This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the May 20, 2010 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

            The Sesquicentennial or 150^th birthday of our county and the re-enactment of the Little Half Mountain/Puncheon Creek Civil War battle have gotten more people interested in becoming involved. Now we have to come up with more leadership in recruiting and training young men in becoming re-enactors.  I met a young Branham boy in my journey yesterday that has a desire to become a re-enactor. He has an outfit but doesn’t have a rifle which is a major problem for him. I don’t know the answer; such accoutrements are not easy to come by.  I also talked to a young lady yesterday who was at the ball at South Magoffin who is searching for a suitable gown for the North Magoffin ball. When asked why not use the one she already had, she answered, “Why, no! I have to have a different one.”  Jesse Brown, who became the flag bearer for the Confederate Cannoneers told his grandmother he would have to have a different type of uniform as artillery had red on their caps and sleeves.

            I might mention that we have some replica caps, both blue and gray, here at the historical society for sale which were not locally available for the first re-enactment. We are working on plans for the re-enactment at the Gardner Farm this fall.

            I remember the one and two-room schools in our county.  My mother told me of the one-room log school she attended on Mash Fork about 1900 when she would have been around 10 years old.  She described it as a one-room log structure located opposite the present Missionary Baptist Church, about where Bill Culbertson now lives.  Her description was that it had some sort of clear-like covering over a window frame that didn’t let in much daylight and would have to be covered in winter.  They had slates to write on which they carried on strings around their necks.  The slates had to last the entire school term as parents couldn’t afford to buy replacements. Can you imagine playing hopscotch or some such game with the slate flapping around?

            Children had a rough time getting an eighth grade education. First they had to help on the farm before going to school in the mornings, they had to miss many days even though their school term was very short and some of their teachers did not have much training.  Mom was lucky, having Rev. L. F. Caudill as one of her early teachers.  Teachers were selected by a board member who had been voted in by their community peers so politics played the biggest part in teacher selection, rather than qualifications.

            I was a board member when the one-room schools were phased out for the more modern consolidated grade schools. This closed the old schoolhouses, heated with pot-bellied stoves, outdoor toilets, water carried from a spring or a neighbor’s dug well and private transportation to school.  The sad part was as these schools were closed the communities lost their identity.

            My mother’s father, Ephraim Helton, died when she was a baby and her mother, Abigail Conley Helton became a widow with two children to care for, my mother and her sister Elizabeth “Aunt Lizzie” who later married Curt Reid.  “Granny Abbie” later married Frank Kazee and had four sons, Buell, Lonnie, Powell and Lloyd Kazee.

            Mom went to Paintsville and was hired as a nursemaid to the Claud Buckingham family. She also did their grocery shopping at the nearby Slone’s Market where her future husband, Curt Preston was a store clerk.  They married and their first three children were born in Paintsville, John, Henry and Ann.

            In the meantime, oil was discovered on the family farm and they moved back to the log home on Burton Fork as Dad landed the job as oil pumper which became his lifetime occupation.

            Seven more children were added to the family, Ralph, Luva, Roger, Roy “Todd”, Ida Jane, Walker and Glenna Sue.

            I pay tribute to my mother on this Mother’s Day, birthing ten children and overseeing the forty-acre farm.  I don’t want to insinuate my father didn’t help on the farm but he had a full time job.  Our forty-acre tract of land couldn’t be called a farm anymore; it’s more like a jungle.

            Most of my age group had mothers who had the spirit of their pioneer ancestors and to some extent were pioneers themselves.  They could go out and pick a mess of greens to prepare and come up with enough food items from the family farm for a wholesome meal.

            This Saturday before Mother’s Day I took a trek to my parent’s burial site as I seem to have inherited the responsibility of keeping the Rufus Kazee Cemetery mowed.  I found I was a couple of week late as Mother Nature had poured out her blessings already.  I first found my weed-eater and then my mower weren’t working properly; it seems I didn’t come very well prepared so I went on up Horsepen to the old home place on Burton.  I stopped to look at the old site which now resembles a jungle and looked for the old well and the remnants of our former household.  By the time I got back to my vehicle, I found I had brought with me a goodly number of ticks that were getting a piggy-back ride on my shirt and pants.

            I could picture my mother getting out every morning and sweeping the yard. A lot of kids, a bunch of chickens and a few dogs soon depleted any grass that might appear.  The pasture, corn and garden fields, log home and log barn of my boyhood are now only memories.  My mother must have been a super human to have reared ten children, plus always having a few in-laws and cousins to cook and “wait” on and still lived into her nineties.  We were blessed to have this super woman with us in our lives.

            My table at the historical society is a mess with partially answered queries here and there. Heretofore when I’ve come on a situation like this, I’ve simply stashed everything away and started anew but then I get to feeling guilty and dig a little deeper to try to answer questions.

            I’ve just finished reading the Salyersville Independent; Goldie Shepherd’s column and a column about a comparative new endeavor, the Misty Mountain Trails Club conducted by Gloria Allen, which I endorse, even if it’s been many years since I’ve been astride a horse or mule.  This brought on some thoughts of yesteryear when we children would have to walk across the hill.  We would see imprints made by horse’s hooves that were filled with water and we could find little horse-hair size “snakes” wiggling in the warm water!  Now, we thought these were baby snakes until we tried to dip them out with a stick and found they would break apart then get together again and keep wiggling.

            Dad, “who knew everything”, told us they were tiny “bugs” that accumulated in that warm water.  Now, Goldie, can you top that one?

            Rick Whitley came in to get a little more knowledge of his family. He is the grandson of Dr. Dudley Whitely who was well-known as an herb doctor of yesteryear.  I knew him quite well as I was growing up on State Road Fork.  He was the son of Amanda Whitely who was born about 1867, the daughter of Thomas Whitely b ca. 1825. Thomas was a son of Alexander Whitley b. 1800 and Elizabeth Easterling.

            Thomas Whitely married in 1848 Morgan Co. KY to Lovana “Anna” Kilgore b. 1825, the daughter of John Kilgore. John was born in 1799 and first married in 1819 to Cynthia Addington b. 1802 and married secondly to Isabell Roberts.  John Kilgore b. 1773 was a son of Charles Kilgore.

            It is interesting to note that Ralph Kilgore and his wife -?- Gray had a son named Dr. Joseph Dudley Kilgore who was born in 1853 and died at age 33.  His memory still rings in Morgan County and perhaps Dr. Dudley Whitely was named for this uncle.

            We have heard from Herley Manns concerning the cemetery on Hawes Fork.  Herley with a couple of family helpers went to Hawes Fork and has gotten the William Manns/Rhoda Howard Cemetery back into a respectful shape.  These fellows deserve a big thank you and maybe even a bear hug!  I’m wondering if the patch-ups they used on the markers might work on an old wore-out man, for Ol’ Todd needs a body and mind lift (Smile).

            We appreciate these folks who took the initiative to make repairs instead of just sulking around and gritting their teeth at someone who was scoundrel enough to molest burial sites.

            We are still having planning sessions at the courthouse and here at the historical society for Sesquicentennial activities for the rest of the year 2010.  We have been helping with the job of collecting material for the book of stories on the history of Magoffin County, our people, communities, churches, etc. We hope you will get out your pencil and paper and record what you feel needs to be saved for the future generations, we need pictures also!