This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the June 30, 2005 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.
 

            We are continuing to work on getting markers for the two early Hammond settlers in Magoffin County.  Wayne “Rosco” Martin and I made a sweep through some cemeteries Thursday evening.  Our first stop was the Benjamin Hammon Cemetery on Greasy. We sawed more bushes and stumps as well as some giant yucca plants.  We dug up a couple more tombstones and then sowed some grass seed. There is a need to find all the gravestones and graves for I estimate there are 20 or more unmarked graves…on the Hammond side of this cemetery. 

            We then went on down to the John Hammond Cemetery where we worked some more. It still needs a little more clearing but we had to move on for I wanted to check out the recently set Thomas Howard Memorial Marker.  We mowed around it and cut down a few more stumps then sowed a bit of grass.

            I made this observation of the beautiful floral decorations on the graves on the cleared part of the Howard Cemetery; I would make a low estimate that several hundred dollars were spent on decorations.  What if that amount of money were spent on clearing up the rest of the cemetery…for those decorations will have to be moved before the caretaker can mow.  Just a thought.

            On Sunday evening my daughter, Jessica and I made a trip to Bullmire Creek off Licking River of Brown Mountain. I was using my GPS unit trying to locate the Bailey Cemetery so as to erect a monument for Confederate veteran Henry C. Bailey.

            It is sad to think that this cemetery could be lost forever.  Connie Wireman and Mae S. Arnett copied it in 1978. At that time, Jack Watson took them to the cemetery and they copied these inscriptions: John Bailey b. ? d. ?, L. B. b. ? d. 17 Jan 1855 and ? Bailey b. ? d. 21 Jul 1868.

            They marked an estimated latitude and longitude on a quadrangle map. Now, I checked several of Connie’s estimates against my GPS and found them to be quite accurate but I was getting different readings on where I thought the cemetery might be.  I moved on upstream about 300 feet and the readings were getting closer but I was running out of time as it was 7 p.m. and beginning to get dark.  Yep, I want to go back and try it again but in the meantime, Rosco and I will begin cleaning up the Howard Cemetery at the mouth of Bullmire where we may temporarily set the Confederate stone of Henry C. Bailey as well as some Howard markers that are in the an old home on Bullmire.  They were in their wooden shipping crates when found 25 years ago.  It is believed by Connie that Nancy Cameron Howard, wife of James Howard and mother of Lewis Howard is also buried in this Howard Cemetery.

            Carol A. Scott ([email protected]) sent this query: Somewhere I heard that Catherine Burkhart, wife of William E. Salyer, was in fact Catherine Lemaster-Burkhart.  I am not sure, though.

            Wm. E. “Bud” Salyer b. 1850 married 8 Jul 1869 to Catherine Burkhart b. 1851 in Harlan Co. KY.  According to Harlan County records she was the dau of George Burkhart b. 1830 who m. 1^st in 1850 to Mary Lock. Mary died in 1852. She was a dau of Sally Salyer.  George then m. 2^nd in 1852 to Catherine Ledington b. 1838.  It would seem that your Catherine would be the dau of Mary Lock.

            George was a son of Jacob Burkhart b. 1803 VA and Mary -?- b. 1795 NC.  I see no Lemaster connection for Mary Burkhart.

            Gay Gullett Wilson ([email protected]) writes she is keeping her fingers crossed that she will get to come to Magoffin “her favorite place” during Founder’s Days and can get the Jesse Gullett and Elizabeth Coffee Gullett memorial marker fund together and get the stone set.  She and Ruie Nickell are working on trying to get everything planned. This is another marker that is still in need of some financial backing.

            I need some help on the following queries: Paula Brown Arnett is a dau of Harry Clifford Brown and gr/dau of Ernest “Ern” Brown b. 1883. Ern was the son of Daniel Brown b. 1849 and Mary Powers b. 1861.  Daniel is said to be the son of Thomas Brown and Elizabeth McClain and Paula asks “Who is this Thomas Brown?”

            While we are on the Brown family, who were the parents of Mary “Polly Ann” Brown who was born in Perry Co. KY in 1829 and married Irvin Prater b. 1828, grandson of Archibald Prater?

            I also need help on this query: Patty Gipson ([email protected]) is a Hammond descendant. She is a gr/dau of William Monroe Hammond who was a son of Francis Marion Hammond and gr/son of Stephen Hammond. Stephen was a son of William Hammond and grandson of Joseph Hammond. Patty would appreciate any info on Ella Hall and a lady with the surname Little in connection with Francis Marion and Stephen.  She has names of two wives for Stephen: Elizabeth Caudill and Ellouisa Higgins, and Martha Lyons as wife of Francis Marion.

            A Stephen Hammond b. 1827 m. 24 Nov 1844 Floyd Co. KY to Elizabeth Caudill b. 1829 Floyd Co. KY. Elizabeth was a dau of Abner Caudill b. 1797 SC. Abner was a son of Matthew Caudill and Sarah Webb. Abner married Ellender Johnson, dau of Patrick and Delila Johnson. This info was taken from Clayton Cox’s Caudill book.

            Was this Stephen Hammond, son of William Hammond b. 1792 and m. in 1812 to Sarah Craft?  This Stephen was a son of Joseph Hammond b. 1769 and Sarah Collins. Now we need to know if Francis Marion Hammond was a son of Stephen Hammond.

            Bob and Betty Whittaker arrived from South Carolina Wednesday morning and he hung some new lights in the cabins while we waited for Rosco to report in as he and I had planned to go to a couple of cemeteries to clean them up.  Rosco didn’t show, so Bob and I took up Licking River while Betty helped out at the library by helping us with typing.

            We stopped at the Matt Wireman farm and did some weed-eating at the Arnett Cemetery where the Whitaker and Arnett markers were set.  We then went on up to the mouth of Bullmire to the Howard Cemetery and began working on it.  Bob used the weed eater while I cut a swath through the rest of the cemetery with my chain saw but when I realized what a monster job it was going to be and with sweat dropping off me like raindrops, I decided Bob and I couldn’t begin to make a dent in it.  We talked it over, determined it was a winter or springtime project, and came back down off the hill.  At the bottom, we decided to go up Bullmire as Bob’s ancestor James O. Whitaker once owned land in that hollow.  We walked to the head taking the coordinates with the GPS unit but failed again to find the Bailey Cemetery.

            A very worn out Bob and Todd returned to Salyersville that evening.

            Bob and Betty will be traveling to Castlewood, VA to set up preliminary plans to get a memorial marker set for Mark Whitaker, husband of Martha “Patsy”.  Any Whitaker descendant can contact Bob or us if you want to help finance that memorial.