Backroads of Barren County, Ky., newspaper articles written by William Daniel Tolle 1877 thru 1920's, compiled by Sandra K. Gorin, Gorin Genealogical Publishing, copyright July 1991. Used by permission. pp. 14-16. [Beaver Creek area] MYERS FAMILY. Henry Myers put up a mill below the Duff lands but on the south side of the creek. It was a very crude affair at the start. The dam was principally of brush. Henry ran it a while and sold it to his brother Michael, who put a good dam across the creek, good as could be made in his day and time. By honesty, industry and economy he succeeded in business. He had a saw mill attached to his grist and flouring mill and sawed a great deal of lumber. His mill stood at the head of all others in the country. He accumulated and saved enough to put up a steam mill of the first order in his day and time. The boiler was four feet through and twenty four feet long. The smoke stack was of brick and twelve or fourteen feet at its base and tapered up to something like five or six feet at the top according to the way I see it today in my imagination. It was thirty or forty feet tall. The engine, the brush, the belting material, and in fact all its parts were of the best material and up to date in that day. Steam was raised and the mill started on the second day of July, 1852. It was patronized by Barren, Monroe, Cumberland, Hart, Edmonson and other counties of the State and from Tennessee. The first year it was run for an 8th toll. Afterwards the toll was raised. Mr. Myers superintended the mill for many years. Old age came upon him and he sold the mill to his youngest son, and retired from active business. He died at a good old age and I presume was buried in the family graveyard near the little village of Coral Hill. Michael Myers raised a family of three girls and five boys to be nearly grown. One of the girls married Dearing, another one married Minor. Elizabeth and Mary were their names but I don't know which one married Dearing or Minor. They left Barren County when I was a boy and I think they went to Missouri. Savannah, the youngest, maried a Pace and I think lived and died in Barren County. Robert the oldest child was a millwright. He went to Missouri in an early day and married a Miss Tracy. At one time he and his son, Ben, owned a mill in Glasgow and did a good business. He is now dead. Several of his children are living at this writing. Wilson, the second son of Michael Myers, married a Miss Cotton or Cottington, for his first wife. They raised a family of several children; all but one, according to my recollection, are dead. One of his sons is running what was known as the Ralston Mill on Skaggs Creek, a short distance above the bridge on the Scottsville Pike. He and his son own the property. I don't know whether Wilson raised any children by his second wife or not. He died many years ago at his home between Lecta and his father's mill, where he was raised. Michael, the third son, went to the gold fields of California in 1849. He had taken a claim and had worked it to some extent. The law there gives the person the right to leave a claim a certain number of days and go back to work, but if they should not go back to work, until the time expired the claim could be taken and worked by another person. Mike had left his claim and gone on a prospecting tour but returned before his time expired. Other persons were in his claim, at work, when he returned. He told them it was his claim, that he had not been absent long enough for his rights to be forfeited but they would not give the claim up. Mike went to work and was shot in the back and killed, murdered in cold blood. Daniel, the fourth son, died young, probably sixteen or seventeen years old. William, the youngest son, bought the mill from his father and ran it many years. He sold it and went to some of the upper counties in the state but I don't know where and went into the mill business. He married a daughter of Tubal or Jubal Wilson. The last I heard of him he was living in Texas not many years ago. News came to Glasgow of the death of his wife. If he is living, he is an old man, not far from 90 years. The Myers family were good mill men. They were strictly honest but a family of high temperament. There are but a few of the name in Barren County. A grandson of Robert has charge of the old Planing Mill in Glasgow. Others of the name are in the Hiseville country, while still others are running the Ralston Mill on Skaggs Creek. Myers Duff Dearing Minor Pace Tracy Cotton Cottington Ralston Wilson Skaggs = TN MO Scottsville-Allen-KY CA TX http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/barren/myers.txt