Fleming

Disappearing Clyde

While I was in Kentucky last week I took some pictures in Fleming. One of them was of Dr. Akers home because it was part of the site where the old Elementary school was. Here is a story that my cousin, Nancy, wrote after she saw this picture.

This house looks like it is in the place where the old wooden Fleming Elementary School stood. I attended grades 1(1950-51) to part of the 4th (1953-1954) grades there. The new Fleming Neon Elementary School was opened during my 4th grade of school. The school was so old that my grandmother, Nancy Harris Cole Draughn had attended there. I think Kay Mullins also attended.

During the third grade, my teacher, and cousin, Mary Jo Craft got married and moved with her husband. They didn't hire a replacement. We were moved to the principal's, Mrs. Wormsly, 7th grade class. Each third grade student was assigned to a seventh grade student and we sat in the seat with them.

Clyde, one of the seventh grade students, often couldn't do the work that the seventh grade students did. He would get up and go to the first or second grade class and work there. One day Mrs. Wormsly rang the bell to announce that it was time for recess. We all went out to play. When we went back inside, Clyde wasn't in his seat. Mrs. Wormsly sent me to look for him in the other classrooms. I couldn't find him. The teacher sent a couple of the older boys to go hunt for Clyde and to be sure to check the cave up on the hill beside the school. We all knew that the cave was off limits. They came back and still couldn't find Clyde. Mrs. Wormsly decided that he must have decided to go home.

Later, one of the boys held up his hand and asked permission to go to the restroom. He came running back in to the classroom and said he had found Clyde. We had outhouses instead of inside restrooms. The boy said there was a voice coming out of the outhouse hole, "Help me. Help me. I've fallen in." Poor old Clyde had stood up on the wooden double seater and was so slim that he fell right in. A couple of the boys got a rake and stuck it down in the hole. When they pulled him out, they threw him in the creek that ran between the school and the Coal Company owned Sweet Shop. After drying off some, Clyde DID go home.

There were two outhouses--one for girls and one for boys. After Halloween, when we came back to school we would never know where we would find the outhouses. Once some pranksters had some how lifted them and placed them on the roof of the school.

As an elementary school fifth grade teacher for five years, and an elementary school librarian for over 29 years, I had many story times. Instead of reading a story to the class, I would often tell them stories of the mountains that I love. Disappearing Clyde was the most requested story.

Fleming

Monday, April 27, 2009

Joel Ellis Wright & Eliza Agnes Bates
Mack and Linda at the cemetery where Joel Ellis Wright & Eliza Agnes Bates are buried.
I had general directions on where to find Joel and Eliza's graves. It so happened while I was with Mack and Linda on our hunt for Aunt Annie's grave that Mack remembered it was a cemetery I was looking for. It was on our way to the first Potter cemetery we were going to visit. He remembered and pulled in to show me.
Eliza, Joel & SusanEliza, Joel & Susan.
It is on 119. If you are coming from Kona and make a left onto 119 going toward Jenkins, there is a road on the left that is labeled "119 Circle." And it does just that circles around a group of houses along the road and comes back out again to main 119. In about the middle of the circle up behind the first row of houses is a small cemetery.
Joel Ellis Wright's original stone is in one piece. There is a large footstone at the back of this grave with the initials "J.W."
The Letcher County Historical Society put in this marker in front of Joel's marker.
Eliza's stone is broken in two with the top part leaning against the original stone.
The historical society put in a marker for Eliza, too.
Susan Venters was actually Susan Mullins at her death. She was Susan Wright at her birth. Susan was the daughter of Joel and Eliza. Her stone used to be quite tall. It is broken and the top half is leaning against the base of the stone.
Susan first married Alexander Venters. They divorced. She then married Joshua Mullins, my great grandfather. They did not stay together, but did not divorce as far as I know. Susan is almost always referred to as "Susan Venters" even in places where her maiden name should be used. I wrote a blog about her which you can look for by using the box in the upper left hand corner and typing in her name. She is the one who tried to poison Joshua. I also followed Alexander to see where he went and I believe that is in the story, too. I was glad to find that Susan was buried by her parents.This is Susan's footstone. It, too, is behind her stone with the initials "S.V."This is the stone of Solomon Wright, the son of Joel and Eliza. He was killed in the Civil War. The Letcher County Historical Society put this marker up.There are quite a few other graves which are only marked with rocks for headstones and footstones. I don't know if anyone knows who might be in these graves or not. If it isn't set down somewhere, then we will probably never know who they were. I don't know the name of this cemetery. I have just called it C Joel Ellis Wright Cemetery in my albums.
Posted by Karen at 4/27/2009 02:13:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Bates, Wright

Joel Ellis Wright & Eliza Agnes Bates

Linda at the cemetery where Joel Ellis Wright & Eliza Agnes Bates are buried.

I had general directions on where to find Joel and Eliza's graves. It so happened while I was with Linda on our hunt for Aunt Annie's grave. It was a cemetery I was looking for. It was on our way to the first Potter cemetery we were going to visit.

Eliza, Joel & Susan



Eliza, Joel & Susan.

It is on 119. If you are coming from Kona and make a left onto 119 going toward Jenkins, there is a road on the left that is labeled "119 Circle." And it does just that circles around a group of houses along the road and comes back out again to main 119. In about the middle of the circle up behind the first row of houses is a small cemetery.

Joel Ellis Wright's original stone is in one piece. There is a large footstone at the back of this grave with the initials "J.W."

The Letcher County Historical Society put in this marker in front of Joel's marker.

Eliza's stone is broken in two with the top part leaning against the original stone.

The historical society put in a marker for Eliza, too.

Susan Venters was actually Susan Mullins at her death. She was Susan Wright at her birth. Susan was the daughter of Joel and Eliza. Her stone used to be quite tall. It is broken and the top half is leaning against the base of the stone.

Susan first married Alexander Venters. They divorced. She then married Joshua Mullins, my great grandfather. They did not stay together, but did not divorce as far as I know. Susan is almost always referred to as "Susan Venters" even in places where her maiden name should be used. I wrote a blog about her which you can look for by using the box in the upper left hand corner and typing in her name. She is the one who tried to poison Joshua. I also followed Alexander to see where he went and I believe that is in the story, too. I was glad to find that Susan was buried by her parents.

This is Susan's footstone. It, too, is behind her stone with the initials "S.V."




This is the stone of Solomon Wright, the son of Joel and Eliza. He was killed in the Civil War. The Letcher County Historical Society put this marker up.




There are quite a few other graves which are only marked with rocks for headstones and footstones. I don't know if anyone knows who might be in these graves or not. If it isn't set down somewhere, then we will probably never know who they were. I don't know the name of this cemetery. I have just called it C Joel Ellis Wright Cemetery in my albums.

Seldom Wright Price

I first found Seldom Wright when I was going through Green Acres Cemetery. She had no tombstone, just one of those little metal markers that the cemetery or funeral home puts up.


I didn't know who Seldom was or if she were related. Actually, with that name, I wasn't sure if Seldom were male or female. I didn't know is it was a relative, but the name gave me a chuckle so I snapped it.

There are a couple of stories I wrote about Seldom. You can find them if you go to the box and the top of the blog homepage and type in Seldom Wright.


I was in Letcher county doing more work. I took Linda Whitt to show her the graves of Annie PotterBentley and John Vint Bentley. That is when I noticed that Seldom's tombstone had been erected.

The story of her naming is on the back of her tombstone.

When I got to Letcher County on my last research trip, I met Linda Whitt. I picked her up, and we drove to Green Acres so I could show her Annie Potter Bentley's grave. Annie's brother, Reuben, is one of Linda's grandpas. That is how we are related.

Annie's grave is very easy to find since you can drive up the paved road at the cemetery. You can park, walk up another paved path. She and her husband, John Vint Bentley, are buried right beside the path. It is a section where many of the graves from Whitaker that were moved to Green Acres were placed. While we were standing there talking, I noticed that a stone had finally been placed for Seldom.

I took these pictures of her stone. The story of her name was put on the back of her stone.

April Fool's

Now if I had been thinking, I would have run that me and my sisters picture today. Oh well.

I got a note from one of Aunt Nettie's granddaughters. It made me think of that beautiful picture of Aunt Nettie that I think Uncle Jimmy Cole must have taken. He took so many beautiful pictures of the family.

This one is Aunt Nettie's children: Virginia, Georgia, Billie, Hiram, Otho and Laura

Nina Pratt Mullins - a beautiful family

I started to title this "I met a new cousin -- sort of..." but it was so close to another title that I did which got me several angry emails that I changed my mind so that I wouldn't jinx this story.

The person I met isnt' exactly my cousin, but he is a cousin of my cousins and he likes doing his family tree. He has shared some of his history with me.

My dad had two brothers and one sister. They were Lonnie, Jesse, Vera and James (my dad). My uncle Jesse was one of my favorite uncles. I loved going over to stay all night with them. I used to love to sit and listen to him lead the songs at church. When you are a kid you don't know who made you related to an aunt or uncle -- they just are your aunts or uncles, so I never felt like this was my uncle and that was his wife. I usually loved them both regardless who was the blood relative.

Jesse, J.D., Lonnie & Vera

So, I love my Aunt Nina, too. I remember staying with them for a week when I was probably 5. I didn't know how to ride a bicycle when I went, but I was flying around on one when I went home. I remember Aunt Nina made hot chocolate from the recipe on the Hershey can. My mom was a great cook, but I think we used Nestle chocolate that you stirred into white milk and maybe we heated it up. I just don't have a memory of mom making us hot chocolate. I never see a Hershey's can of cocoa that I don't think of that hot chocolate that Aunt Nina made. I remember that week that I stayed that Aunt Nina made us Kool-aid to drink. It was grape and she put real lemonade in it so there were bits of lemon in it. We had orange Kool-aid on Saturdays with popcorn as we watched the old Tarzan Johnny Weismueller movies, but even Kool-aid was special at Aunt Nina's.

Uncle Jesse & Aunt Nina at our Mullins reunion.

I love to hear Aunt Nina tell a story. I love her laugh. I don't see her much now that she and her family have moved from Ohio to Colorado, but I still think of her often.

I got an email this week asking for some information on a Basil Sisk. I first thought, boy does that person have the wrong woman -- surely Basil must be someone I just have as a married in person who is 7 generations from me. But when I looked it was from Aunt Nina's family.

Aunt Nina had a sister named Madeline. She was married to Leonard Salyers. Now I knew they weren't my "blood" relatives, but we called them Aunt Madeline and Uncle Leonard just the same, and they felt like family. I saw Aunt Madeline last year at Aunt Lake's funeral in Whitesburg. She was pretty as a picture. I believe she someone has found that "Honey, I shrunk the aunt" ray to use on her because she is tiny, tiny, tiny.

I have tried to search out each of my cousin's families so that if they want their family history, it won't be so one-sided from me.

Nina Margaret Pratt was born on December 8, 1917 in Letcher County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Canary Madelyn Sisk and Talmadge Pratt.

Talmadge Pratt was born on December 15, 1894 in Piney Creek, Allegheny County, North Carolina. In 1900 he was six years old living with his father, George, his brother Harley and his Aunt Mary Pratt. In 1910 Harley and Talmadge were still in Piney Creek with their father, George. George was 70 years old.

Some time before 1920 Talmadge had made his way to Letcher County where he had married Canary Madelyn Sisk who was from Virginia.

Canary was the daughter of James Anderson Sisk and Sarah Bythinia "Sally" Lyons. James was an engineer for the railroad. He and Sally had nine children: Wiley, Canary, Gertrude, Nelly, Verner, Golden, Roland, Basil and Hazel. By 1920 James was working in the coal mines. Wiley was married, but listed with his parents at Robinson, Wise County, Virginia. Gertrude was married and living with her parents. Golden, Roland, Basil, and Hazel were still single. Velma, Wiley's bride, and Ballard Beamer, Golden's husband, were in the household, also.

Canary and Talmadge were in their own home at 184 Hemphill Road. Talmadge was listed as 23, Canara as 21. Nina was 2 and baby Madolin was 9 months old. Also in their household was Verna Sisk, Canary's sister, and a boarder by the name of Elizabeth Yonts, who was a 19 year old widow.

In 1921 Talmadge Frankin Pratt was born followed by Charles Lloyd Pratt on January 12, 1923.

On January 17, 1923 Canary Madelyn Sisk died from bronchial pneumonia. Nina was six years old with three little siblings.

Talmadge married a second time to Nora Quillen. I really haven't worked out who her parents were yet. They had a daughter, June.

When I think of Nina separately as a woman, I think of her as a threesome with Nina, Madeline and June.

What I had never seen was pictures of Aunt Nina as a child or any of her family. My request for information on Basil Sisk led me to treasures from Richard, a cousin of Aunt Nina's through Canary's sister, Nelly. Let me show you what beautiful pictures that he sent to me:

Sarah Sisk family portrait taken about 1903 – James was apparently at work
Back row: Canary, Sarah (sitting), Verna, Wiley
Front row: Nellie, Golden, Gertrude

James and Sarah Sisk family portrait taken about 1911 – oldest child Wiley had been drafted for World War I
Standing in back: Verna, Canary, Gertrude, Nellie, Golden
Front row: Basil, James, Roland, Sarah, Hazel

Canary Madelyn Sisk Pratt and her daughter, Nina Margaret Pratt Mullins.

Madeline Pratt Saylers and her sister, Nina Margaret Pratt Mullins.

I cannot thank Richard enough for sharing these beautiful pictures.