This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the July 12, 2012 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

            It’s the Saturday before the 4^th of July as I write this and the people of Magoffin County are getting ready for their celebration of America’s birthday.  It was decided to have the events a little early this year rather than wait until the weekend after the 4^th.  Although we have temperatures hovering at or over the 100 degree mark everything seems to be going along as planned complete with pageants, a parade, fireworks, etc.  It has been one of the hottest weeks on record and quite dry even with the intermittent thunderstorms that we have had.

            I have been reminiscing this week about the 4^th of July celebrations that were held over on the Connelley Farm back in the 1950s.  I’m sure some of you readers have memories of those events also.

            Some of the people I knew while growing up here in Magoffin County have come to mind also.  My dad’s sister Gertrude Preston married Robert Hudson of Washington, DC.  Bob, as he was called, and his father built the famous Gatlin submachine gun but it is said that some Chicago crooks stole the patent rights and all he came out of the deal with was a gold wrist watch which my cousin Lois still has.

            Uncle Bob would come to our Burton Fork farm to hunt quail.  His hunting buddy was Harry Thomas, grandfather of Richard Thomas who became well known as “John Boy” in the Walton TV series.

            I became their guide as I knew where every covey of quail or rabbits could be found.

            Harry Thomas gave me a little pup and it became the best rabbit and squirrel dog on Burton Fork!  I really worked hard training that dog.  Some time later I finally got a Plott hound in Ohio to use as a hunting dog.

            Harry Thomas was the County Judge over in neighboring Johnson County and also the president of the National Plott Hound Association.  A man with the last name of Rogers from Missouri was the vice president and I was the secretary-treasurer.  Once we visited Mr. Rogers in Missouri for a couple of nights of hunting.  He came here for a visit and we set out on hunting trips for a few nights. 

            I like to think back on those days and I watch the Walton’s on TV every chance I get as I enjoy the programs and feel like I have a connection with the actors.

            One oddity on our forty-acre farm has never been solved.  There was a so-called Indian graveyard located on the ridge and when the field below this area was plowed, I would follow along after the plow and pick up brown glass looking objects.  I would carry them to a hollow to keep the mules from cutting their legs on them.  My mother told me she had done the same thing when she was young so there must have been a quantity of these in the area.  That ravine we threw them into has since been filled up with trees, etc.

            I remember sticking a pole into a crack of the supposed Indian grave and in my young mind; it seemed to be the size of a small room.  I got scared and ran off the hill as my mother respected an Indian grave the same as any final resting place and never wanted this area bothered.

            I know of at least three more supposed Indian Grave sites located on the Powers Farm of Mash Fork.  There is another one of Bear Tree Fork of Rockhouse and I am told another one of the Wireman farm on Route 542 in South Magoffin.

            I would like to know more of the history and locations of Indian areas.  We have lost most of our older people who remembered the folklore of their ancestors.

            And so it is with the loss of Winna Lee Rowe Williams who will be laid to rest this Thursday.  Winna Lee was age 87, having been born on November 14, 1924, a daughter of William “Uncle Bill” Rowe and “Aunt” Lizzie Prater Rowe.  She passed away on Monday, July 2 and will be sorely missed.  She had a treasure-trove of memories of families and life in the past and could always be counted on to write down or tell about her experiences. It wasn’t too many years ago that she and her late husband Ellis Williams were grand marshals in the Vanderpool Founders Day parade. 

Winna Lee had a special knack for capturing “pictures of the past” in poetry and we always enjoyed her work.  We are grateful that she shared some of her memories with us for the publications of the Magoffin County Historical Society.  It is especially sad for us that she will not see the finished product of the Magoffin County Sesquicentennial book that we have in our files to complete.