Oct. 1, 2009

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

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This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the October 1, 2009 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

The Salyersville Independent  is a weekly newspaper published and edited by Michael David Prater, P. O. Box 29, Salyersville, KY 41465. Telephone (606) 349-2915.  Yearly subscription rates are $24.00 in Kentucky and $30.00 per year out of state.

            Ghost and Goblin’ time is approaching!  Ol’ Todd raided his neighbor’s, A. B. Conley’s garden and came away with a shock of his sweet-corn fodder.  That coupled with some bales of straw started our annual fall decorations here at the Pioneer Village.

            Next Randall Risner and I raided Leola Cole’s “punkin” patch and came away with a 300-plus pound pumpkin.  I couldn’t keep from picking up a cushaw for good measure so now we are well on our way to treat the little ghosts and goblins who will come calling on Halloween.  Leola invited us to get a couple more wheelbarrow loads of pumpkins so now we have an impressive display!  All we lack is a large box of candy, cookies, etc for the little fellows.  We won’t try to raid a store for those goodies as we might get behind the bars of the “Green Onion” jail! (Smile)

            Sharon Pace Henson, 4302 E. Indigo St., Gilbert, AR 85298 and her husband were visiting Thursday. I took them to the Bear Tree Fork of Rock House Fork of Burning Fork and IF there is a road there, it needs working more than any road I am aware of; it’s just mud hole after mud hole.

            We went to the John Pace Cemetery and found it in dire need of attention. You may remember that there was a forest fire that went through it last fall and burned the roof off the stone building that was built over the graves of John and Nancy Pace.

            I warned the Hensons to watch out for snakes, especially under the tin roofing lying on the ground.  Sure enough, under the first piece of tin I picked up was a large copperhead snake which then crawled under another piece of tin.  I jumped up and down on that piece of tin then got a stick, turned the tin over and knocked the snake in the head, after which I held it up for Mr. Henson to take a picture.  This was the first poisonous snake I have seen in the last couple of years.

            This rock house over these graves is unusual for this area and the only one of its size I have seen in all my travels.  Sharon remarked she would like to have it repaired, even have the window replaced in the back.

            Now, John Pace’s parents, John Pace and Sarah Ely, are buried about a half mile on up Bear Tree in the Blanton Cemetery.  I dared not go any further up the creek as the front wheel drive is going out on my vehicle.

            Randall Risner, Jack Sizemore and I had gone earlier to the Meredith Patrick Cemetery at Bradley to see about the possibility of repairing Meredith’s broken headstone.  We decided it needed cleaning before repair so we carefully marked the spot and then carried the stone to my car. Jack has now repaired the stone and we reset it Monday.  We are glad to have this project completed which was started at the request of  Roy G. Patrick of Catlettsburg, KY.  Meredith Patrick was born 16 Dec 1803 Russell Co. VA and died 17 May 1858, age 54 of typhoid Fever.  He was the son of William Patrick and Mollie Reins and the grandson of Jeremiah Patrick and Sarah Blair.  Meredith m. 1826 Floyd Co. KY to Rebecca Williams and they had six children, Herod Patrick, Elijah Patrick, Reuben Patrick, Serena Swetman, Wiley C. Patrick and Alexander Patrick. 

I am hoping the Fanny Shaver marker project is next.

            We have had a second meeting of the Magoffin County Cemetery Board. We are still waiting to meet with state officials to learn more about our responsibilities.  Magoffin now has one “county” cemetery, adjacent to the Caleb May Cemetery with one burial. I have heard another cemetery on Middle Fork was deeded to the county but we will have to find out more about this.

            Cemetery care is a big issue in our county but no different than most any other county.  Eastern Kentucky may have more problems due to the higher hills and lack of roads.  So many people have moved off the farms and there are different owners; also a lot of people do not want to be bothered with possible ATV traffic.

            I am proud our historical society has made a difference.  We have copied nearly all the cemeteries in our county; this will surely help preserve the locations and, to some extent, bring attention to the need for keeping them cleaned up but there’s a lot of room for improvement! 

            J. W. Back and I attended the opening session of the 2009 Eastern Kentucky Genealogy Conference in Paintsville on Friday evening.  We enjoyed meeting with many of our friends and area historical society members.  We browsed through the many displays and chatted with Edward Hazelett, Ted Walters, Val McKenzie, John David Preston and several other historians.  The people and historical society displays made a very enjoyable evening.  Due to other commitments, we could not attend Saturday’s session.

            Sandra Green Souders, 101 ½ Dickason St., Jackson, OH 45640 and Janet L. Thiem, 12 Carousel Court, Wilmington, DE 19808 were here inquiring about the genealogy of the Hamilton, Howard, Green, Blanton, Puckett, Gose, Bailey and Dykes ancestry.

            Sandra is the daughter of Dudley Green and Gladys Conley. Gladys is a daughter of Luther J. Conley.  I took Sandra up on Rt. 40 to the Conley Cemetery and then over to visit her second cousin, John Carpenter of Dixie.  She was very interested in my telling of the story of the sinking of the boat “Wildcat” at or near the Dixie Bridge.  It is supposedly still submerged in the river, as it hit the swinging bridge coming down from Royalton after a sudden flooding of Licking River.  The late William Rowe told me it is submerged somewhere in the vicinity between the Burning Fork Creek and Falling Creek, the name of the river as given by Dr. Thomas Walker in 1750, now known as State Road Creek.  Mash Fork was once known as Marsh Fork and also as Burning Spring Fork.

            We have received more Founders Day pictures from members of the Manns Clan. We appreciate Mary Ann Million’s material; she has sent additional Manns family pictures and info as well as her Carpenter genealogy file.  We can see that there is a possibility of completing that printing project now, thanks, Mary Ann!

            We are located at 191 South Church Street in Salyersville; our mailing address is Box 222, Salyersville, KY 41465 (email: [email protected])

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