It is pleasing to all of us in our organization to have visitors from many places in these United States come to Magoffin County to learn more about their ancestry. It is personally gratifying to find that our visitors feel a closeness to the land where their roots are. Practically every day we have people come to our library who are searching for family history, gravesites of their ancestors and land areas where they may have lived. In turn, the information they bring to us enlarges our knowledge of area history. Quite often what we learn from one visitor helps another visitor with their own research.

One visitor we had this week was Stephen Slone of Chillicothe, OH. Clarence Cooper, age 94, who also has Magoffin County family connections, was traveling with him. Clarence is the son of Elliott Linwood Cooper and Minta Lou May.

They had stopped with Justine Adams to talk about the Cooper family. Justine directed them to our library to help with the Slone family.

Steve’s family was among those who left our county back in the 1920’s and early 1930’s to seek jobs in other areas but who still maintained their "home" connections.

Steve’s grandparents were George H. W. Slone and Celia Virgie Pennington.

The earliest Slone ancestor we found for Steve was John Slone who was born about 1791 and died in Scott Co. VA in 1825. He and his wife Elizabeth Arnold were the parents of John Albert Slone b. 15 Feb 1819 in Scott Co. VA. John Albert Slone married Elizabeth Jane Parker and they were the parents of Steve’s great-grandfather Jasper N. Slone. John and Elizabeth raised their family on Hood’s Fork of Johnson County, KY.

Jasper Newton Slone was born 24 Feb 1846 in Scott Co. VA. From Virginia he moved into eastern Kentucky and married Mary Ellen Bayes. She was born in 1847 Johnson Co. KY, the daughter of Elijah Bayes and Margaret "Peggy" Rice (born 1817 d. 1873). Elijah Bays was born in 1808 Pittsylvania Co. VA and died in 1850 Johnson Co. KY.

Jasper N. Slone served as a Union soldier in the Civil War (Co. G, 14^th KY Inf.) He died 7 Oct 1890 in Elliott Co. KY. After Jasper’s death, his wife Mary Ellen Bayes Slone lived with her son, George H. W. Slone’s family in Pike Co. OH until she died on 12 Mar 1931. In her obituary it is stated she was the widow of the late Jasper Slone who died 40 years ago. She was the mother of ten children, 6 of whom were still living: Alonzo Slone and J. H. Slone both of Elliott Co. KY, John Slone of Willard, Carter Co. KY, G. W. Slone (at whose home she died), and James Slone both of Waverly, OH and W. H. Slone (Ashland Building Inspector), Ashland, KY.

George H. W. Slone wife Celia Virgie (most often called "Virgie") Pennington was born 17 Sep 1886 in Elliott Co. KY, the daughter of Isaac Pennington and Ellen Creech.

Isaac Pennington was born in 1860 Elliott Co. KY and died 21 Jan 1937 Pike Co. OH. Isaac’s wife was Ellen Creech b. 1864 Lawrence Co. KY and died 9 Aug 1946 in Pike Co. OH.

Isaac Pennington was a son of James Washington Pennington and Celia V. Harris. James W. Pennington was the son of Abel and Elizabeth Pennington. Abel was born in 1789 South Carolina; his wife Elizabeth was born in 1791 North Carolina. They both died in Lawrence Co. KY at Webbville. His date of death was 16 Oct 1865 and hers was 1 Feb 1872.

The family ties to Magoffin County begin before 1910 and continue until about 1925. In the 1910 and the 1920 Magoffin County census records the family of George H. W. and Virgie Slone lived in the Flat Fork area of the county and most of their children were born here.

They were the parents of these children who were born in Magoffin County: (1) Ersel Green Slone b. 1906; (2) Hassel James Slone b. 1908; (3) Infant Slone b. and died 1910; (4) Oshel Conard Slone b. 1911 d. 1960 Morgan Co. KY; (5) Elma Ellen Slone b. 1913; (6) Jolly Boone Slone b. 1914 d. 1966 Waverly, OH; (7) Virgil Isaac Slone b. 1919; and (8) Jasper Newton Slone b. 1919. The remaining children were born in Ohio. They were (9) Elizabeth "Lizzie" Slone b. 1922, (10) George J. Washington Slone b. 1924; twins (11) Neva Slone b. 1927 and (12) Reva Slone b. 1927.

The family is listed in the 1930 and 1940 records of Beaver Township, Pike Co. OH. In the 1920 Magoffin census they had his mother Virgie Pennington Slone in their household and she was also there in 1920. In the 1940 Ohio census Ellen Pennington, Virgie’s mother, at age 75 and widowed, was in their household.

We found that Hassel’s brother Ersel Slone married in 1923 here in Magoffin County to Vernie Risner, the daughter of Wilburn Risner and Sarah Alice Adams. Their family info is in our Risner books under the Archibald Risner and Nancy J. Howard family. One of Ersel’s daughters, Verna, is a member of our historical society. She wrote about her family for the Risner books and told that after the marriage of her parents, the family moved to Pike County, OH where all the children were born.

Ray Hubbard of Tallapoosa, GA and Leilani Ruesink of Three Rivers, MI visited us along with Bobby Davis. Leilani is a descendant of James and Nancy Jane (Bays) Brown; George Washington and Millie "Kizzie" Sparks; Preston and Susannah (Holbrook) Prater and Henry and Margaret (Brown) Adams.

Leilani left us a very nice photo of the Henry and Margaret Adams family which we will be using in an upcoming issue of our Journal along with some genealogy information on the family.

Ray Hubbard is a descendant of Samuel and Rebecca (Pitts) Prater, Franklin and Elizabeth (Moore) Hale, William J. and Oma (Reffitt) Hicks and of David "Red Dave" and Galatha (Hicks) Conley who lived in Floyd Co. KY.