We now have the 4th Journal of the year in the mail. We were pleased to have some help from Sharon Firebaugh. She dropped in to visit and sat right down to work stuffing envelopes. We appreciate her help! It gave me a little extra time to slip out for a “pup” training squirrel hunt on Saturday evening.
We also had a visit from Lonnie Watkins of Rice Branch of State Road Fork, Floyd Co. KY who had read my escapade of finally finding what I called the Cole Cemetery on Bear Branch. Lonnie says this is the Chestnut Orchard Cemetery and that he was the person who put up the little metal funeral home markers in the 1960s and that he would go with me on my next trip to that cemetery. If it warms up a bit, I intend to take him up on that offer.
He also told me he had never heard of any Cole “witches” being buried there but that on the point above the George Cole Cemetery, located beside Rt. 114 at the mouth of Powder House Hollow there is a cemetery where someone is buried who was accused of being a “witch”.
Now, although I've been to this cemetery in 1978, it doesn't seem to have been put in our records so I plan to make another hill climb to that cemetery. Of course, I would enjoy going back to all of those I first visited in 1977 and 1978.
I went back to the Sola Cole Cemetery on Sunday evening along with my grandson Cory Todd Dotson who lives within sight of the point where the cemetery is located. He was unaware that there were graves there. It was a hard climb but we made it and found the one little funeral home marker for Sola Cole b. 1872 d. 1959 but several other graves seemed to have been moved. Sure enough, Larry Dotson said that the Elzie Poe family had been moved downhill to another cemetery right beside “new” Rt. 114, which is also the gravesites of George and Lula Cole. George was the son of Sola Cole. The GPS coordinates read N-37-42.017, W-082-56.690, elevation 1210. Now, there was at least one more unmarked grave beside of Sola, maybe more, but no one seems to visit there anymore.
The Poe-Cole Cemetery at the bottom of the hill reads N-37-41.877, W-082-56.605, elevation 824.
Edmond “Dude” Patrick showed up Monday morning and I thought it was a good time to go to his Wilson Patrick Cemetery on Dry Bread. I called Lacy Prater and invited him to accompany us as his grandfather, Elijah White Prater, Union Civil War soldier, for whom I have ordered a government marker, is buried there and I wanted him to show me the exact gravesite. He invited his sister Lois to go along as Lacy admitted he hadn't been there since 1952.
We loaded up in my vehicle and if you have never been up that road you have missed a thriller. The road is through the water and it was mostly covered with ice. I sort of kept watch on Lois through the rear view mirror to make sure she hadn't fainted. (smile).
We made it safely and after taking a deer trail up to the cemetery I took my old stand-by tool, a fire rake, and handed a pruning tool to Dude. We cleared off a portion of the cemetery where Lacy and Lois claimed Elijah White Patrick was buried.
Our Civil War soldier book on page 1359 shows Elijah White Prater b. 1833, Pvt. Co. D, 45 th KY Cav., son of Rev. Elijah Prater and Jane “Jincy” Patrick. He married 30 Oct 1866 to Emalina Patrick b. 1850, dau of Wilson Patrick and Parthena McFarland.
At the uppermost part of this cemetery are the unmarked graves of Elijah White and probably his wife, then next is Parthena McFarlan and an unmarked grave which is probably Wilson Patrick. Next is Rebecca Adams Patrick and another unmarked grave which may be William Patrick. So if anyone differs with this, speak now or forever hold your peace.
Edmond “Dude” Patrick is a son of Vester Patrick and grandson of Reubin L. Patrick. Reubin was a son of William Patrick and Rebecca Adams. William was a son of Wilson Patrick and Parthena McFarlin.
My late wife, Phyllis Prater was the dau of Glen Prater and Jessie Patrick. Jessie was a dau of Reuben “Chick” Patrick and Sola Bailey. Reuben was a son of William “Salty Bill” Patrick and Eliza Bays. “Salty Bill” was a brother to Wilson Patrick; they were sons of Richard Patrick and Eleanor Kennard. Richard was a son of William Patrick and Mollie Reins.
Lacy Prater is a son of Charlie Prater and grandson of Elijah White Prater and Emaline Patrick. Emaline was a dau of Wilson Patrick and Parthena McFarlan.
After attending the Senior Citizen's Christmas Party, where I donned the red suit, I went to Middle Creek and met Lonnie Watkins who served as my tour guide up Bear Branch. Our destination was the Chestnut Orchard Cemetery. You will remember I had gone around the ridge to this cemetery a few weeks ago but I wanted to see why everyone avoided going up the hollow.
Lonnie was born there in 1938 but his family who lived in the “head” of Bear Branch went to Michigan in 1943. We found the foundation rocks of his old home place, now covered with moss. No one would ever guess a family ever lived there. He also showed me where his father made railroad ties and then hauled them down Bear Branch on a little sled.
I don't think a mule could get up or down “the falls” of Bear Branch now, let alone pull a sled with crossties! If Ol' Todd hadn't had a fire rake to cut briars and help pull himself up he couldn't have made the climb. Seeing the ten or more beautiful rock caves and overhangs with six to ten foot long icicles hanging down made my day!
It's about two miles to the head of Bear Branch then about a quarter of a mile up the hill to the cemetery. By the time we got up the hill we were too worn out to cut down much brush. My main objective for going to the Chestnut Grove Cemetery was to take a GPS reading then take pictures and also to clean it up a bit. And I wanted to see if I could travel up Bear Branch, which sounded almost impossible from past experiences.
Well, I conquered going up Bear Branch, took lots of pictures of the caves and the gravestones but, lo and behold, I forgot to take the coordinates!
Oh, well, I needed an excuse to go back up Bear Branch as I want to see the Buzzard Rocks I've heard so much about. I might talk Tom Marshall into guiding me from the Jake Fork of Puncheon across the hill to Big Lick and the Buzzard Rocks.
The timber was cut on Bear Branch about ten years ago but how they got it out is still a mystery to me. I can't believe they pulled it down the stream, especially over the falls. How did they get the poles and wire in there when they built the electric power lines that end up near Ross Allen's farm?
As Lonnie related there used to be several houses on Bear Branch below his father's house and one up on the hill above there but because of the dozer trails made when the timber was cut, he couldn't quite find the locations.
There are a lot more such hollows that were abandoned in the forties because of the migration out to the defense plants. Now these hollows have no accessible roads making it impossible to build homes. As the water and sewer lines are reaching out to more and more people, there are thousands of acres of land that would be inhabited again if there were roads that people could travel. Case in point, our family's forty acre plot had to be abandoned by my parents in order to get closer to doctors and medical care and the area is now a wilderness.
There are only a few more days until Ol' Santa arrives so we want to wish all of you a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. As you read this, there will only be about a week left of 2006. How quickly the year has gone! It has been a year of much sadness with losing so many of our members and loved ones. Many good things have happened also and we thank you for your part in helping us with the work we are trying to do. We enter the new year with a sense of renewed dedication.
We will enjoy hearing from you at Magoffin County Historical Society, Box 222, Salyersville, KY 41465 (email
[email protected]).
Magoffin County Historical
Society
This
article, written by Todd Preston, the president of the
Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the
December 21, 2006
issue of