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  Magoffin County Historical Society 
"Preserving Our Past for the Future"

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This article, written by Todd Preston, the president of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the August 30, 2007 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.

 

            Founder’s Days 2007 honoring the Carpenter family of our area will be almost over by the time you read this.  From the way our plans are coming together this week, it promises to be a wonderful event!  We have had several hundred local school children visit the Pioneer Village and we are much impressed with the enthusiasm and knowledge of these youngsters.
            We have put up charts showing the descendants of Fielding and Delphia Carpenter family and we are amazed at how many families are related to this family. Come in and see if you fit into the family! 
            We were pleased to have Luther Green Carpenter’s daughters; Carolyn Cravens and Charlotte Thompson come to the historical society the week preceding the Founder’s Day events.  We had such an enjoyable visit.  Their donations were much appreciated as this brought to our attention that the ancestor of all the Carpenters, Fielding, needs a new marker.  This will get us started!
            I’ve been reading Volume 3 of our Life Along The Licking River series of books and I think it’s a masterpiece! I recommend it be in every household, along with Volumes 1 and 2!  The floods of Ol’ Licking, with pictures, take up several pages of Volume 3, along with the efforts to get a cut-through for so many years before it became a reality and was finally dedicated 9 May 1998. As a reminder, Magoffin County was to clean up the cut-through “every two years or oftener, if needed”.
            After the cut-through became a reality, we were somewhat smug at first, thinking we were immune from seeing knee-deep water flowing under the traffic light in the center of Salyersville. In yesteryear I well remember carrying my neighbor Junior Higgins on my back to his pharmacy near the Family Bank in almost hip-deep water under that traffic light.
            We soon realized the cut-through did not make us flood free, how many times since have you seen boats traveling in Ramey Park or for that matter in the streets of town. My son Toddie tried to set me off his four-wheeler to the front door of our archives building once but his four-wheeler floated backwards. This was when the water got in some of our log buildings and up on the stage.
            What we didn’t get with the cut-through was dredging the old river bed one mile up State Road and Burning Fork.
            Now, for some good news, the present fiscal court has started cleaning out the last segment of the cut-through on the Connelley Farm. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that maybe this will continue on up to at least the Whitaker Middle School. It will take some time. I went down to take some pictures of the machinery taking up seventy-five foot willows which is necessary before they can actually take out the sand build-up in the actual cut-through. 
            N. Jean Hays, 111 Maryland Ave., Frankfort, KY 40601 (jhays @bellsouth.net) wrote asking if we could help find more info about her maternal grandfather, Thomas Seberry Fletcher. Thomas S. b. 1869 Breathitt Co. KY was the youngest child of Reuben Fletcher b. 1823 and Martha “Patsy” Puckett. Their children were Emeline b. 1842, Levisa b. 1844, Susan b. 1845, Serena b. 1846, Jasper b. 1848, George N. b. 1850, Mary b. 1852, Henry b. 1853, Meredith b. 1855, Nancy b. 1856, Caleb b. 1859, Violet b. 1860, Gardner b. 1862, John b. 1866 and Thomas b. 1869 so you can see you have plenty of cousins out there!
            Reuben Fletcher was a son of George Fletcher who m. 1. in 1815 to Dicey Johnson and m. 2nd to Louisa Marshall, dau of Reuben Marshall.  We have not yet identified George Fletcher’s parentage nor have we found Martha “Patsy” Puckett’s parents.
            Thomas Seaberry Fletcher married in 1890 Breathitt Co. KY to Ellen Robinson b. 1877.
            John David Robles, Fullerton, CA sent us an update on his Prater Line.  He is the grandson of Edward Lewis Byles and Elizabeth “Bess” McCoy. Edward L. was a son of Joseph Byles and Emily Jane Prater. Emily J. was born in 1862 MO, the dau of John Melvin Prater b. 1841 Floyd Co. KY. John Melvin was a son of Robert Franklin Prater b. 1808 Floyd Co. KY who m. in 1840 in Floyd Co. KY to Cynthia Ann Rice, dau of John Rice and Nancy Davis.  Robert Franklin was a son of Thomas Gowan Prater b. 1824 and Rebecca Auxier. 
            Thomas Gowan was a son of John Prater and Mary Brenton. John was a son of Archibald Prater and Sarah Martha Fugate.
            We had a letter from Karyl Hubbard (hubbard @televar.com) who relates she has Robert Franklin Prater listed as the son of Elijah Thomas Prater and Francis Jane Henry. Robert Franklin was a brother to her husband’s gr/grandmother Martha Emiline Prater. She asks if there was another Robert Franklin Prater.
            The 1850 Morgan census lists Elijah Prater age 30, wife Francis age 24 with their youngest daughter Martha age 1.  By the 1860 Magoffin census she is age 11 and has a 5-year old brother Robert Franklin b. 1855.  This Robert Franklin Prater married Angeline Brown and we would like further info for the Prater book revision that we are working on. They also had a brother James Randall who married Flora Ann Cecil. James R. had a son Robert Franklin Prater b. 1900 who married Jeanette May. Their children were Robert Eugene and Orin Cecil.
            Martha (Emaline) was age 11 in 1860 and Robert Franklin was only 5 years old so there may have been some deaths of children between the two.
            Karyl mentioned my column of Aug 9th caused her to recheck her husband’s genealogy and John David Robles’ info opens up new info on the John Prater family. We feel better knowing we have proof-readers out there for we have written these columns for some twenty years, well over a thousand in number, and naturally we are always pleased to hear from our readers.
            This branch of the Prater family seems to have been somewhat confusing to the local Prater clan but if you look on page 28 of our Prater book you will find Thomas Prater b. 16 Aug 1824 interpreted by the California Praters as Thomas Gowan Prater, son of John Prater and Mary “Polly” Brenton, who married Rebecca Auxier in 1846. Their children were (1) Martha b. 1847 m. David May, (2) Arminta Amanda b. 1849 m. Jefferson Ward, (3) Marietta b. 1852 m. 1. -?- and m. 2. Samuel Stamper, (4) Sarah Ann b. 1854 m. Dr. Wm. T. Atkinson, (5) John b. 1857 m. Kate Reed, (6) Samuel Washington b. 1859 m. Laura Hoskins, (7) Louise b. 1861 m. Lewis Powers, (8) Julia Agnes b. 1863 m. Wm. Wallace Preston.  Perhaps this info will better explain the kinship with the California Praters.
            Stay safe and happy.  Enjoy the remainder of Founder’s Days!  We surely appreciate all those who helped with this week’s events!

We are located at 191 South Church St., Salyersville, KY 41465 so come in and visit.  Write us at Box 222, Salyersville (email: [email protected]) or telephone 606-349-1607.

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