This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the January 7, 2010 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

The Salyersville Independent , a weekly newspaper.
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.

            We hope all of you enjoyed a very merry Christmas and are entering into a Happy New Year.

            Just before Christmas, we had an eight-inch snowfall here in Salyersville and I just got through shoveling a trail down our sidewalk into the archives building. Dallas and Kay Bentley had been planning to come to our Dec 20^th meeting of the Magoffin County Historical Society but could not because of the weather and the power outage caused by the heavy snows. Kay had promised us a special Christmas cake.  Her cakes are great anytime so mark the 17^th of January on your calendar and we will have “Christmas in January” at our regular meeting!

Speaking of trails, there were many trails that I remember in my lifetime.  We went to school by following a “trail”, you see the creek was usually the road and we had to “skin” around the creek bank.

            One morning the Preston Clan was “skinning” around the bank near the giant hickory tree below Burney Conley’s home with Ralph breaking the trail then came Roger, next was me and finally sister Luva bringing up the rear.  I looked back to see if Luva had made it but there was no Luva!  I yelled at Ralph who came back and rescued Luva who had slid over a ten-foot bank into the creek. 

            I might mention here that I’ve picked bushels of nuts from under that tree through the years and one of the largest sassafras trees in the state of Kentucky grew close by.  Roger sent the dimensions of that tree to the Forestry Department and they termed it the largest, although there had been a larger one that had fallen by the wayside.

            Back to trails, in the wintertime land owners would let us walk through their bottom lands, thus our paths became trails in winter.

            We were raised in the head of a hollow…er, “holler” and to get out, you had to travel across a hill unless you went downstream.

            So there were many trails in our lives.  When we went to Falcon, we took shortcuts through the Edward Field, then crawled through the fence into Frank Conley’s land then through the Lon Conley field.  That was our most used trail although there were several others, especially the one Dad traveled to his pumping job on the Vanderpool Lease, which became the Estill “Eck” Mullins Branch, now known as the Fairchild Branch.

On our little farm, we traveled the cow trails. I now travel the deer trails when in search of abandoned cemeteries.

            I earnestly believe that everyone today follows a trail, be it one that might be invisible to the natural eye but I like to think one can follow even if we should be blind.  That trail will lead us home, not our earthly home, but that heavenly home!

            We got an email from Elizabeth Rittmeyer who is looking for her Allen connection.  She is the daughter of Earl Allen who was born in 1929 at Langley, Floyd Co. KY, a son of Jesse Allen who was born in 1908, a son of Guyles Allen b. 1844 and Emily J. Stephens.  Emily was a daughter of Solomon Green Stephens, a son of Reuben M. Stephens and Nancy Jane Hicks.  Solomon married Martha Hale, a daughter of James M. Hale and Mary “Polly” Shepherd.

            Earl Allen’s mother was Dallas Shepherd b. 1910, Mid, KY, a daughter of Kindle Shepherd. Kindle was a son of John B. Shepherd and Sarah Hale.  Sarah was a daughter of Vincent Hale and Delaney Howard.

            Kindle Shepherd married in 1905 to Ida Wireman, daughter of Wiley Wireman. Wiley married Delilah Allen, the daughter of Adam Allen and Mary “Pop” Bradley. Wiley was a son of Jacob Wireman and Susannah Sizemore. Susannah was born in 1823, a daughter of George “Goldenhawk” Sizemore and Sallie Anderson.  Goldenhawk is said to be of Cherokee Indian blood.

            Sue Wright, Regent of Lohmanns Chapter, NSDAR, Lakeview, TX writes she is a descendant of Isaac Williams who died and is buried at Crab Orchard. Sue descends through Charity Williams, thought to be a daughter of Isaac but now she is getting information that Charity was the daughter of John Williams and is asking if we have any clarifying information.

            In our Williams books, we have that Isaac Williams, a brother of John Williams, had the following children: (1) Sarah Williams m. Holloway Power; (2) Mason Williams m. Sarah Cope, (3) Charity Williams b. 1784 m. in 1800 to James Power; (4) Thomas Williams b. 1789, (5) Rebecca Williams b. 1791 m. Isaac Williams and (6) Hammon Williams b. 1793. 

According to our info, Charity Williams, daughter of Isaac Williams and Mary Anderson, was born in 1784 and married to James Power who died in 1831 in Alabama.