This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the June 23, 2011 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

            I take a walk in Ramey Park every day and it is a real treat to see the robins and other birds getting their morning meal off the ground and to hear them singing merrily in the trees surrounding Licking River. This morning I saw my first beaver in Ole Licking and to cap it all off, there was also a mother duck and her little ones!  Amongst all this beauty are a few eyesores.  It behooves us all to try to do something to clean up the landscape all around us so that nature’s beauty can shine through.

            Our Salute to Veteran’s series is almost finished.  We have five volumes in print and now are working on completing the last book.  We are still getting new and updated veterans material.  We have learned of a missing-in-action World War II soldier with Magoffin County roots and would like to know more about him.  His name was Lacy Collinsworth who was born in 1921 and died in 1943. Some information printed in a 1943 issue of the Salyersville Independent says he was the son of Marshall and Myrtle Collinsworth. Please write or call if you have any info about this Collinsworth (Collins or Collingsworth) family.

            Barbara Reed Patrick is really good about bringing in items to us that are of historical interest.  She recently brought in some copies of old Salyersville Independent newspapers and while browsing through them, I ran across articles written Friday, June 4, 1960 announcing the opening of Magoffin’s Centurama (Magoffin’s 100^th birthday drama) on the mammoth stage at Connelley Park!  On page two was an article about the time capsule that was to be buried that year containing information on Magoffin County and to be unearthed 100 years from that date. 

            Now, as I sit here writing this I can look across the room at the now-empty capsule which was built by Belsey Connelley and is now a bit of history for future generations. It once lay in the southwest corner of the old courthouse grounds.  This courthouse was built in 1959 and was torn down in order to build the present Justice Center building.

            This time capsule was taken up prematurely in order to save it from being permanently covered by the new building.  It played a major role in Magoffin County’s 150^th birthday celebration with its contents being reburied in a new time capsule along with a great many items contributed by various individuals, organizations and businesses.

            This copy of the 1960 newspaper also reminded me of the mid-fifties when Hiram Ely and I organized Cub and Boy Scout troops and used the Connelley Farm for camping and training.  Later on when I became a Conservation officer, Junior Conservation clubs were organized and we continued to use the Connelley Farm for bait casting contests and rifle shoots.  We built a large farm pond on the farm, drilled a water well, built food booths, plus other facilities, including a large shed to use in case of rain and this was where the Fourth of July events were held as well as Magoffin’s Centennial celebration. 

            Now, all that remains of the Connelley Park of yesteryear is a large pond.

            Belsey is now eight years shy of reaching age 100!  He has made wonderful contributions to our county and town during his lifetime.

            A few days ago I was giving a tour of our Pioneer Village and noticed one of the ladies using her cell phone.  When we got through, she said she would send me a copy of the video she had made!  Now, nearly everyone seems to own a cell phone today, all except ole Todd and Belsey! 

I can remember getting the first telephone in Preston “Holler”!  Chick Patrick, Magoffin’s first undertaker, started the first telephone system in Salyersville by ordering a switchboard from Sears & Roebuck.  He installed it in his home and it was operated by his daughter Jessie Irene Patrick who later became my mother-in-law in 1950.  I still live in the old Patrick home place today.

            A telephone line was run up State Road Fork and to the Baileys on White Lick so my father and my brother’s John and Henry, extended a line on across the hill to the Preston homestead.

            We were without electricity so the power system for the telephone had to be battery run which we fashioned from a car battery.  Dad had a car and he could switch batteries and charge a rundown battery by recharging it with his car.

            We had lots of visitors who would walk a mile or so to use our phone. Finally all of Mash Fork got phone service, a far cry from the present phone service which I haven’t mastered yet so Belsey and I will just have to keep “hollering” at each other, ‘til the Good Master above “hollers” for us.