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Editor's Note:
Readers of The Kentucky Explorer have been introduced to the
Rev. John J. Dickey in past issues. Remember that he was a traveling
preacher throughout the eastern part of the state during the
years between 1880 and 1925. He helped to establish numerous
churches and at least two colleges. He was also a teacher and
a newspaper editor. However, his most enduring gift to us today
may well be his diary that he kept faithfully during some 50
years of his later life beginning in the 1880s. In all, over
6,000 pages written in his own hand make up this interesting
digest.
In this journal of his, Dickey often wrote down accounts of events
daily. Much of the material concerns his day to day life. However,
during the late 1890s he began to gather family history on various
families he met in his travels. We are offering these interviews
to our readers in the hope that they will be appreciated in the
sense that Rev. Dickey intended. These interviews were written
word for word as they were given to Rev. Dickey. Nothing has
been changed.
April 30,
1898
Manchester, Kentucky
I returned from a ten-day trip to Leslie and Perry counties traveling
over 100 miles. Bro. Ragan met me at Hyden with Bro. Taylor,
our pastor at Jackson. Sunday we had sacramental service. I preached
in the morning, Bro. Ragan in the afternoon, and Bro. Taylor
at night; before the Presbyterians.
Monday morning before daylight Bob Nichols shot Ballard Begley
in the back. He and Begley were playing cards in the courthouse.
Maggie Johnson, a lewd woman was with them. She was the concubine
of Nichols. Begley is still living, and Nichols and Ms. Johnson
are in jail.
Monday morning we went to Hazard where the brethren began a meeting.
I visited my nephew, J.B. Shock-ley, and his wife and child.
They withdrew from the church two years ago and greatly weakened
the congregation at Hazard, where he had been the leader. I do
not think they have accomplished much since. They seem happy
and cultivated and are still intensely religious.
I arranged with Bro. Sizemore to preach with me on Wooton's Creek
on Saturday afternoon before the 4th Sunday of each month. He
preached on the following Sunday morning and at Hyden Sunday
afternoon and night. I got a sawmill to come to the mouth of
Wooton's Creek this summer so we can build a schoolhouse large
enough for church purposes or a church in which we can teach
school. Bro. Walton, the Presbyterian preacher, has begun to
preach there monthly, and one of us will have to give up the
place. It is an old Methodist stand, but has been neglected.
Letch Sizemore accidentally shot James Begley Wednesday on Middle
Fork. I visited the boy Thursday afternoon.
My circuit is now 100 miles in extent. Beginning at Benge to
Manchester, ten miles; to Wooton's Creek, 40 miles; to Hyden,
six miles; to Manchester, 30 miles; and to Benge ten miles. There
are vast possibilities within these bounds. These people have
excellent blood in their veins hence stalwart bodies, keen intellects,
and susceptible to moral and religious impressions. From their
number will come men and women of distinction. God help me to
lead them toward Him. They need moral and intellectual culture.
God help me to provide it for them. I count it a great privilege
to help them work out their destiny. If my friends in the Bluegrass
could realize what the possibilities are of these people, they
would support the work and send more men and woman into it. But
they are blind to the situation and will not support those who
are willing to endure the toil and discouragements incident to
the prosecution of this work. But God will work out the problem
as speedily as He can since He too must rely upon agencies.
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