This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the June 7, 2012 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

            Friday, June 1^st was a very special day for me as it was my 84^th birthday.  Little did I know that family and friends were planning a surprise gathering for me here at the historical society.  I should have guessed something was “in the works” when Val McKenzie showed up!  You know, we don’t see him very often but for several years now he has visited us on or near my birthday.  This time he brought his lovely wife Debbie and we were all pleased to meet her.  Coming over from neighboring Johnson County was Jan Horne and her daughter Donna Hall.  Rounding out the list were Jill Sizemore, Henry Clay Sizemore, Jack Sizemore, Lori Sizemore, Jimmie Allen, Austin Wireman, Jessica Preston Howard, Dallas Bentley, Kay Bentley, Dorothy S. Wireman, Connie A. Wireman and Fee-Fee Gilliland.  And the “goodest” part is that Kay baked a cake!  Dorothy had gathered up some refreshments to go along with the cake and everyone had a very enjoyable time.  Another good surprise for me came was from Jack and Lori Sizemore.  They brought me an enlarged framed picture of myself taken at the recent Civil War Reenactment down at the Ben Gardner farm.  I also got several birthday cards and even got a bunch of birthday wishes via the Magoffin County Historical Society Facebook page!  Thanks to everyone for making this a very special time for me!

            Last week, during the Memorial Day holiday, my sister Ida Jane Preston Conley and I kept the old tradition our mother instilled in her children and that is visiting the family cemeteries on “Decoration Day”.  We ended up going to about a dozen final resting places of our kin.  At some of the cemeteries we were the only visitors, on others we would meet up with as many as 25 to 30 people.

We started out on our own Helton Cemetery located on what we call the Vanderpool Branch.  Just the day before I had walked to this cemetery because the road had become impassable.  On this day we found that someone had opened up a walking trail and we took advantage of that.  The cemetery had been cleaned up by Odie’s son who keeps horses on this branch nearly to the Helton Cemetery.

            Speaking of horses, he claims they love to eat the myrtle vine that my mother battled all her life when cleaning cemeteries. We children are still battling it today with our weed-eaters instead of the grubbing hoes of yesteryear.

            Of course, I realize the myrtle vine will some day come out the winner.

            We stopped at the Fairchild Cemetery and left flags on Ray’s memorial marker as he lost his life on the battlefield.

            We then visited the Sherd Conley Cemetery which has a beautiful new fence that makes it a showplace.  The cemetery was immaculately cleaned.  I also left flags there.

            We next stopped at the Prater Cemetery and after services there we traveled on to the Williams Cemetery where services were also held. 

            We then came on downstream to the late Brack Hamilton farm where our brother Roger is buried.  After lunch we traveled on to the Kazee-Bailey-Conley Cemetery where our parents, Curt and Mollie (Helton) Preston are buried.  Our next stop was on Horsepen to the Isaiah Conley Cemetery.

            We came back into Salyersville and went to the Bluegrass Cemetery where my wife Phyllis Joy Prater Preston is buried.

            The Gilbert Adams Cemetery was our next stop.  This is where our sister Ann Elizabeth Kelley and her husband are buried.

            We then went to the Howard Cemetery where our baby sister Glenna Sue and her husband Bill George Howard are buried.  Coming back into town, we went to the Connelley Farm where our sister Luva Mae Preston Connelley is buried.

            We finally settled down from all our traveling. We enjoyed our time together and remembrances of the people and times of our life.  Here is an example of a very close-knit family of ten children and no two will be buried in the same cemetery nor in the same cemetery as their parents.

            During the week I have set at least fifty American flags at Veteran’s gravesites, from World War One to present.

            We have noticed that the number of visitors in search of their family history has increased in the last few weeks.  One of these was Eugene Adams who was born at Collie, KY in Floyd County.  Eugene’s paternal grandparents were Malcom and Lula (Sparks) Adams.  His maternal grandparents were Edward and Birdie (Richardson) Prater. 

            We worked on his ancestor chart a bit.  Malcom’s parents were Henry Adams and Margaret Brown who married 14 Feb 1878 here in Magoffin County.  Henry was a son of Gilbert and Perlina (Prater) Adams.  Margaret was a daughter of David and Izana (Pitts) Brown.  Malcom’s wife Lula was a daughter of Henry Sparks and his first wife Susan Alley.  We did not discover the names of Henry’s parents but we believe Susan’s parents were Simeon and Eda Alley who appear in the 1860 Floyd Co. KY census.

            Eugene’s grandfather Edward was a son of Preston and Susannah (Holbrook) Prater. Edward’s wife Birdie was a daughter of Stephen Richardson and his 2^nd wife Lillie Snavely.