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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.
Wood Lyttle
Manchester, Kentucky
April 12, 1898
I was born in Lee County, Virginia, November 15, 1829 (1833?).
My father was James Lyttle. He was a son of David Lyttle of Russell
County, Virginia. My father removed to Harlan County, Kentucky,
in 1846 and settled just above Mt. Pleasant where we lived two
years then removed eight miles farther up the Clover Fork near
the old homestead of William Turner, one of the first settlers
of Harlan County. At that time he was 100 years old, and his
wife was the same age. They were both paralyzed, and both died
the same week when they were about 104 years old. They reared
a large family, perhaps 12 in number. One daughter married John
B. Clay who was murdered for his money in 1856. I saw him borrow
the money, $95. He was killed by unknown parties supposed to
be Joe Noland and Hezekiah Clem. They were prosecuted. D. Y.
Lyttle defended them. John Dishman and others prosecuted. They
were acquitted. Clem was hung in 1858 for killing Ben Irvine
in Mt. Pleasant. Lyttle and Dishman prosecuted. The trial excited
great interest. Clem's mother was Tupsey Hall, a sister of James,
Hezekiah, Francis Hall, and others. The Halls were an early family
and fighters and thieves. Tupsey Hall was a noted woman. I saw
her shoot a big buck in the ford at Mt. Pleasant. When the hunters
came up, she refused to give them part of it. Old Sammy Howard
killed John Hensley. David Y. Lyttle defended Howard and cleared
him. I rode behind Sammy Howard in Lee County, Virginia. He did
not mean to kill Hensley. He struck him with a little stick to
keep him from cutting him. Howard was a good, very old man.
Witches In
Harlan
From 1850 for several years witches infested Harlan County. One
of the witches was a sister of John B. Clay and daughter-in-law
of the original William Turner. Her husband was James Turner,
Sr. Their son, James, was the noted desperado of the mountains
of Kentucky. He continued his work through the war and was sent
to the penitentiary for life about 1869 for killing his uncles,
William and David Middleton, he and Andy Fields killed them in
ambush. Francis Pace (was), an accomplice, was also sent; he
had served two terms. He (James) had killed from 10 to 15 men.
He was in the 7th Kentucky, was also a guerrilla, killed men
on both sides for money. I shot him when 13 or 15 years old.
I have known him to drive 14 hogs from one man's pen in broad
daylight, in Harlan County, from Jonathan Lewis of Poor Fork,
and everybody was afraid to touch him. He burnt the courthouse
in broad daylight about 1865 or 1866. He cut a ham out of a live
cow of his uncle, Eldridge, and turned her loose and ate the
beef. He was lying out to escape arrest and died. He killed the
same man's sheep and hung or tacked the hide up at his gate.
The authorities called for help from the governor. He got up
a petition and compelled everyone to sign it, stating that troops
were not needed. The guns had been ordered to London but were
sent back to Frankfort, and the arms did not get any farther.
Old Aunt Dinah, a slave of the same William Turner, 104 years
old was another witch. (Turner was about 100 at the time.) Salim
Sturgeon, a white woman, lived as the concubine or wife of Negro
George, a slave of the same William Turner, who was the third
witch. It began by cattle dying and hairballs being found in
them, hide whole but the internal parts being shot to pieces;
horses died, hogs died, cows died, etc. Log heaps were made,
and all these were burned as a torture to the witches. The hairballs
were carried in people's pockets to show what happened. The people
were feared, the witches kept their pockets turned wrong side
outwards at night for safety. This prevented the jack o' lantern
from leading them. At shooting matches, if the gun did not hit
the mark, the contest was abandoned. The Middletons were especially
afflicted by the witches. Women, Negro boys, and sometimes men
were bewitched. The excitement was so intense that with torches
they would climb the Black Mountain to go to them on Greasy Creek
(now Leslie) who were afflicted with witches. They were doing
this to make merry with old Tom Wells. Guards were placed around
old William Turner who owned the slaves. He and his wife, who
were paralyzed, were ridden by the witches. They were sincere
in it.
The guard encircled the house about 500 times, so that no one
could come in, because it required four days to effect a cure.
If anyone inside the circle would give or sell as much as the
value of a pin, this broke the charm and no cure could be effected,
so no one was allowed to enter the circle so as to make the cure
certain. This circle crossed the state road, and to my personal
knowledge families were compelled to do without bread, because
they could not pass along the road to the mill. Negro women would
scream saying the witches were coming through the roof to them.
The pictures of the witches would be turned into horses and hitched
up to racks of fodder all night. This would seriously affect
their digestion the next day. Some of these Negro women told
me they pretended to be bewitched in order to keep from work.
Jim Turner, the desperado, shot a Negro man's head off because
he would not give up the keys to his master's meat house and
that just after freedom. The Negro man said, "I will die
before I will give them up." "Then you must die,"
said Turner. The Negro turned around, and Turner put the muzzle
of his gun to the back of his head and blew the top of it off.
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