This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the September 25, 2008 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

            Ol’ Licking River which flows behind the Pioneer Village could be termed “dried up” as I believe I could keep it dipped with an average water bucket.  There is more water above us as the Salyersville Water Works is upstream about a mile and the Burning Fork Creek and State Road Creek flows into the Licking before it reaches us. 

            This would be a good time to remove the debris such as old tires and other junk which makes the river bed unsightly.  It needs to be cleaned before, if ever, we get some rain (smile).  I took about a dozen tires out of the river some time ago but, as the water receded, a dozen more became visible.

            Sharroll Kay Minix and her sister Clarice are getting a monument set soon for Mary Patrick Minix, wife of Noah Minix.  My buddy and I went to the cemetery and cleaned it up.  John Britton has told me to get someone to keep this cemetery mowed as his gr/gr/gr/grandmother Katie Risner Harvey (b. 1832 d. 1910) and her husband John Harvey (b. 1823 d. 1907) are buried here.  I have finally found someone to mow.

            In our cemetery book, this is called the “Berry Patrick Cemetery” but it seems that no one else we talked to last week knew it by that name.  It has also been called the Bud Patrick Cemetery or the Wiley Patrick Cemetery.  Cynthia M. (Gullett) Patrick who died in 1882 is the oldest burial found in the cemetery but there are several unmarked graves.  Cemeteries have a tendency to change names down through the years. John Britton wants to put up a cemetery sign so I am asking the public to let us know the name of this cemetery.  It is located about 3/4 mile down road 3337 off Rt. 30. The coordinates are N-37-43-33, S-83-07-289, and elevation 1013.

            I have had several inquiries from people wishing to get someone to clean up cemeteries.  My helpers may be interested in such work. Let me know.

            My helper and I went to the Doc Will May Cemetery and found it in dire need of cleaning.  I’ve tried to keep this cemetery in some sort of respectful condition, partly because my mother’s aunt “Pop” or Mary Caudill is buried there. She was the dau of Elder Benjamin Caudill and Abigail Pennington who are buried in an abandoned cemetery but have markers and the place is well kept.  Aunt “Pop” was married to Benjamin Hammonds.

            Also buried in the Doc Will May Cemetery is Lt. Richard Menifee Elam who was killed during the Civil War by spies or snipers in the area where the Arnett log home is now located in the Pioneer Village.  I’ve never known anyone to visit his grave in the last 30 years that I have been taking care of the cemetery.

            We next went to the Henry Blankenship Cemetery located in front of the Hardin Medical Plaza. This is another one that I’ve been cleaning for over thirty years and could be classed as abandoned. After cleaning the cemetery we managed to upright a double monument so that the lettering can be seen.  A road to this cemetery could be made with very little dozing.

            We then traveled up to the church and drove up the hollow to Mr. Powers’ residence. We spoke about this cemetery in last week’s comments and decided to go back and clean it.  We went to the Dr. George Washington Wheeler Cemetery and found it very overgrown. His grave is well marked with a nice stone but there are 6 to 8 graves with only field stone markers, one of which is said to be Bert Whitaker b. 1890 d. 1892.

            The next morning we went to the Alfred H. Howard Cemetery up Jones Branch in lower Salyersville.  We found that loggers had cut a tree which had broken a large limb from another tree which in turn knocked off a limb of another tree and they had fallen on the headstone of Alfred Howard.  After sawing all this mess up, we found we couldn’t put the monument back up but did lean it against the lower section.  There doesn’t seem to be any more graves there.

            Alfred married Louanna Fugate on 5 May 1857. She was a dau of James Fugate and Rebecca Cottle. Their children were Granville Howard, John W. Howard m. in 1897 to Julia Franklin, Katherine Howard, Joseph J. Howard m. Maria -?-.

            Our next stop was at the abandoned Salyer Cemetery at Stringtown but we didn’t get to finish our work there as we ran out of chain saw gas plus Ol’ Todd got into a yellow jacket’s nest and got about 25 stings!

            There is no easy way to get to this cemetery.  It burned over in the spring which helped some but the area is still a wilderness.  Does anyone have a helicopter to get a government marker in for Civil War soldier Martin Darnell? (Smile).  We’ve had one on order for some time now.  A dozer is needed to make a road into this old cemetery.

            My mother always called this hollow the “Pop Perkins Hollow” and the marker for Pop Perkins b. 1823 d. 1896 is still visible.  Martin Darnell was born in 1832 and died in 1911. He was a Private in Co. F, 21^st North Carolina Inf.