The Whitley Republican

Contributed by: Mary Lou Hudson

Thursday, May 21, 1942

 MIDWIVES MEETING AT HEALTH OFFICE

 On Thursday, May 28, there will be a meeting for
 all midwives in Whitley County, held at the office
 of the County Health Department in Williamsburg.

 Dr. Creech, a representative of the Bureau of Maternal
 and Child Welfare of the State Department of Health,
 will be present at the meeting to instruct and advise
 the women in attendance, and will show motion pictures.

 The meeting will begin at 9:00 a.m. and all women, 
practicing midwifery in the county, and all those who 
expect to continue to do so, are requested to attend.
Also bags equipped as for delivery are to be brought in 
for inspection at that time.

Women performing the duties of a midwife should have and
 should welcome qualified supervision, and should be 
urged to avail themselves of this opportunity to learn 
and to become better prepared to carry on their services
 in their community.

 R.B. Fulks, M.D. Health Officer

Thursday, February 2,1978

By J.B. Johnson, Sr.

Old time customs…….

Peddling – an early form of salesmanship

Peddling – Oh, they call it salesmanship now – 
is as old as civilization. When Columbus came to 
America he and his crewmen bartered with the natives.

Capt. John Smith found the Indian had useful trinkets
and food to exchange. He even bartered for Pocahontas.
Our pilgrim fathers made friends with the Massosoits and
exchanged gifts. They were buying and selling goodwill.

Our early Kentucky mountaineer farmers had a more 
difficult barrier to hurdle; they had no roads, no 
bridges and slow transportation. Some called it moving 
by the TM & W – two mules and a wagon. The nature of the
peddling varied according to what the farmer produced.

Some of the farmers had large fertile acreage. They 
were on or near the Cumberland River. Others had 
predominantly hillside land, not fertile. Many had 
small farms. Some were sharecropper tenants. The farmers
with rich soil raised corn and fed hogs and cattle 
for the market.  The first night I ever stayed in 
Williamsburg was when J.B. Siler employed me to 
help drive a drove of hogs from Dishman to Williamsburg.
We put them in an L&N cattle car opposite the Methodist 
Church. We stayed all night at the Cumberland Hotel,
ran by a man named Wilson. Eating there I first learned
that a "Square meal" meant all you could eat.

Some farmers preferred raising cattle. A few had both
hogs and cattle, of course, with enough horses and mules
to cultivate the crops. The plows were level land and
hillside turners and bull tongues (one plow, one horse)
and double shovel. The writer has used all of them.

I began with the bull tongue. Hay crops required a
mowing machine and rake and men with pitchforks to
stack the hay or put it in the barn. All oats, barley
or millet had to be cradled by hand. That was the 
hardest farm work to be found.

Now, in those days everybody had chickens, hogs, 
cows and had a garden and truck patches; these were
considered essential for any family. I was very young
when I learned that a mine had opened at Wilton, that
is near Woodbine; a short time later at Bird-Eye, 
near Jellico and about 1907 or 1908 at Gatliff and 
Packard later Long Branch, near Rockholds.

The opening of these mines changed the pattern of life
and living for many in our area. Some of them, mostly
tenant farmers, went to the mines to work where their
wages were doubled what farm hands were paid. This
brought to each mining camp several hundred workers
and their families. Nearly all lived in the camp.

So nearby markets were created for the farmers’
products. Many farmers responded. They became truck
farmers. (Now the word "truck" means farm produce.
It has no relation to the auto truck.) They doubled
or tripled their production of vegetables such as 
beans, potatoes, corn, apples, melons, chickens, 
milk and butter.

In season they butchered calves, sheep and hogs and 
peddled it in the mining camps, principally at 
Wilton, Gatliff and Packard. They went from 
house to house to sell. It brought a good price.
But there was one drawback on the minus side. Most
of the miners had to pay in Scrip. "Scrip" was
issued by the mining company as an advancement of
wages and was redeemable only at the company store 
where prices were, like wages, about twice as high
as in the country Store.  For example if flour was
75 cents per 25 pound bag in the country, you would 
pay from $1.35 to $1.50 for it at the commissary. Yet
it was an improvement in the economy and the standard
of living. No one complained very loudly.

Soon the farmers established regular customers and 
often from week to week they had their peddling load,
carried by the TM&W, sold a week in advance. Some 
of them found CASH customers. Usually milk, butter
and eggs were always sold for cash.

The farmers used the "Scrip" at the commissary to buy
flour, sugar, salt, pepper, coffee, shoes and clothing
 – things not raised on farms. But peddling was not an
easy way of life. The farmers spent one day getting
his load ready and had to leave home at daylight to get
to the mines; then they usually did not get back home 
until after dark. It was a hard life, but a better way of living.

about 1976 (exact date not known)

Newlyweds in 1801

"No couple on earth lived happier or more contented"

James B. Finley was born in 1791 in North Carolina,
spent his boyhood in Kentucky, married in Ohio and 
later revisited Kentucky in a time that would affect
his entire life. In his autobiography he describes his
first house and what it was like to be newlyweds on the
frontier. "I imagine I hear the reader saying this was
hard living and hard times," he wrote, but throughout his
life, he would return in memory to those early years 
when beset by trouble and frustration.

"No couple on earth lived happier or more contented."

As happens to other sweethearts, the parents of Hannah
Strane did not approve of her courtship by James Finely.
When they were married March 3,1801, Hannah’s father 
would not allow her to return for her belongings.

The couple went to the woods where, with help from 
James’ brother John Finley, a simple cabin was built.
The nearest neighbor was three miles away.

"Into this we moved without horse or cow, bed or
 bedding, bag or baggage," Finley wrote.

To make a bed the couple drove forked saplings
into the ground, placed sticks in the forks, then 
covered the sticks with elm bark. They gathered
leaves, picked out the twigs and dried the leaves to
stuff into a bedtick for a mattress.

There was no scarcity of meat, for Finley became a 
sharpshooter during his youth in Kentucky, but they
lacked bread. In order to pay for a bushel of potatoes,
the young husband cut and split 100 rails. His greatest
prize was a hen and three childrens given him for a day’s work.

Elm bark that made a mat for the bed also was spread
on the cabin floor and used to line the walls. The 
cabin provided shelter for the happy couple through
the summer when they built a neater cabin of logs.
To insulate the new cabin they spread their harvest
 of corn in the loft.

Finley went into detail describing the advantages
of backwoods life. "We had not then sickly, hysterical
wives, with poor, puny, sickly, dying children, and no
dyspeptic men constantly swallowing the nostrums of quacks.
When we became sick unto death we died at once."

A few months following his marriage he learned of a
great religious revival at Cane Ridge, Ky., his 
father’s old preaching ground and his boyhood home.
This movement, he stated, "was accompanied by that
alarming phenomenon called the jerks."

He described an awesome scene on his arrival at 
Cane Ridge. Approximately 25,000 people had collected
for the services. "The noise was like the roar of Niagara."
Preachers as well as the crowd were either exhorting,
singing, praying, crying or shouting. Finley was so
disturbed he ran into the woods. He stood on a stump 
and once again looked to the crowd. "My hair rose up
on my head."

As frightened and disturbed as he was by the emotional
display, he too came under the spell and was converted 
enroute home. He became a Methodist circuit rider, a
choice which brought intense problems as well as self satisfaction.

Years afterward when greatly troubled he would remember
the cabin he and Hannah built in the woods. "Though we
had but little, our wants were few, and we enjoyed 
our simple and homely possessions with a relish the
purse-proud aristocrat never enjoyed. No couple 
on earth lived happier or more contented."

Date Unknown

   In celebration of their silver wedding anniversary,
 Mr. and Mrs. T.E. Mahan received some two hundred 
guests at their home on Sunday afternoon from four
until six o'clock.  With the exception of Mrs. J.T.
Vallandingham, who is making her home in Charleston,
S.C. where Capt. Vallandingham is stationed, all members
of the wedding party were present, including Dr. and
Mrs. Chas. Mayhall of Harlan, Mr. and Mrs. E.C. Perkins
of Fort Thomas, Ky., Misses Mabel Ellison and Flora 
Adkins.  In the receiving line with the wedding
party was Miss Norma Jeanne Perkins, niece of the
hostess, wearing the bridal dress of ivory satin fashioned
 with a long train and trimmed in pearls.

For this festive occasion, the entire lower floor of
the Mahan home -- the same home in which they were 
married on December 17,1917--was beautifully decorated
with silvered hemlock.  In the hall a silver archway
of the hemlock and ornaments opened upon the stairway
intertwined with sprays of the silvered hemlock and
 interspersed with silver ornaments.

In the library where guests were received the silver
decorations were supplemented with a large standard 
of red roses. Assisting in the entertainment of guests
were Mrs. E.B. Stonesifer, Mrs. A.T. Siler, Miss Nell 
Moore and Mrs. J.B. Gatliff, Jr.

Pink roses were used with the silver in the music room
where Miss Jeanne Butcher, soprano, Mr. Gorman Siler, 
baritone, Mrs. R.B. Gillespie, violinist, accompanied
by Mrs. Dorothy Butcher, provided music throughout the afternoon.

Among the songs sung were "At Dawning" and "The
Sunshine of Your Smile", which were sung at the wedding.

In the living room decorations emphasizing the Christmas
season, included a large silvered Christmas wreath, 
ornaments and hemlock.Contrasting the silver hue,
lavender chrysanthemums arranged in tall baskets
were placed in the doorway to the solarium.

In the dining room the sisters of the hostess, Mrs.
N.A. Archer, Mrs. N.B.Perkins, Mrs. J.B. Gatliff, Sr.,
and Mrs. E.M. Gatliff alternately presided at the
antique silver services placed at each end of the
venetian lace covered table.White roses in a sliver
bowl, encircled by clusters of silver grapes and 
eucalyptus leaves, on a mirrored base made the centerpiece.
Silver ribbon streamers extended from the centerpiece 
and culminated in bows in each corner.

Guests were served refreshments consisting of wedding 
ices in slipper, bell and heart design, individual
wedding cakes, mints, nuts, coffee and tea. Assisting 
in the dining room were Mrs. Will Mahan and Mrs. A.W. Whitehead.

For the occasion Mrs. Mahan chose to wear a floor length
white chiffon dress with a lavender orchid.Others in 
the wedding party and friends assisting entertaining 
wore floor length dresses with corsages of gardenias.

At noon before the reception Mr. and Mrs. Mahan were
hosts at a luncheon at the Gentry Hotel with members 
of the wedding party as guests.Each was presented 
a gift by the hosts.

Date Unknown

Mrs. Grant Harmon Injured Again In Auto Accident

Mrs. Grant Harmon is in the Pennington Hospital,
London, where she is being treated for a broken
shoulder and other injuries suffered in an automobile 
accident, Saturday afternoon.Her sister, Mrs. Urey
Goodwin, also suffered serious injuries and is also in
 the Pennington Hospital.

Mrs. Harmon's daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. 
Eugene Murphy, were not seriously injured in the accident,
which occurred while the party was en route to Paducah, 
Ky., to visit Mr. Murphy's relatives.

This is the third accident in which Mrs. Harmon has been crippled.

A few years ago, she suffered a broken hip in an automobile
accident and had recovered enough to walk with crutches 
when she fell in a Corbin church.

She has never fully recovered from these injuries.

Saturday's accident was caused when a tire blew out
 on a gravel road.

Thurs. May 6, 1976

Man died in early morning accident

Clarence Ellison 23, was pronounced dead on arrival
at the Southeastern Kentucky Baptist Hospital in Corbin
early last Friday from injuries he received in an 
accident involving two pickup trucks.

According to Coroner Carl Paul, Ellison was pinned
beneath one of the trucks.The accident occurred on
 Hwy.92 near Jellico Creek at about 1:45 a.m.

Ellison was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Guy Ellison
 and was employed with Savoy Coal Co.

He is also survived by four brothers; Teddy Ellison,
Rommell Ellison, Alvin Ellison and Keith Ellison, 
all of Chicago, Ill.; two sisters, Mrs.Cynthia Madison
and Miss Charlotte Ellison, also of Chicago; and his
grandmother, Mrs. Ruth Moses.

Funeral services were held May 2 at the Ellison Funeral
 Home Chapel with the Rev. Mel Dahlgren officiating.

Burial was in Jellico Cemetery

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