A blast of winter weather paid us a visit and our balmy 60-degree temperatures suddenly turned into 30 degrees, almost overnight.
Dorothy has been off a few days as her mother-in-law was hospitalized then she herself came down with a virus and I apologize for being unable to “keep house”. I tried to decorate the village and was really happy when a bunch of high school students came down to help Eddith decorate the Community Center and a tree for the 4-H club in the yard. Eddith was a bit slow in getting over here so I sort of “borrowed” them to decorate the trees here in our building plus about five in our cabins. Now I think we are ready for Open House, complete with Santa, hot chocolate and cookies.
It's amazing what YOUNG people can accomplish before I can hardly get the doors unlocked! Yes, they helped Eddith decorate and even fixed another tree in the community center yard along with the 4-H tree. Thanks, kids, for a well done job!
Santa gave us a beautiful organ such as once found in nearly all old area homes. I wasted a whole night's sleep trying to figure out how to get it moved. The next day I was picking up limbs in our yards that the high winds had blown off the maple trees and guess who came by – my grandson Cory Todd Dotson came to visit and instead of finishing picking up the tree limbs, I asked him to help me move the organ. Now Cory is a “mountain of a man”. I jokingly claim that when he gets his four-wheeler stuck, he just picks it up and sets it on higher ground. No kidding, I've seen him get off, leave it in gear and pull it out of a bad situation! So now the organ is in our archives building and is a beautiful sight to see.
Edna Mae Watkins Hale, 907 W. Konnale Ave, Apt. 1 , Rensselaer, IN 47978 wrote to us. Her father was Lewis Watkins, Jr. was b. in 1913 and died in 1983, the son of Lewis Watkins, Sr. She says when her dad was three weeks old, his mother went away. Then when he was about four years old his dad died (ca. 1917). His mother came back but didn't take him; she let his step-mother keep him. The step-mother was good to him and Edna would like to find out more about her. She hopes we can help her find more info on her parents and her dad's step-mother.
I have shaken about every tree on our shelves and can't find info on the Wadkins/Watkins family. Can anyone help, this looks like a task for Betty Risner Brown or Paul A. Bailey to tackle.
I was recently asked why I climb hills in search of abandoned cemeteries. Well, for one thing, it is kind of like when I was growing up. The fad then was for a boy to wear an aviator cap, complete with goggles as Lindberg was our hero; he had flown to the North Pole and risked his life seeking adventure. Now, I get a bit of enjoyment and a sense of adventure when I discover an abandoned cemetery and I like to think that when I take GPS coordinates that the cemetery can be much easier to locate in the future.
Then too, when I receive a thank you from someone it makes the trek through the brambles and briars even more worthwhile, such as finding the Cole Cemetery on Bear Branch near the Floyd County line. This hollow, like many others, was home for many families prior to the forties. The people migrated out seeking employment and now their offspring would like to visit and perhaps relocate on the family farm.
We heard from Faye Green, 23066 26-Mile Road, Olivet, MI 49076 (lowellfayegreen @yahoo.com). She wrote to thank us for all we've done to preserve the past and said, “You mentioned the Cole Cemetery on Bear Branch in the Big Lick area, I have many kinsmen buried there and have attempted to visit them but was afraid of snakes. When I read that you, Bob Whittaker and Tom Marshall had found the gravesite of Anna Risner Barnett, had cleaned up the site and set a marker, it answered my search of many years!”
My dad, Adam Barnett was the son of Frank and Bertha (Perkins) Barnett. Frank's parents were Dial and Violet (Poe) Barnett. Dial was the son of William and Anna Risner Barnett.
My Cole line is: Adam Barnett married Ollie Cole, dau of Elbert Cole. Elbert was the son of Wallace Cole and grandson of Charles Cole. Charles was a son of Luanna Cole and gr/son of John Charles Cole b. 1760 in Buncombe Co. NC. He died in 1862. He was married to Cuzzie Anderson b. 1760 d. 1833 KY.
Linda Brown Webb (spiderwebb1 @fuse.net) writes she recently got the death certificate for Alva Blair Litteral Arnett. She was born 20 Jun 1905 in Johnson Co., the third wife of Dean Arnett of Magoffin County . The certificate listed Betty Jackson as her mother. She had been told her mother was Nola Hackworth who married William “Bill” Litteral. Dean Arnett first married Georgeann Gullett b. 1882 and they were her great grandparents. Georgeann was a dau of Harris and Roseann Gullett. Dean married 2 nd to Rachel Walters b. 1903, dau of John Walters and Mary Oliver. Linda would like to know of any children of those marriages.
Dean was married 3 rd to Alva Blair Litteral b. 20 Jun 1905. She would like more info on who Alva's mother was, Betty Jackson or Nola Hackworth.
The 1920 Magoffin Census lists William Litteral age 37 with Nola Hackworth age 46 (this is a wrong transcription as she was born in 1894). The children were Kanawha age 9 (b. 1911), Orville age 4 (b. 1904), Lesse J. age 1 (b. 1909) and Alva Litteral age 15 (b. 1905). Since William and Nola were married 8 Mar 1910 and Nola could hardly have mothered Alva at only age 11.
This leaves the possibility that a first wife Betty (or Elizabeth) Jackson was Alva's mother. Any help on this query appreciated.
Being as we've only been operating on one cylinder due to sickness, the Journal will be a week late. We trust we will have them out well before Christmas. There are lots of phone calls that haven't been answered and lots of things left undone. I've kept my fingers crossed so much that I'm almost unable to get them uncrossed! I've only been on three late evening squirrel hunts this week. While using my gun as a cane, I broke the stock off the barrel so I guess it doesn't matter much if I can't get my trigger finger uncrossed. (Smile)
So much for an attempt at humor. We are getting close to a new year and it reminds us that Father Time is catching up with each of us and we wonder how we are going to keep up the pace. Personally there were lots of things I wanted to accomplish this year that are still in “the back of my mind” but as my brother-in-law Belsey Connelley says in parting “Stay the course”!
You may visit us at 191 South Church Street in Salyersville, write Box 222, Salyersville, KY 41465 (email:
[email protected]
) or telephone 606-349-1607.
Magoffin County Historical
Society
This
article, written by Todd Preston, the president of the
Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the
December 14, 2006
issue of