said. “Betsy Edgar did the McNeel family record years and years ago and she briefly had this woman in there. I looked into it a little closer and found out she was pretty famous.”
Eberhart released her first novel in 1929, titled “Patient in Room 18.” Between 1929 and 1988, she released 59 novels total, eight of which were adapted into movies and one was adapted into a Broadway play.
Read more: https://pocahontastimes.com/americas-agatha-christie-had-roots-in-hillsboro/
