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KEATON FORKSubmitted by
Wayne Wright ROADS, ETC., ON KEATON FORK IN JOHNSON COUNTY The generation of youngsters today will probably not want to believe what I am about to say about the roads as I have known them. The old road which is only a scar showing in a few places now, crossed Keaton Creek no less than fifteen times and the worst thing about it was there were no bridges. When the creek was swollen it was either cross it on a good horse or wait till the waters ran down. The county road was only dirt, mud, or rocks. The road work was done by the male citizens of varying age. Each male voter was supposed to work 5 days per year on the road. Tools used were usually mattocks, shovels or goose-neck hoe to fill ditches and mud holes. At the time of my childhood perhaps an average of two wagons per week would pass. A child could have safely gone to sleep anywhere in the road. When the oilfield opened up a lot of heavy machinery, pipe, etc. was hauled by mule teams and often sometimes there would be 10 to 15 yoke or oxen to one load. That meant 20 to 30 head of cattle which would often weigh as much as the load. Indeed I saw 10 pairs of oxen pulling a Star drilling rig with 5 pair pulling sidewise to keep the rig from turning over. Booker and Paris Moore, John Griffith, Nelse Sturgill, Levi Miles were a few of the drivers. At the present time the highway is black topped and even, a dog doesnt feel safe crossing the road now. PROGRESS WHICH THE WRITER HAS WITNESSED IN 61 YEARS I have seen the lighting system develop from a pine torch stuck in the crevice between jam rocks, to the oil lamp, the gas light and to the present electric lights. I have also seen and eaten food cooked over a fire made of wood and have seen the different stages up to the pressure cookers waterless cookers, fireless cookers and so on. I have also seen and fired the old muzzle loading rifle and have seen the progress down to the automatic rifle, etc: I have lived from the horse and buggy days up to the auto, airplane, jet plane and atomic powered submarine. I believe I have lived to witness one of the most remarkable periods in the development of the human race. Times have changed from the day when doctors rode horseback over all kinds of trails at all hours of the day and night and said "I have ridden 3 horses down today and am now riding a mule." I listened to the first "talking machine" which was brought to Keaton by a man named Dick Fyffe. The machine had 4 tubes about inch in diameter and something like 4 foot long, with a pair of hooks to put in the ears. He charged 5¢ per tune and 4 people could listen. The music and words were faintly audible. In this remarkable community a stranger was always welcome and considered a gentleman until he proved otherwise. The people were located in the north eastern part of the county and seldom had contact with the law. I know of a few deputies being placed on the creek but usually starved out for want of anything to do except collect taxes. Usually if somebody got out of place too far some good citizen would show him where he was wrong. Yes, I have seen the job of washing clothes progress from the days of the battling stick through the washboard & tub days on through the gasoline powered washing machine to the automatic washer and dryer. Ironing go through the flat iron, the charcoal iron, the gasoline iron, the electric iron to the electric roller ironing machine. SCHOOL ON KEATON FORK OF BIG ELAINE in JOHNSON COUNTY The scattered populaton of Keaton had an intense drive to see their children get an education. To this end, they, banded together and erected a log school building with a woodburning fireplace. Of course this was not too comfortable, but the population was of sturdy pioneer stock who braved any kind of hardships to a learning, as people called it in early days. This building was located on the Thomas Rose farm about quarter mile above where the present school now stands. To make things as good as possible under the circumstances, the teacher huddled the children around the fire and taught them their ABC's. Beginners were first taught to recognize the letters of the alphabet, A to Z - and their respective places. And at the same time were taught to count by 1's to 100, by 2's to 100 and by 5's and 10's ______?_____ print after the art of counting was mastered there were spelling classes where they were taught to spell such familiar words as cat, dog, rat, pig, etc. At a date somewhere around 1875 the population increased and a larger log school building was erected near, what is known as the Short Branch. In this school building such teachers as Eli Diles and Florence Holbrook taught. Then as times improved and population increased the county of Johnson erected a frame school building and I think Jim Holbrook was the contractor. The lumber was all planed by hand-planes. The same Jim Holbrook erected a frame school building on the head of the creek.
The first schools of the mountains were two or three months per year later was increased to 5 months. About 1906 they increased to 6 months and later on a few years it was extended to 7 months. During the early days of the 19th century citizens would make up a donation among people who had children with an ambition to get ahead. Their money was used to employ a teacher to teach what was termed a writer school or subscription school. They taught penmanship along with the 3 R's. Sometimes the community would make up enough money to hire a singing school teacher to teach real music. Usually somebody like Prof. Elam would teach at Flat Gap in a large frame building which still stands. Many ambitious students were taught how to become leaders of the commonwealth. Such men as Fred Vaughan and Caloway Hall and Alonzo Wright were taught by Prof. Elam. Prof. C.S. Holbrook taught extra terms at Redbush. Students who attended these schools paid a monthly fee as tuition plus board if they were far enough from school that they couldnt walk back and forth. People near those centers usually looked forward to making a little pin money keeping boarders. Among those citizens were Haden Hamilton and Napoleon Williams. Such men as Dr. John W. Lester, Dr. H. R. Skaggs, Dr. Elbert Skaggs, Dr. Sanford Wright and many other worthy citizens attended the Redbush school during winter terms. Dr. John Dorton also attended this school. Dr. Sanford Wright was in Mogoffin County when World War I began and was drafted along with boys from that county. He was going along with his training as "Buck" private when one of the officers who had known him in college met up with him. He asked Dr. Wright," What are you doing here as a private?" Wright replied," I was drafted as private." Needless to say, he soon was first Lieutenant: LOWER KEATON SCHOOL GROUNDS AND GAMES PLAYED THERE The new schoolhouse was located in a small bottom along the creek with the county road running along between the creek and the house. At that time there was little traffic along this road to interfere with any kind of games which children wished to play. There at this time 10 big virgin trees standing on the grounds which furnished an abundance of shade as well as chestnuts for children to amuse themselves with. They often played "Hull Gull" with the delicious nuts. In case my readers fail to understand the term "Hull Gull" let me explain briefly that it was a game of chance in which players held a number of objects hidden in his hand. He or She would approach someone and say "Hull Gull". If the other person wanted to take a chance he would guess at the number held and if he correctly guessed the number he or she took - but if he missed the number he paid the difference as a penalty. There stood a large maple and three chestnut trees above the road. A white oak near the center of the ground and just to one side and near the creek stood an unusually large Black oak with another white oak and large black oak along the creek side of the grounds. On a limb of one of these black oaks some venturesome young men suspended a swing made from a straight whiteoak sapling. This was split and a seat placed in the cleft by boring holes in each side and putting in a cross bar wedging it for security. This furnished plenty of amusement for the young love birds of the community. Sometime before I was born a huge white oak had fallen around the base of the hill and immediately above two of those chestnut trees. This furnished seating capacity for people who wished to whittle, crack jokes and watch games. This log remained in place until after I had grown up and taught school there. Then married and moved away. This seat must have layed there for over 30 years. One popular game among the more able players was what they called Big Nickel. A large ring was made with a sharp stick by cutting a trench on the smoothest part of the ground. This usually was from 8 to 10 feet in diameter. Four large marbles were equally spread around the ring and one in the center. These were called men and the one in the center called the middle man. A straight line was marked to one side of the ring and about 4 feet away. This was the starting line. Each player tried to get the most men by knocking them outside the ring with a smaller marble called a taw. Often an opposing player would kill another player by shooting his taw and striking his opponents taw. These said players stayed dead or out of the game until he or his partner paid his life by surrendering one of his men to the opposite side. When the ring was cleared and no one could put a man in, that was the end of the game. The side with all of the men was winner. By far, the most exerting game played was Croquet with baseball, round town and "straight cat" following in the order named. The players would vie with each other to see who could make the solidest ball and the most durable mallet. They would go over on Laurel - cut and dig up what they called ivy roots and select the toughest part to make a ball. They would take the ivy, knot and fasten it in a vise and work it down to a round then soak the ball in linseed oil to give it weight and durability. This way the balls seasoned before it was used in a game. Keaton Fork of Big Blaine in Johnson County Kentucky was or is small creek about three and a half miles long and having an area of around 4500 to 5000 acres. The terrain is mostly made up of hills and small creek bottoms with an elevation of from 650 to 1112 feet. Before the advent of the oil prospectors the land could have been bought for something near $10.00 per acre. If anybody had had the foresight he could have owned the creek for $50000.00. About the year of 1916 A. C. Albin leased A larger portion of the creek for gas and oil. Of course it was virtually impossible for one man or a group of men to get a solid block. There was a few tracts missed which left, an opening wedge for others after the territory was proven . The Jess Lyon place, the Joe Wheeler farm was examples. Then a couple of former leases were lost through negligence in book keeping. Other companies and individuals quickly took up any available land. When surveyers began to work the place some few small tracts were found vacant. This offered still more chances. Albin sold out to a man by the name of Ayres who had the vision but was hard put for money to do such a big job. The Drs. Gambill and Green Burton of Blaine, Ky obtained a lease on what is known as the Landon Branch. This was owned by a bachelor brother of Sanford Lyon named Jess. When they began operations that started a line fight,the law being if a well was drilled less than 200 feet from a property line and offset well had to be drilled opposite by persons owning lease one said property. Elmer Hupp, who had made money "salting a well" and selling to Standard Oil, came in under the firm name of Indiana Tex Petroleum. He leased, one and one half acres of Wayne Wright. The Wm. H Fyffe farm. Fyffe top leased and Hupp took the case to Police Court in Paintsville and won the case hands down. He took advantage of an old law which Judge Winn of Mt. Sterling found. The Indiana Tex by some means got a lease on the George Gillian place and also the J. C. Gillian tract on Lick Branch. The Weiderman Oil Co. bought a lease on the Wm. & Surilda Wright tracts. *Footnote Arrow on Original Document found in the left hand margin: A man by the name of Yost was taking leases for Albin but decided to keep the Wm. & Surilda Wright leases for himself. Later sold to the Weiderman Oil Co. Jinn Garrison Everet McIntyre and Claude Townsend obtained an 8 A, tract joining the school grounds. The Weiderman Oil Co and Dick Chiles leased 18 acres of Wayne Wright paying for a top lease. In the feverish rush to obtain and hold ground. An unusual amount of waste was encountered. The writer has seen an estimated 500 barrels of crude go down the creek daily for a month at a time. In the rush to get wells cleaned out and on the pump drillers would swab out barrels on top of barrels and let it go down stream unhindered. Shortage of labor was another factor which led to waste. Up until the oil boom changed things, if a man was caught working on Sunday he was usually prosecuted and made to pay a fine of $5.00 or go to jail. People disregarded this old law when people were making money at an unheard of rate. Typed from the original documents by Heidi Jo Baughman-Beverly January, 1988. For the genealogy records collected by Fern S. Sagraves-Baughman.
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