This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the July 8, 2010 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

            By the time you read this more activities for the 150^th birthday of Magoffin County will have taken place.  Plans are in full swing for the dedication of the Katie Prater Memorial and the DAV Flag raising at the Community Center on tap for Saturday morning!

            Also happening will be the Trail Ride from the Middle Creek National Battlefield to the Puncheon Creek Battlefield that is to take place on Friday the 2^nd with a camp out near the South Magoffin School. They plan to visit the Gardner Farm battlefield and afterwards be in the 4^th of July parade.  The purpose of the ride is to show the routes taken by Civil War armies on the march.  Wrapping it up will be the largest fireworks display to date and a street dance. Looks like the second half of our Sesquicentennial year is off to a great start!

            Next will be Community Days, Founders Days and other activities that will take us right into the annual Christmas parade, a wrap up of our special year.

            We would like to hear from anyone having pictures of the 1960 Centennial event here in Magoffin.   Don’t forget to submit your story for the book to be published, covering the history of ole Magoffin and its people.  Let’s show our Magoffin County pride, this goes for all you people who have moved to other states!

            I think our county has more reconstructed log homes than any neighboring county and I wanted so much to put pictures of all of them in the book with a bit of their history but time hasn’t been on my side with all the mowing chores taking up my time.  I’m asking you to send us pictures and information for publication.  We start out with about 19 here at the Pioneer Village.

            I’ve just finished reading the second issue of the 2010 Journal of the Magoffin County Historical Society and I have to say, if you have any interest in Civil War reenacting, you would love this 50 page booklet that is sent out to all our members or you can obtain one here at headquarters.  This issue gives the details of preparation for Magoffin County’s first full-scale reenactment, including the suspense and anxiety that you can feel in trying to make it a living history event for the spectators as well as wanting to make the reenactors want to come back another year.  There are those of us also who are eagerly yearning for a Battlefield Park, complete with a museum and walking trails, a long overdue project for Magoffin County.

            It seems the queries we receive are getting harder to answer. I have spent many hours on the following query but met with little success.  Jimmy Fletcher, 42 Millcreek Road, Gallipolis, OH 45631 writes that his father was Floyd Fletcher and he is trying to find where his family is buried. 

            I submit my findings but there could be mistakes in this: Floyd was the son of Wince Fletcher b. ca. 1894 m. 9 Aug 1915 at the home of N. P. Nickles to Kate Nickles b. 1897. Kate was the daughter of Newt P. Nickles b. 1859 and Mary A. “Polly” Collins b. 1859.  Mary “Polly” was the daughter of Hiram Collins b. 1837 who married first to Barbara Auxier and married second to Chaney Caudill.

            Newt P. Nickles was a son of Joseph Nickles b. 1822 Tennessee and Omy Cole b. 1822 KY.

            Wince Fletcher was a son of Garfield Fletcher b. 1863 d. 1957 and his wife Emaline Cole whom he married about 1900.

            Garfield was a son of Winston Fletcher and Perlina “Polina” Cole. Winston was a son of Alexander Fletcher and Ludemy Castle.  Alexander was a son of “Old” George Fletcher and 1^st wife Lavisa Johnson.  Winston’s wife Perlina was a daughter of Valentine Cole and Mariah Cole.

            This is very sketchy information.  Perhaps there is someone reading this that can help with Jimmy Fletcher’s question and tell us where his family is buried. 

            We ask that Jimmy and any other Fletcher descendant send us their family information as we need to add it to the Fletcher family book that is one of the projects being worked on by the Magoffin County Historical Society.  Morris Fletcher, Mary and Lorn Fletcher, Bernice Moore and Irene Farmer helped tremendously with the Fletcher information that we now have.

            Irene Cole Farmer has been in our thoughts for many days now as she lost her husband, Robert “Bob” Farmer on June 14^th, 2010. Bob and Irene were very welcome frequent visitors to our county and we are grateful to them for their many contributions to our store of information about our Magoffin County ancestors.

            We send Irene and her family our deepest condolences.