This article, written by Todd Preston, the president of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the January 12, 2006 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper. The Salyersville Independent is a weekly newspaper published and edited every Thursday. For inquires or comments, please write to , P. O. Box 29, Salyersville, KY 41465. Yearly subscription rates are $22.00 in Kentucky and $26.00 per year out of state.

Greetings again to all you readers out there of Historical Comments in this year of 2006!   The Salyersville Independent took a week off through the holiday season which threw Ol' Todd off his schedule of submitting the “Comments”.   We want to thank the Independent for including our “Comments” these past twenty-eight years.   Some folks mistakenly think I am an employee of this weekly paper…not so; they just print our weekly column. I have pored through our published books the last couple of weeks taking down names of the veterans mentioned in these books.   Of course, I slipped out occasionally to do a little squirrel hunting, mostly to get out in the woods that were a great part of my childhood ventures.  In the books I found that there are a great many people born in Magoffin whose parents moved to other states in search of work and whose sons and daughters entered the military in other states, plus so many of our local people have passed away that it has been a challenge to get all these veteran's discharges along with pictures in uniform and civvies. As you may realize, those who lost their lives in the service of their country didn't receive separation papers so we do not have their information. We also do not have any information on Magoffin County born military personnel who are currently serving our country.   Remember that we are looking for all persons born in Magoffin or entered service in Magoffin who served in the military from WWI to the present, in peacetime or during any conflicts. Now, if we get all that information it would be the largest book we've ever attempted so we have set a cut-off date of January 31 for information.   We've been involved in this search for well over a year and are compelled to bring it to a climax. We are urging you, comrade veteran; parents, siblings or other kinsmen of veterans, to take the time to write down all the names of all the people you know who served in the military along with the time frame, if possible. Include the names of parents and other family info. Now, I can picture you saying, “I don't have time” or “I think you have all that I know” but we can index our info and separate the entries and it is better to double up on a few than not to include them at all.   Nuff said? We have the names of our Civil War soldiers on a beautiful monument and we have printed info on them in a five-volume set of books which has become one of our most popular genealogy helpers. Now, I can foresee this planned book on our military men and women will become not only a genealogy helper but a history book of our area.   Perhaps more importantly, it will instill in our future generations some of the pride and commitment in protecting our freedom by their ancestors and kinsmen who were willing to sacrifice their lives that those freedom bells can be kept ringing in the future. AMEN! I met with Mike Walters and took another look for the George Washington Hamons Cemetery near the mouth of the left fork of Johnson Fork and after a long hard search; we failed to find any evidence of the cemetery on his recently acquired farm. Then on Friday, I met with Mike and Elder Donovan Finch on Donovan's farm and with chain saws and rakes, we cleaned up a Hammond Cemetery that I had attempted to clean back in the summer. I had copied this cemetery in 1980 and came up with these names: Rev. John Hammond d. 1898 and Mary Lykins d. 8 Jul 1898 . Now that we cleaned it up this time, we have interpreted that Rev. John Hammonds was born Oct 1898.   Either way, I am unable to find this John Hammond or this Mary Lykins in any census, birth or death records.   They are not buried side by side; Mary's grave is some distance from the foot of John's grave which has had several lines of epitaph that is now unreadable.   Surely, someone in that area can shed some light on Rev. John or Mary.   I was about to throw in the towel but Mike Walters' wife told me Saturday that I had lit a fire in Mike and he was determined to find George Washington Hammond's gravesite and fence it in if it is on his recently acquired farm, supposedly the former G. W. Hammond farm. Now, here is a new resident of Magoffin with no kinfolks here to his knowledge. He is a transplanted Michigander with no roots in Magoffin but who wants to help preserve the old cemeteries. We also visited the Ambrose Watts Cemetery up in the very head of the left fork of Johnson. In the 1930 census is listed Ambrose Watts age 36, wife Jane (Lyons) Watts, Ella age 13, Lawrence age 11, Ersa age 8, Eulatie age 6, Chester age 4 and E? age 3. Karen G. Campbell, 1993 Henderson Ridge, Olive Hill, KY 41161 ([email protected]) is looking for info on Amelia “Arsie” Caldwell b. 1 Apr 1892, dau of George Washington Caldwell and Lucy Caldwell. Amelia married Buell Whitaker, had three sons, then married George Newman and went by the name of “Mary Newman”.   They lost track of her about 1939 and would like to know where she and/or her mother Lucy are buried. First in the 1900 Magoffin census we find George W. Caldwell b. 1859, married 8 years to Lucy b. 1860. Lucy was the mother of 6 children: Martin b. 1894, Elizabeth b. 1896, Lora b. 1898, Nancy A. b. 1886, and Arcy b. Apr 1892. The last two are listed as stepdaughters. Lucy Caldwell b. 10 Oct 1865 m. 1. Jim Collett. Lucy married in 1892 to George Washington Caldwell. Per the Caldwell book by Archie Caldwell, the children of this marriage were Martin b. 1894, Elizabeth b. 1896, Lora b. 1898, Martha b. 1901, Shadrick b. 1905 and Rebecca b. 1909. Our Civil War book on page 332 lists Lucy Caldwell b. 10 Oct 1865 , 3 rd child of Samuel Caldwell.   Lucy married 2 nd to George Washington Caldwell and had children James Matison Caldwell, Alisee Caldwell and Willie Caldwell.   A Matison “Collett” married in 1909 to Rosy Slusher. I think Alsiee was also a Collett and I find that Willie “Collett” married 5 Feb 1914 to Sina Caudill so I am listing James Matison, Alisee and Willie as Colletts then Martin, Lora, Martha and Shadrick as Caldwells.   Martin Caldwell married in 1917 to Jessie Day. Shadie Caldwell m. in 1920 to Tressie Arnett. He was age 18, born in Breathitt Co. KY to Wash and Lucy Caldwell. So Amelia or Arsie b. in 1892 and listed as a step-dau in the census may have been a Collett or a Caldwell.   Lucy Caldwell b. Aug 1855 d. 5 Jun 1943, wife of G. W. Caldwell, is buried in the Prater May Cemetery about 2 1/4 miles west of Salyersville beside Rt. 460 and Rt. 7. We are well pleased with the number of membership renewals for 2006 that have come in lately. We are working on the first Journal of the year and it will be mailed to members early in February.   The fee for membership is $14.   Many thanks to those who have sent contributions such as Robert H. Skaggs of Jeffersonville, KY, Ben D. Lewis of Bartlesville, OK, Todd Hall of Lexington, KY, Samuel and Nola Hall of Charleston, MI, Charles & Linda Turner of Bexley, OH, Wayne Williams of Dayton, OH and Bob & Ann Tackett of Plymouth, OH. Best wishes for a wonderful new year from all of us here at the Magoffin County Historical Society, Box 222 , Salyersville, KY 41465 , email [email protected] (telephone 606-349-1607).