This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the January 5, 2012 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

          Well, HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Here we are again, welcoming in a brand new year!  We are full of good intentions, ideas and plans to make this one of the best years ever here in Magoffin County.  We are counting on you to keep helping us with your encouragement, your visits and shared information so that the written history of our area continues to grow.  There is yet much to be done so let’s begin!

          We are ever amazed here at the “home-twenty” when we look back at our early years to the time when we answered the call from the Kentucky Historical Society to copy our county cemeteries.  We are proud that we responded and we are amazed at all the history and genealogy of our county and area that has been saved through the cooperative help of so many of you out there.  Many of our friends and helpers have since passed on and we continue with our work and goals in their memory. 

          We see some projects that we wish we could have expanded down through the years. These include recording the oral history of our people. Time has taken its toll and we have lost a good many of our older citizens who could have enlightened us with answers for the various queries we receive.  We also would have liked getting our young children more involved so that they might carry on with the work of preserving our genealogy and history. 

          Nearly every week we receive several inquiries about the progress of certain projects that we are working on.  We will attempt to give you an update on these printing jobs.  Keep in mind also that we are involved in a great many other projects besides printing, such as keeping our Pioneer Village in presentable order, working on restoring/recording cemeteries and gravesites of our early settlers, greeting and helping the many visitors who come to Magoffin County in search of their roots and the myriad of other chores that are necessary to keep our historical society open and operating.

          When we look at our list of unfinished printing projects we are apt to let the long list of items we are still working on overshadow the list of completed works we have but we are heartened to know that most of those still undone are entering the finishing stages.

          For instance, back in the year 2000 we planned a very full schedule for the Magoffin County Homecoming Founders Day year.  One of the works begun was a surnames book featuring all the families from our county’s founding year of 1860. Much work has been done on this volume and at the present time Kay Bentley is working on wrapping up this project with research on some of the surnames of our area.

          In the year 2005 we enjoyed a wonderful gathering of the Hammond (all spellings) family for Founders Days.  The bulk of the genealogy material on that family came from Doris Rose of California who contributed her lifelong research findings to us, as well as Donna Miller, Brian Ann Arnett, Mark Hammons, Bart Hammond, Reva Whitaker and many others.  We discovered two branches of this family so need to incorporate the material received.

          The Founders Day years of 2007 and 2008 were devoted to the Carpenter and the Fletcher families. Much wonderful work was accomplished during both those years, including a memorial marker at the gravesite of progenitor Fielding Carpenter in Breathitt County with much genealogical material coming from Wendy Bellart, Luther Green Carpenter’s daughters Charlotte Cravens and Carolyn Thompson, along with John Carpenter’s cousin from Jackson County. 

In 2008 a memorial was set on Gun Creek here in Magoffin County for “Old” George Fletcher and his descendants.  Research material was received from a great many people, including Morris Fletcher, Myrtle Fletcher Cole Hughes and her son Melvin, and Lorn Fletcher and his late wife Mary.  Much information is still needed on these two family lines.

          The Manns family book begun in 2009 was nearly finished when we discovered a couple more children for Samuel Mann so we are incorporating them into the family genealogy. After that we will begin placement of the picture section and then that volume will be finished.

          During our Sesquicentennial year of 2010 we kept the material all typed as it came in to us so now we need only do a little additional work in order to print.  We started a cookbook that year which is working up nicely with family recipes, pictures and short stories.

          Last year we celebrated the heritage of the Joseph family and because we began later than usual, we did not receive as much family history material so if you or anyone you know is related to the Josephs then we welcome your family pictures and genealogy.

          Our small volunteer staff here was able to get the third Journal of 2011 into the mail and we enjoyed the comments you sent our way when you received it.  The winter Journal is underway and we anticipate having it in the mail before too much longer.

Most of our time lately has been devoted to finishing the set of Veteran’s volumes that we began in 2006.  In 2006 we thought we would have enough county military information for a single volume but it has grown to six volumes and another will eventually be devoted to indexing and additional info received after the series got into print.

          Speaking of the military, we are very happy and grateful for the recent return of our troops from Iraq.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the whole world could be at peace?