This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the February 23, 2012 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

          We can almost guarantee that the Grand Marshal of the 2012 Magoffin County Founders Day Celebration will be a Marshall.  How can we know that? Well, because we have just decided on MARSHALL as the surname to be honored with this 34^th Annual event sponsored by the Magoffin County Historical Society. 

          Gather in all your Marshall family information, pictures, tributes, memorabilia and come join in on the activities.  This is YOUR year if you have a Marshall anywhere in your genealogy line.  Of course, you don’t have to have the surname in your ancestry to get involved in Founders Days; we always enjoy having everyone to visit Magoffin County on this special occasion so start planning for your visit now.

          We will have more details on this new venture for our historical society in the coming weeks.  We invite anyone who would like to help make plans for the events and especially those who will help carry out those plans to come and help.  Remember that we are a small group and will need all the help that we can muster. 

          I have continued looking for abandoned and practically unknown cemeteries with the thought of preserving their location and the history of those interred in them.  In doing so I happened on to a bunch of Salyersville Independent for the year 2004 and found the Historical Comments column for Mar 11^th of that year and want to repeat part of it.  “I invited Donnie Allen to assist me in finding a few cemeteries on the left fork of Johnson. We went up the hollow opposite the Old Samaria Baptist Church and found two cemeteries; the first will always remain in memory as it was the burial site of a World War Two veteran who was killed in action.”

We cleaned the cemetery that day and I have wondered if it was ever visited again.  I have misplaced this veteran’s name.  The other cemetery we found was on the right side of the hollow. We found a large abandoned cemetery where the hill leveled off that Orville Wages had told me about. There appeared to be at least twenty or more gravesites.  There was one gravesite we could decipher and that was Robert Mays b. 26 ???, the rest of the inscription was unreadable.  There is a Robert Mays in the 1860 Magoffin census that was listed as a cabinet maker. His wife was Nancy Ann and they had Elizabeth Duly age 14 and John Duly in their household.  Any information on this family would be appreciated.

What amazed me in this cemetery was finding an oak tree about three feet in diameter which had uprooted a grave footstone.  My question is can anyone out there share any information about this old cemetery?  I would like to make another trip there.

On that long ago trip Donnie and I came off the hill to another cemetery and a house that was in right good shape.  I know there are some of you fox hunter that have been on this hill and could contact me with information.  It would be great to hear from you.

The map shows Rudd Branch Road as the name for the area and I suspect the cemetery is located near the Wolfe County line.  By the way, I have hunted for the gravesite of Archibald Rudd for years and have a feeling this area may be the right spot to continue that search.

We have had some sad news this week and that is the passing of Philip Howard.  He was born 5 Jan 1926 Ivyton, KY and died 8 Feb 2012 in Corbin, KY, the son of Byrd Howard and June Hurt Howard.  He was always interested in the work of the historical society and we enjoyed his visits so much. 

Philip touched all who knew him in a positive way and never missed making a trip back to his home county when the opportunity came his way.  He would drop into our historical society and often came bearing gifts for our collections.  One of these is a homemade fiddle that we have hanging in our archives room.

Philip was a veteran of the Korean Conflict, a past master of the Salyersville Lodge No. 769 as well as the Fred M. Grose Lodge of Ashland. He was a member of the Magoffin Chapter Order of Eastern Star.

Philip is survived by his wife Hilda Honaker and many kinsmen and friends of our county.  He served as a director of his local Buckey Road Freewill Baptist Church and was also a member of the board of Westwood Boys and Girls Club in Ashland. He also served as board member of Camp Caleb Christian Camp at Lawrenceburg and was a Kentucky Colonel.

Philip’s loving and kind manner touched many lives in our county and in all the areas where he traveled.  Our hearts go out to Hilda and the family.