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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.
T. T. Garrard
John Hays married a Callahan. He reported it was the year 1806,
Captain Amis and his company marched down the Upper Licks. Keinkade
wrote back to General Hugh White for reinforcements. Davidson
lived on the Middle Fork and also in Clay. Clay Davidson went
to help those on the North Fork. William Asher, grandson of Dillion
Asher, told me that his grandfather came to Red Bird in 1800.
John Gilbert came trapping when he first came to these parts.
He caught the beaver out of the beaver dam on Red Bird, where
Carter Holton now lives just above the mouth of Spring Creek
on the right hand side. He also went to the Middle Fork and caught
all the beaver at the mouth of Longs Creek. Jane Renfro, once
owned the site of Pineville, but Gibson who came from Virginia
owned them before him. James and Dough, Garrard, and Hugh White
pooled their issues, and it was in force when the war broke out,
and they had an agent to sell for all, usually about 50¢.
Grant said of the salt claims of Goose Creek people, "It
is just a claim and ought to be paid and would be paid someday,
but this is not the time to do it." Salt was worth a $1
a bushel when the works were closed down by the order of General
Buck. Mr. Thompson of Louisville was the commissioner who took
the proxy in 1863.
Jason W. Bolling
Manchester, Kentucky
April 8, 1898
I am a great-great-grandson of "Teneretta" Baker. My
great-grandfather was "Julius or Juder" Bob Baker.
He married the widow of John Amis. His son, John, married Lucinda
Amis, stepbrother and stepsister. He was my grandfather. His
sister, Susan, was my mother. "Teneretta" Baker came
to Buffalo Creek from Boyle County. He was the uncle of Robert
P. Letcher, Governor of Kentucky. Francis Clark was a cousin
of Robert Letcher. Dr. Abner Baker was a cousin of "Julius"
Bob Baker, also a cousin of Francis Clark. Francis Clark owned
40,000 acres of land in Jackson and Clay counties called the
Rutherford Survey, also another 6,000 acres called the Rutherford
Survey on Rockcastle River including where Mrs. Nantz McWhorter
from Big Racoon to Mrs. Nantz. "Juder" Bob was in the
War of 1812. William Neal was with him in the war, and Neal was
carried 15 miles to be buried by "Juder" Bob Baker.
"Smoker" Clark says Francis Clark was kin to the Harlans
and Robertsons.
Joseph G.
Morgan
Laurel Creek, Kentucky
April 9, 1898
I was born in Harlan County, March 23, 1827. My father was Jesse
Morgan, born in 1806. He was a son of Zachariah Morgan who came
from New River in Virginia to Harlan County before my father
could remember, perhaps in 1810. My grandfather was a son of
Hannah Morgan, a sister of General Daniel Morgan. His father
was John Benton. This same John Benton removed late to Estill
County and reared a family there. My great-grandmother, Hannah
Morgan, married in Virginia a man named William West. They came
to Harlan County with my grandfather, Zachariah Morgan, where
West died. They had two children, William and Polly. Her son,
William, moved to Clay County, and she came with him where she
lived until 1849, a very old woman, said to be 118. I was a married
man and had children when she died. I knew her well. My father
and grandfather removed from Harlan to what is now Leslie County
when I was a small boy. My father settled at Bunt Camp Creek,
and my grandfather, first below the mouth of John's Creek, then
bought land from David Garrard. We bought from the Laceys. We
went west and lived on Bull Skin. Hannah Morgan West is buried
there. She told me she was a sister of General Daniel Morgan
of the Revolutionary War. She had other brothers, viz, John,
James, William, and David. I have met Nathan of Lee County, Virginia,
a grandson of William Morgan, brother of David and Hannah Morgan
above mentioned. He told me the same story about my great-grandmother's
misfortune that she told me. He lived near Jonesville. The Morgans
of Whitley County are descendants of James Morgan mentioned above,
I think. I have talked with John Morgan of Lexington, and he
told me he was descended from the Morgan family aforesaid. I
heard him, and my father talked the matter over in Lexington
in 1846. They agreed that they were second cousins. I talked
with Daniel White's wife, and she said that her father, General
Daniel Morgan, of Fleming County was a lineal descendent of General
Daniel Morgan of Revolutionary War frame. There are Morgans in
Pulaski, Garrard, Lincoln, and other counties of Kentucky, all
descendants of this same family. Old Si Cockerill of Breathitt
told me that his mother was a daughter of one of General Daniel
Morgan's brothers. Zach Morgan was a Baptist preacher. (Dr. J.
C. Wyatt told me that his father-in-law was Abel Morgan, that
he was a brother of Jesse Morgan mentioned above, that he told
him that he was a second cousin of General John Morgan, also
that General John Morgan and General George Morgan (of the late)
were cousins. J. J. D. May 9, 1898.)
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