USA > Kentucky > Lewis County > History of Lewis County, Kentucky > Part 3
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
kept in repair with gravel of the best limestone variety, which is abundantly distributed along the creek. This road can be kept in repair for $20 per mile, and if it was extended up the creek a distance of two miles, so as to top the Vance- burg and Tollesboro road at the bridge, the travel on it would be very largely increased and the pike would become a nice paying insti- tution. Under the present toll system, with the extension mentioned, the toll receipts would reasonably amount to $500 per year, leaving a net profit to the owner of $400 per year.
Cabin Creek was so named on account of the great number of Indian huts found along its banks, and while the name is not at all euphonious, it has clung to it for over one hundred years, and will probably be its name when Gabriel comes to wake up those who sleep there. Cabin Creek post-office was es- tablished by the Government in the year 1798, and was the only post-office outside of a large radius for the first forty years of the county's existence. Afterward Orangeburg was given a post-office, then Poplar Flat, and later still Tollesboro, so that the old Cabin Creek post- office is one of the oldest offices in the county. The mail was carried on horseback from Mays- ville to the mouth of Big Sandy once a week. By the way, our worthy fellow-countyman T. B.
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
Harrison, when a boy, carried the mail on this route one year. It was a dangerous route in those days on account of high water, and re- quired a boy of good nerve and sound judgment, both of which Mr. Harrison possessed to an extraordinary degree. His judgment, however, was better on the dangers lurking in a stream of high water than on a horse trade-to which George Featherkile can testify, if he is yet alive. This post-office has a feature in its history worthy of mention-it has never been a political office. During the twenty-four years of Re- publican administration it was kept almost all the time by a Democrat, and during the eight years of Mr. Cleveland's administration it has been kept all the time by a Republican. The postmaster at this place has uniformly been acceptable to the people, and they did not desire a change.
The first fifteen or sixteen dwellings built on the creek were built on almost precisely the same plan, varying only in size. They were built of logs and covered with clap-boards. All the lumber used in their construction was whip- sawed, there being at that time no other kind of lumber obtainable. They were usually 20 x 30 feet, and 112 stories high; the lower part was divided by a partition, leaving the front room 20 x 20 feet, in which was a large fire-
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
place, usually wide enough to admit a 5-foot backlog. The remaining 10 x 20 was divided into two small bedrooms, with a stairway between them. Along one side was an open porch, and at the end of the porch another log room, which was used as both kitchen and dining-room. In fact, up to the year 1837 every house on the creek was built on sub- stantially the same plan. In about the year 1837 or 1838 William Norwood made quite an addition to his house, and put weather-boarding over the old part, and painted the whole struc- ture. This was the first painted house on the creek, and remained so for about ten years, when Mr. Moses Given renovated and painted his house, where Mr. Daniel Farris now lives. Not one of these old dwellings is standing to- day that has not been done over and put in an unrecognizable shape. Quite a number have been torn down and a more modern structure put in their places. Several of them have been burned down by accident, and the remainder have been added to and modernized. Thus has passed away most of the old landmarks of Cabin Creek. Mr. John G. Fee and his followers made an effort to have the name changed from Cabin Creek to Glenville, but were unsuccessful. The people of the vicinity persisted in calling it "Feetown" in derision. Strangers, in passing
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
up and down the creek, would many of them get the idea that there were two places instead of one. They would get confused as to its location and distance away very naturally, but for quite a number of years this condition of affairs must be explained to all strangers when passing through. But in 1886 Mr. Thos. J. Tully, who was postmaster at Creek, succeeded in getting the name changed from Cabin Creek to Cottageville, and by the latter name it is now quite well known throughout the country.
During these good old times we were speak- ing of corn huskings were very popular and were events of much enjoyment. The corn would be gathered and thrown in a long ridge. The hands needed no invitation until the even- ing of the husking. Plenty of whisky would be on hand, and a bountiful supper would be prepared. The huskers would, usually, bring their wives with them, or, if he had no wife, his sister, and if no sister, then some other fellow's sister. The suppers were never eaten until the husking was all over. The women had to work hard to prepare a supper for seventy- five to one hundred men, women, and children. It was generally eaten between 11 and 12 P. M. Usually two captains would be selected of com- petitive strength, whose duty it was to divide the huskers into two lots, as nearly equal as
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
possible, and be captain over those of his own choosing.
The ridge of corn was then divided in the middle by laying a rail across it. All hands would then get on one side of the ridge so that the corn could be thrown on the other, and the race would begin. Of a moonlight night-and such nights were usually selected for the purpose -it was a most interesting sight to watch the white ears of corn flying across the pile like great flakes of snow. In a company of forty or fifty the stream of corn would be constant. As the pile of unhusked corn melted away the pile of husked corn grew larger, and as the whisky in the jug went down the spirits of the huskers went up; and as the rail in the center was approached the hilarity would increase. The finale came when the successful side had reached the center mark. Their captain would be lifted up by some of his men and tossed on the captain of the other side. Then would begin a trial of strength between the two, while their men would cheer and yell until the hills for miles would ring with their shouts. Usually the affair would terminate not in favor of the strongest, but in favor of the one who had been most temperate in handling the jug.
And now for the supper-meats of all kinds; butter, milk, and cream to overflowing; great
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
stacks of apple and pumpkin pies; wheat and corn bread; tea and coffee-all eaten at one course and finished up with hot biscuits and butter, sweet milk, and maple molasses- enough to make one's mouth water to think of it, even at this late date.
Emigration from Cabin Creek to the Western States began to be frequent along in the forties. William Norwood and his son James went to Washington, Iowa. David and Melville Maple; John, James, and George Brown went to Wa- pella, Ill. James Tolle went to Missouri, and quite a number of others sought homes in the more level lands of the West. James Norwood married the oldest child of Captain Samuel Ireland, and a sister of Judge William Ireland, late of Ash- land, Ky. During the fifties the spirit of emi- gration struck the younger generation, and quite an exodus took place. Daniel, Samuel, and Thomas Barkley, sons of Wm. Barkley, went to Wapella, Ill .; Harvey Gidding to Champaign County, Ill .; John L. Tully to Ohio; Benjamin and Moses Given and families to Fleming County, Ky .; and Thornton Farrow to Piatt County, Ill. Cabin Creek has, since its first settlement, been remarkable for the homogeneousness of its population. The entire population has been, and is yet, purely Ameri- can.
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
In 1807 Ramsey and Young put up a water mill and built the first dam across the creek. This mill passed into the hands of several parties without any material change being made in it in the way of improvement. In about 1836 John D. Tully bought or traded for the property, and did considerable improvement during his two or three years of ownership; after which he sold it to Mr. Wm. Norwood, who changed it into a five-story flouring mill and put in a steam engine, the first one ever operated on the creek. James Norwood, in the year 18-, put up a sash saw mill, which was the first mill of the kind for miles around, and, together with the steam engine at the flouring mill, attracted a great deal of attention and became quite a place of resort for the people of the neighbor- hood. The flouring mill, however, was .short- lived. Improved methods of converting wheat into flour forced it to stop, and, although several efforts were afterward made to change it and put it in shape for successful work, it was never a paying institution. Minor and John Barrett did considerable work on it. They rubbed the rust off the old engine and put in a saw mill to be operated by steam, which might have paid, at that time, had it not been for the intro- duction of improved machinery, both in the way of steam power and saw mills, but steam
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
engines underwent such an improvement about this time that such as were manufactured by Mr. James Jacobs in Maysville, Ky .- and this was a Jacob's engine-could not compete with the new engine, and were forced to idleness. New methods of converting logs into planks also came into general use and drove out the old, clumsy sash saw.
The Barretts, like their predecessors, lost money in the operation, notwithstanding they were good business men, industrious, frugal, and upright. When the great car of improvement comes along it crushes all who do not adopt its methods. Some men are fortunate in getting on the right side of these changes-make for- tunes out of them-and then imagine that their own shrewdness has achieved the result; when, in truth, they have been only the passive recipients of favors, bestowed by circumstances with which they had nothing whatever to do. Others happen to get on the wrong side, and are crushed under the massive wheels of im- provement.
The Barretts sold out to Mr. Andrew Blount, from Nicholas County, upon whose hands the old mill sank further and further into decay, and seemed a weight upon the shoulders of its owner. The property then passed into the hands of Asa McNeal, who had learned from
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
the experience of his predecessors that the day for improving and operating such a mill was past, and that nothing could now be done with it more than to utilize the water power, al- ready belonging to it, and use it as a grist mill. While Mr. McNeal operated the mill in such a way as to lose no money on it, it proved a very costly experience to his son, Johnson McNeal.
In November, 1861, Johnson, then a young man just in the prime of life, met with an acci- dent that rendered him a cripple for life. He is living yet, and enjoying as good health as most men of his age, but has not been able to walk a step since the accident. When a boy he was of a quiet disposition, loving books and solitude much better than company, and this part of his nature has had much to do with lessening the burdens of his confinement for the space of thirty-five years. He is now fifty-six years old, and, while his hair is gray, his appearance, otherwise, is that of a man much younger. Books are his associates, and, having a good memory, he is, to-day, among the most intelli- gent men in the county. The accident from which he is suffering could so easily have been avoided that thoughtlessness alone is to be charged with it. It was not one of those calam- ities that come upon men sometimes in such a manner that no human ingenuity or forethought
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
could have avoided it, but was the direct result of a want of care, not only on his part, but upon the part of those who were in the mill with him at the time. He was sitting on the lower one of a large pair of buhrstones, dressing it, and had raised the upper stone by means of a large wooden screw, fixed, permanently, for the purpose, and so arranged that when the stone was raised it could be swung around so as not to be over the lower stone. By this arrangement it was only necessary to raise the stone a few inches and then swing it around, leaving the lower stone free to be worked on, and obviating all danger. Instead of doing this, he, with the help of his brother James and the miller, Enos P. Fuller, had raised the upper stone, weighing, probably, one thousand lbs., sufficiently high for him to sit under it and work without swinging it around. The screw em- ployed was of birch wood, about 4 or 412 inches in diameter, with a good, heavy spiral, and had, when new, been of sufficient strength to safely sustain such a weight; but it was very old, had probably been exposed to the action of the air for thirty years, and had in a large measure lost its strength. Without a moment's warning this ponderous stone stripped the threads from the screw and came down on young McNeal, crushing him in a frightful manner. By almost
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
superhuman efforts, his brother and Mr. Fuller, using levers, lifted the stone and dragged him from under it, to all appearances dead; but, after suffering intensely, and struggling between life and death for three or four months, he so far recovered as to know that immediate death would not be the result, but that he was doomed to the life of a helpless invalid. And for thirty- five years he has been deprived of the use of his lower limbs; yet, in spite of this affliction, he seems to enjoy life as well as many others, owns a good farm, lies in bed and transacts his own business; reads, smokes his pipe, and takes life easy. The old mill finally passed from McNeal's hands, and became the property of J. B. Bradley; and, at last, in August, 1886, it crashed to the ground during a heavy storm, and thus disappeared from Cabin Creek one of its oldest landmarks, "Norwood's Old Mill."
From about 1850 to 1862 there were three water grist mills on the creek. To-day there is none. The steam engine has driven them to idleness, and hence to decay.
The public schools of Cabin Creek have probably kept pace with other schools of the county. Before the creek was bridged it seemed necessary to make the creek district boundary lines. Since the bridges have been built the reason for making the creek the verge of school
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
districts instead of making it the center no longer exists. Prior to building the bridges, and while the creek was the district line, schoolhouses were built as nearly in the center as possible. This arrangement placed them away from the creek, and hence away from the pike and the denser population; and, although many efforts have been made to have the unlucky combina- tion changed, and the schoolhouses brought out and placed on the pike, none has ever been successful. Our county school superintendents seem to have seen no way to make the change agreeable to all concerned, for, while it would be a great benefit to a large majority of the patrons, it would be a present injury to the minority, and minorities have their rights. The disadvantage and injury to the minority would be only temporary, for what they would lose by having the schoolhouse at a greater distance from them, they would more than gain by improved schoolhouses and renewed interest on the subject of education, and, no doubt, ten years after the change they would not wish to return to the old state of affairs. Any change that will encourage the cause of education generally should be made, even if there are a few objections.
Cottageville should have a schoolhouse by all means, but unless its citizens pull loose from
5
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
the school district on which they are located, and build a school of their own, they are cut off from all hope while the main creek remains a divisional line. This little village of fifteen families, having a church house, two stores, two grist mills, post-office, blacksmith shop, a physician, and resident farmers, is incomplete without a schoolhouse; and a change making it the center of a school district, instead of plac- ing it on the verge of two, would awaken a new interest in the subject of schools, and the whole neighborhood would feel the good in- fluence. For the benefit of this quiet little vil- lage, permit us to call the attention of those in authority in these matters to this opportunity, here offered, to do its people a lasting good, and, at the same time, push forward the general cause of better schools.
Lewis County has been organized as one of the counties of the State for more than one hundred years, and during this time it has been repre- sented in the State Legislature thirty years by citizens of Cabin Creek. This is much over its pro rata, and would indicate that lawmakers thrive best in a limestone country having a clay subsoil. Benjamin Given served one term; Joshua Given, one term; Clayton Bane, one term; Thomas Marshall, three. terms; Uriah McKellup, one term; John L. Fetch, one term; Rufus Emmons,
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
one term; A. J. Hendrickson, one term; Frank Hull, one term; Isaiah Grigsby, one term; Dr. Wm. Bowman, two terms; and A. D. Pollett, one term. There are only about forty-five square miles of territory tributary to Cabin Creek, which is just one-tenth the area of the county; yet this small territory has furnished one-third of the county's representatives. Coming to the , office of county judge, we find but one ac- credited to Cabin Creek-Thomas Henderson, of Poplar Flat-and making a mathematical cal- culation, we find that nine county judges should have been sent up from this section. This ex- cess of lawmakers, and extraordinary lack of county judges, coming from this particular part of the county, evidently teaches this lesson, that lawmakers, generally, must get some one else to explain the laws they have made.
Cabin Creek, like all other sections of the county, was violently divided in sentiment when the Civil War broke out. Quite a number of its citizens saw cause to oppose the coercion of the seceded States to the authority of the President-elect, and seemed to treat the mat- ter as one which was yet a subject of argument. Men of good moral standing-intelligent and upright, patriotic in every sense of the word- who would not consider for a moment a propo- sition to disobey lawful authority-failed to
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consider the fact that the time for argument was over when the President-elect of the United States was denied the right of authority over a certain portion of its members. It must not be considered that those who opposed coercion were rebels, and desired a divided government. True, this epithet was applied to many of them during the excitement of actual war; but with the return of peace came a return of greater liberality, and society very soon came back to its old conditions of good feeling. While the strife lasted, however, the feeling of animosity between those favoring the war and those oppos- ing it was very bitter, and manifested itself many times in unpleasant scenes. It is remark- able, and at the same time praiseworthy, to note how rapidly this bad feeling passed away. A very short time after the close of the war differences vanished and neighbors were neigh- bors again.
Cabin Creek was fully up with other por- tions of the county in furnishing soldiers for the Union Army. The 4th, 10th, 16th, and 54th regiments were all represented. Most of these escaped the dangers of war, returned to their old homes, and probably one-fourth of them are yet living in the same neighborhood from which they enlisted. Fully one-fourth of them failed to answer to the home roll-call, the re-
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
maining half have either emigrated to other parts of the country or crossed over the River of Death. Casualties and violence belong to the history of Cabin Creek, as well as to other portions of Lewis County. Every county in every State of the Union, unfortunately, has these things to contend with, and no history would be complete that omitted them. His- tories should go in pairs-one should be written by a friend and one by an enemy. The friend, following the impulses of his love and sympathy, is inclined to enlarge upon everything praise- worthy, and to minimize everything of an oppo- site character. Thus he shows us the place and the people of whom he writes, not in their true light, but presents them with enlarged virtues; while their vices are either hidden entirely or so bound around with palliating apologies as to leave an impression on the mind of the reader far from correct. If we read only history written by a friend we lose much information to which we are, of right, entitled, and which belong to a full knowledge and understanding of the places and persons written of. History should be truth; and while it may be unpleasant to make record of crime, when speaking of home and home people, yet it must be remembered that the reader is entitled, not only to the truth, but to the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
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During the winter of 1856, probably in January. Brigadier General Thomas Marshall was shot and instantly killed by John Tyler. The shooting took place in the yard of Mrs. Gray, on the headwaters of Clear Creek, a small stream emptying into Cabin Creek about one-fourth of a mile below Ebenezer Church. The circumstances surrounding the shooting were of such a nature as to deprive Marshall almost entirely of the sympathy of the neighbor- hood, and but little effort was made to capture Tyler, who made his escape and was never brought to trial. Marshall was impetuous and overbearing, and especially to those who would not readily yield to his authority. Tyler was a stern, uncompromising man, easily insulted, and revengeful, and both men were strangers to fear. They had had a difficulty about the measurement of some land, during which Mar- shall struck Tyler across the left temple with a heavy cedar cane, the small limbs of which had been left about a half inch long, and then sharpened. The blow was a savage one. The blood flowed from the wounds made by the sharp knobs on the cane in torrents, and to add to Tyler's rage, Marshall's men, of whom he had three or four with him at the time, would not let Tyler get hold of him, or the trouble would have been settled on the spot. Tyler,
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History of Lewis County, Kentucky
finding that he could do nothing with Marshall at that time, went immediately home and got his gun, and then went on the hunt of his adversary, and, as has been stated before, found hin at the widow Gray's, just in the dusk of the evening. He took no advantage of Marshall, but immediately notified him that one of them must die that evening, and told Marshall to get ready. Marshall took him at his word, and went hastily into the house and got his rifle and came out with it presented towards Tyler. Tyler fired, and Marshall fell, mortally wounded. Just as he fell, he exclaimed, "My God, he has killed me," and never spoke afterward. Thomas Marshall was a man of but few kind impulses, and rendered assistance to the needy only to show his superiority. He was a man of considerable wealth, and conse- quently had influence; was chosen three times to represent his county in the Legislature, and was a boastful, but efficient, representative.
In October, 1859, George W. Bovard struck Jack Johnson on the head with a stone, fron the effects of which he died in about twenty- four hours. This unfortunate occurrence took place at Brown's Run schoolhouse during the progress of a debate among the boys of the neighborhood. Johnson had been to the mouth of Cabin Creek on some business, and had
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been induced to drink of the whisky sold there. The mouth of Cabin Creek is in Mason County, about three miles from the crossing of the Lewis County line, and was known by the name of the Dead Fall for miles around; and, indeed, a more appropriate name could not have been found. It proved a dead fall to many a poor fellow, Jack Johnson among the number. He came to the schoolhouse on the evening referred to in a maudlin state of intoxication, and behaved in such a manner that Bovard, in a gentle way, undertook to quiet him. But Johnson became more boisterous than ever, and instead of quieting down, took offense at Bovard's re- marks, and, drawing a long knife, made as though to cut him. A bystander told Bovard to get out of his way, that Johnson had a knife. Bovard backed away from him until obstructed by the schoolhouse, when he suddenly stooped down and picked up a rock, weighing about two pounds, and struck Johnson on the head, just over the left ear. Johnson fell unconscious, and died within twenty-four hours. Previous to this time Johnson had been in the employ of Mr. George Rowland as a farm hand. He was a member of the Christian Church, and had behaved himself in the most exemplary manner during his entire stay in the neighborhood. Bovard had an examining trial before Magis-
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