CHAPTER VIII

BRITTAN AND TALITHA COUCH SCALF

Brittan Scalf was either the fourth or fifth child born to John Scalf, Sr., and Edeah Carlisle Scalf. He was born about 1795, possibly earlier, we are reasonably certain, in North Carolina, probably Edgecombe County. Three older sisters and a brother were Polly, the eldest, born 1788; Nancy, the second child, born 1790 and John, Jr., born 1791.

We know nothing of the early life of Brittan Scalf and can only deduce a few facts of his married life from the evidence of the census records and from tradition. It is reasonably certain that he was not in the home of his father, John Scalf. Sr., in Floyd County, Ky., in 1810-1811, for the 1810 Census of Floyd County shows the three males in the family to be under ten years of age. Brittan would have been at the time of the enumeration at about 15 years of age. He was probably residing at the time of the Kentucky census with some other member of the family in North Carolina.

We do not know when Brittan and Talitha Couch were married but a careful calculation based on census records and the birthdates of their children available to us lead us to the conclusion that it was in the first part of the decade of 1820-1830. Archibald, one of the oldest if not the oldest of the children of Brittan and Talitha, was born in 1825 and so they were certainly married before that date.

In the 1830 Russell County, Virginia, Census, Brittan and Talitha are listed with four children: One son was under five years; another son was between 10-15 years; One daughter was listed as under five years; another daughter between 10-15 years. Brittan and Talitha were enrolled as between 30-40 years of age. In the 1840 census of Russell County there are eight children: Two sons are under five years; two sons are between 10-15 years; and one son between 20-30 years. One daughter is under five years; one daughter between 10-15 years; another between 15-20 years. Brittan and Talitha are listed as between 40-50 years old.

There is a tradition that there were nine children born to Brittan and Talitha Couch Scalf. Wayne Scalf, grandson of Hezekiah and great-grandson of Brittan, told the present writer that a daughter, named Nancy, married a Hammond and went west. Hezekiah said he nor any of his brothers or sisters ever heard of her again. The author has no explanation of this tradition. The record shows that Nancy B. (Mary) Scalf married Columbus C. Mills in Pike County. If there was another daughter she was probably not named Nancy but the suggestion is not discounted for John Scalf, Sr., named two of his sons, William.

There is documentary evidence that Brittan and Talitha were the parents of 19 children. Patsy Scalf, wife of John Scalf, Jr. and thus a sister-in-law of Brittan, deposed July 17, 1845, before Robert Rogers, Justice of the Peace, Hawkins County, Tennessee in order to assist John Scalf, Sr. get a restoration of his suspended pension. In her deposition, the original now on file in the National Archives, Washington, D.C. she gives the names of John Scalf's children and the number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

We quote:

"Deponent further states that from her own knowledge and from reliable sources of information the following number of persons are the offspring of the Pensioner (John) Scalf and wife, viz: Names of his children - Nancy Collins; Polly Trent; John Scalf, Jr.; Brittan Scalf; Dicy Williams; Betsy Collins; Berry Scalf; Ira Scalf; Lee Scalf; Peter Scalf; Lydia Panter; Robert Scalf; Lela Lockard; Jesse Scalf; and two William Scalfs, both deceased; 16 children in all. Nancy had 5 children; Polly 11, John, Jr. 14; Brittan19; Betsy 1; Berry 8; Ira 7; Lee 7; Peter 4; Lydia 5; Robert 6; Lela 4; Jesse 8; 109 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren and one of the latter being old enough if alive to have children also and she says there may be more grandchildren and great-grandchildren from the fact that it has been sometime since she has seen some of the families."

Mrs. Elsie Payne Archer, Springfield, Illinois, closely examined a photostat of the original document and states that the figure is clearly 19. The deponent, Patsy Scalf, should have had fairly complete, information on the various family groups and since the present writer is convinced that Brittan, and Talitha had only eight children, possibly the traditional ninth one, the only possible explanation is that Justice Rogers erred in writing.

There is no tradition in the Brittan Scalf family in Kentucky that he was the father of 19 children. The present writer has been closely associated with scores of his descendants and knew two of his sons, James and Hezekiah, for many years. Neither ever mentioned such a large family. It would appear that if there had been such a large family some of them would have recalled it often.

Another possible explanation is that Justice Rogers in writing down the deposition of Patsy Scalf had just written the figure 14 for the number of her own children for she was the wife of John Scalf, Jr., and in giving the number of Brittan's children she said, "nine." The Justice wrote 19. This explanation hinges upon the truth of the tradition as related by Wayne Scalf that there were actually nine children.

Talitha Couch was a daughter of John and Fanny Couch, early settlers of the Castlewoods-district of Russell County. (1) John Couch was a son of Jeremiah Couch, native of Grayson County, Va., who was also an early settler in Russell County. Jeremiah, born in 1776, had moved to Russell County prior to 1606 for the census records shows John Couch was born that date in Russell County. Fanny Couch, her maiden name not known, was born in 1810 in Washington County, Va.

Brittan had, by the decade of 1830-1840, acquired considerable realty on Copper Creek and on Clinch River. Copper Creek rises in Russell County, flows into the present Scott County and enters the Clinch River near Clinchport. Brittan lived on the headwaters of Copper Creek and in 1837 having purchased a small tract of 60 acres on the river, moved to the new location. The year before he moved he sold a tract of land to Andrew Williams and in a few years following his removal he sold two other tracts.

The Clinch River homesite was near a ford for the eldest children of Brittan and Talitha recalled in their later years that the crossing was a popular one. Here several of the children were born.

Brittan began in his early married life to engage in the business of buying and selling horses and mules. Many of the animals were purchased in the surrounding countryside and driven south where the rapidly expanding cotton plantations afforded a ready market. It was not a lucrative business for he had much competition at the southern markets from Southwest Virginia and Kentucky drovers but he prospered to some extent.

He attained a measure of prominence in the county. Russell County court orders show he served as road overseer, surveyor of roads and as a guard. These services did not, however, interfere with his business of buying and selling horses and mules.

It was while in this business that he met a heavy financial reverse that almost wiped him out. He had bought a large herd preparatory to the trip south when the Panic of 1837 struck. Brittan Scalf probably had no inkling of the approaching depression or he would have taken measures to protect himself by selling rapidly. As it was, he was caught with a large investment and had to liquidate at a heavy loss.

The huge loss and the subsequent drying up of the drover business in the years immediately following forced Brittan to sell some of his real estate and to defend himself against creditors who were clamoring for payment. By mid-1840's he had eight children and was "hard put" to provide for them but which he did by farming and accepting minor county jobs that required some measure of responsibility.

In 1845 he was appointed an overseer on a road that was under construction. Part of the road ran through a woodland and it was necessary to cut large trees. Brittan was standing at what he considered a safe distance as the axemen felled a giant tree but when it fell it struck the earth and rebounded toward him. He was killed instantly.

Talitha Scalf was now left with eight orphans with little to sustain them. Her husband had already sold his last tract of land. With no income except her labor and the assistance of two or three sons now approaching adulthood, she pondered the future.

It was at this crisis in her life that an event occurred that was to decide her. Isaac Jackson, Russell County native, had migrated over the mountains to Johns Creek, present Pike County, Kentucky many years earlier and shortly after Talitha Scalf was widowed Robert Jackson, son of Isaac, rode back to Russell County to visit relatives. He found Talitha Scalf in the throes of indecision as to her future course and Robert advised her to move to Johns Creek. He said the section was prosperous and there was work her older children could do on the farms. Jackson promised her aid in getting settled in the new land and Talitha decided to follow his recommendation.

The year following Brittan's death she procured a covered wagon and loading what house furnishings she could transport with her eight children she moved to Johns Creek. She lived for awhile near the present postoffice of Gulnare, Pike County, on the farm now owned (1965) by Cline Burchett.

Archibald, probably the eldest of the children was 21 years of age when he came to Johns Creek with his mother, and he and his brother, Levy were the mainstays of the family. However, Archibald married Sarah Ann Sellards in 1852 and moved away. Elizabeth had married William Blackburn two years earlier. Levy married in 1853 and moved to the Big Creek section of Pike County. James Breckinridge, the youngest of eight, who was a mere babe of three years when he was brought to Johns Creek, was next to the last to marry, which he did in April, 1863. Hezekiah, one year older than James, married in August, 1863.

By the mid years of the Civil War all the eight sons and daughters of Brittan and Talitha Scalf were married and their mother was staying with them on a sort of rotation basis. We know from tradition that she was staying with John Henry Scalf, who had married Clarinda Sellards, on Buffalo Creek, Floyd County, when he died in 1864. Archibald and Hezekiah went off to the Confederate Army. Arch, as he was called, was captured and spent considerable time in a prisoner-of-war camp in Michigan. Hezekiah was captured at the Battle of Middle Creek in 1862 and paroled. He returned to marry Sarah Vaughan Riddle the next year.

Mrs. Leannah Maynard Robinson, wife of Lee Robinson, of Moree, Martin County, Kentucky, recalled for the present writer her remembrances of Talitha Couch Scalf in 1931. Mrs. Robinson was then in her eighties. (2) Talitha was a good horsewoman in her advanced years, Mrs. Robinson noted, and would ride alone from the Johns Creek section to the home of Levy Scalf on Big Creek, a considerable distance over rugged trails for an aged woman.

Talitha Scalf died in the early 80's on Johns Creek at the home of one of her children, most probably at the residence of Elizabeth Scalf Blackburn, wife of William Blackburn. She was about 85 years of age.

The Blankenship cemetery, on lands owned for years by the Rev. Alex Blankenship, is on a high point overlooking Johns Creek, near the present (1965) postoffice of McCombs, Pike County. Talitha was buried at the neck of the point where the promontory begins to extend away from the hill. The grave is unmarked. (3)


             BRITTAN SCALF AND TALITHA COUCH SCALF CHILDREN *

1. Archibald Scalf, born 1825, Russell County, Va. Lived at Jonesbrook, Martin County, Ky. Married Sarah Ann Sellards, Sept. 2, 1852, Pike County, Ky.

2. Mary Scalf, born Russell County, Va. Married Columbus C: Mills, November 13, 1855, Pike County, Ky. Both died Martin County, Ky.

3. James Breckinridge Scalf, born May 18, 1842, Russell County, Died Gulnare, Pike County, Ky., November 1916. Married, April 21, 1863, Rebecca Scott, born Dec. 16, 1842, died Dec. 16, 1910.

4. Elizabeth (Betsy) Scalf, born Russell County, Va. Married William Blackburn, Oct. 17, 1850. Both died and buried at McCombs, Pike County, Ky.

5. John Henry Scalf, born Russell County, Va. Died Buffalo Creek, Endicott, Floyd County, Ky., May 1864. Married March 25, 1856, Clarinda Sellards, born Feb. 10, 1840, died Jan. 1914, Dassell, Meeker County, Minnesota.

6. Jeremiah (Jerry) Scalf, born Russell County, Va. Married Sarah Brinstone. Died Pike County, Ky.

7. Levy Scalf, born Russell County, Va. Married Mary Ann Bevins Reed, widow, August 10, 1853.

8. Hezekiah Scalf, born Jan. 30, 1841, Russell County, Va. Died Pike County, Ky., April 17, 1924. Married Sarah Jane Vaughan Riddle, August 14, 1863. She died January 14, 1925.

* Talitha Couch Scalf was a daughter of John and Fanny Couch, of the Castlewoods section, Russell County, Va., and a granddaughter of Jeremiah Couch, resident in 1850 of Russell County, but a native of Grayson County, Va. In the 1820 Census of Russell County five males and nine females are shown in the Jeremiah Couch family.

The 1850 Census of Russell County shows the following persons in the family of John and Fanny Couch: John, age 44, born Russell County; Fanny, age 40, born Washington County, Va.; Mary, 18; Eliza Ann, 14; Archer, 16, labourer; Jeremiah, 13; Hezekiah, 12; John C., 8; David C., 4; Patsey H., 4; and Nancy, 7/12 months. Archer was probably not a son of John and Fanny Couch. All the children were born in Russell County.

At the time of the enumeration of the 1850 Census the widow, Talitha Couch Scalf, had removed four years earlier to Pike County, Ky. It is to be noted that Talitha Scalf named several of her children after her brothers and sisters.


                                          CHAPTER VIII NOTES

1, The name, Talitha, is variously spelled. On some of the Russell County, Va., records it is spelled Delitha. In her lifetime, she was called Litha and one of her grandchildren, Litha Scalf James, bears this name. Talitha's descendants universally agree that her name was Talitha.

2. Mrs. Robinson was the grandmother of Mrs. Norah James Scalf, wife of the present writer. She recalled her remembrances of Talitha at her home, at Moree when visited by her granddaughter in 1931.

3. Remembrances of Rev. Alex Blankenship who knew Talitha Scalf personally. Rev. Blankenship, a highly respected minister and who had a good memory for events of his earlier years, was always positive as to the location of Talitha's grave.



    HEZEKIAH SCALF AND SARAH VAUGHAN RIDDLE SCALF FAMILY

                             (Hezekiah - Brittan - John, Sr. - Lewis)

Hezekiah Scalf, son of Brittan and Talitha Couch Scalf, was born in Russell County, Virginia, Jan. 30, 1841. He was thus about five years old when his mother gathered the family at the recommendation of Dr. Robert Jackson and migrated to Johns Creeks Pike County, Kentucky, near the present postoffice of Gulnare. Of the children journeying with their mother to Kentucky only James Breckinridge was younger than Hezekiah. He had been born May 18, 1842 and was thus approximately four years old at the time.

John Henry and Archibald, two of the older boys, drove the covered wagon over the rugged trail, their mother steadying the children and the two little ones against the jolting vehicle. They left the Clinch River valley, headed west through the mountains of present day Dickinson county toward towering Pound Gap, traditional gateway pass in the Cumberlands to the Big Sandy valley. It was an almost roadless area but pioneers and settlers had beaten a clear path to Pound Gap and they probably had no difficulty in finding their way.

They were three days on the journey and had to encamp twice beside the road. Through Found Gap they threaded their way, descended Elkhorn Creek to Shelby Creek Gap, went through that low gap and down Shelby Creek to the Levisa Fork of Big Sandy River to within eight miles of Pikeville. The lumberingwagon rolled on down the river valley to the Pike County seat, turned east over Ferguson Creek Mountain to the waters of Johns Creek. A journey of approximately 15 miles brought them to mid-way the valley. Talitha Couch Scalf went to housekeeping in a rude cabin on what is now (1966) the Cline Burchett farm and near his present residence. Oldsters of years ago would point to a giant boulder in a bottom which stood near the cabin.

Archibald, Lee, and John Henry, brothers of Hezekiah, were for a few years the breadwinners of the family but they soon married and the burden of assisting the widow Scalf to support her remaining six children shifted to James and Hezekiah. The boys cleared land, plowed and harvested. Their mother and her daughters carded, and spun wool, wove cloth for clothing as they had to subsist in a pioneer economy. It was a busy family, each with its allotted tasks.

Talitha, landless when she left Russell County, remained so all her life. The family moved a few times in the valley, always trying to improve its lot. Life was hard with this propertyless family but all its members had fortitude and stamina. Tradition is always consistent that the mother was frugal and hard-working and blessed with good health, concomitant of survival. on a backwoods farm.

Hezekiah grew to manhood, a rugged character whose individual exploits have come down to us as a part of the family's lore. Many of his escapades were probably embellished by the story-teller but if they are heavily discounted they still remain outstanding vignettes of life of the man and his time. He-was courageous to the point of being foolhardy. Blunt, to the point of rudeness at times, he brooked little apposition to his point of view. Work to him was a way of life and he applied his strength to the field and plow.

Rumors of war filtered into the valley. Andrew Jackson May, Prestonsburg barrister, began to recruit for the Confederacy. Archibald and Hezekiah probably knew little of the constitutional questions that were rendering the nation asunder, and although Archibald was a married man with the beginnings of a family, both joined May and his Confederates.

May encamped his raw recruits north of Prestonsburg and did his best which was little indeed to whip the highly individualistic mountain boys into a disciplined army for he had pressing need to meet Gen. W.O. (Bull) Nelson, Union leader, who was pushing toward West Liberty and of course eventually to Prestonsburg. Few of the recruits had uniforms, few had regular army weapons, most had brought along their old squirrel rifles and ancient backwoods guns. However, they drilled intensely in the big bottom, their officers trying desperately within the narrowing limits of time to get ready to meet Nelson.

There, one night after an arduous day of drilling, the soldiers went to church. The recruits paid little attention to the exhortations of the minister, more to the antics of a little dog that ran around the room, disrupting the effectiveness of the sermon. Hezekiah and several of his comrades sat near the huge wood-burning stove. Quietly he and another soldier held a whispered conversation, winked understandingly at each other. Soon the dog came racing by the stove, ran aver Hezekiah's feet. He seized it and while his fellow-conspirator held the stove door open, he shoved the animal into the red-hot interior. There were unearthly howls as the dog fought vainly to escape the fire. The service broke up in disorder. Complaint being made by the minister to Col. May only the intervention of friendly officers saved Hezekiah from severe punishment. (1)

May finally had to march his recruits out to meet Nelson whether or not they had adequate weapons or uniforms. He lost the skirmish at Hazel Green, fell back to West Liberty, fought and lost again. Back over the old State Road they retreated through Salyersville to Prestonsburg. Scarcely delaying at their old drill ground, they continued to retreat until they came to the mouth of Ivy Creek. There, Nov. 9, 1861, Bull Nelson overtook them.

May took another licking and the troops moved south toward Pikeville and soon out on the road to Virginia. They had no supplies, endeavored to live off the countryside. Hezekiah, like the others, robbed smokehouses, bee stands and corn fields. In the thinly-settled area there was little to find. They were reduced to eating beech nuts, even beech tree buds and acorns. Hezekiah shot a crow, roasted it along the road. He always, said that he and a comrade who helped eat it decided it was a poor substitute for chicken.

Gen. Humphrey Marshall and his lieutenants took the surviving recruits and with an added aggregation of men little better than those who, had survived Nelson's severe beating whipped them into the semblance of trained men. He marched them back into the Big Sandy valley to meet Col. James A. Garfield at the Battle of Middle Creek, Jan. 10, 1862. Again the Confederates were defeated. Hezekiah attempted to escape the encircling Unionists by fleeing near dark up the Spurlock Fork of Middle Creek but was made prisoner.

The next day Garfield commandeered the John M. Burns home, at Prestonsburg as headquarters and here Hezekiah and several others were brought for the colonel's disposition. He paroled them to their homes on their pledge to never again take up arms against their government. After he had administered the oath, he told the prisoners that if they were again found in arms against the government they would be shot.

"You know." Hezekiah always said, "when he said we all would be shot, he grinned a little. I believed every word he said." (2)

Out of the army now and with contact lost with Archibald who had also been captured, Hezekiah went back to Johns Creek. The war dragged on but with the exception of constant efforts to escape raiding guerrillas who wanted to carry him off, he stayed at home to guard his mother and the remaining children still at home.

In the summer of 1863 he went down into the lower Johns Creek section and courted Sarah Jane Riddle, born May 3. 1844, an inmate of the William McGuire household, daughter of Andrew and Susannah Vaughan Riddle. She and Hezekiah were married August 14, 1863. They stayed a few days in the McGuire home and went to housekeeping at the mouth of Souder's Creek on the vast McGuire farm. Sarah had been a favorite of the McGuires and they tried to induce the couple to permanently settle at the mouth of Souder's Creek. However, Hezekiah learned of free land on the headwaters of Buffalo Creek and had decided to move there.

Hezekiah and Sarah delayed moving to Buffalo Creek for some reason or other, probably due to the protestations of McGuire who now offered to deed them land where they lived. Several children were born and approached adulthood. Hezekiah decided the growing family could be of great assistance in establishing a farm on Buffalo Creek and he moved there in 1882. There, December 30, 1882, he patented 175 acres of land. (3)

Two sons, William Preston and John B., were nearing manhood when the family moved to Buffalo Creek, the former 14 years old, the latter 18. They moved into an old log house, long since gone, that stood near the location of the present Burchett schoolhouse at the mouth of what is now called the Scalf Branch. Hezekiah and, his sons built a house farther up the valley and there the family moved. Only one house was above them, that of Mitchell Nunnery, who lived at the mouth of White Oak Creek. From the Nunnery home to the head of Buffalo Creek was a distance of approximately five miles, all of it forested.

A few years after Hezekiah and Sarah moved to Buffalo Creek, Henderson Scott and an associate bought the yellow poplar and walnut trees on the stream's headwaters and built a splashdam midway between the Nunnery and Scalf homes. Trees were felled on White Oak Creek, Big and. Little Rough, Paw Paw Fork and other streams, sawed into log lengths, "snaked" out of the mountains by ox teams to the impoundment of water created by the dam. The Scalfs, Nunnerys and many other area men found work in the logging woods.

Scott and his associate having logged all the fine poplar and walnut they could get left Buffalo Creek and Hezekiah took over operation of the splashdam. He hauled giant oak and other choice logs to the dam, collected a "head" of water, and finally when the impoundment was large enough, opened the wooden gates. The released water carried hundreds of logs downstream toward the larger Johns Creek, a tributary of Big Sandy River.

Farmers below the dam lodged loud and threatening protests with Hezekiah against this method-of logging, which, however, was the usual means in the mountains. It was especially destructive to fences around the bottoms near the creek. There came a time when the dam was full of logs and the stream was rising after a rain, filling the dam to overflowing. The water climbed higher and higher, overflowed the top of the dam. Hezekiah called one of his sons, dictated a notice to his neighbors downstream and sent him down the road to tack it up on some convenient tree or store building. it read. "This is to notify everybody that I can't hold my water much longer." That evening, word of the notice having gotten around, landowners, with their fences threatened, laughed heartily at the phrasing but threatened bodily harm to Hezekiah Scalf if he turned the impoundment loose.

In the night the water continued to rise and Hezekiah saw he couldn't "hold my water any longer." He knocked the sluice gates loose and the imprisoned logs and water roared down Buffalo Creek, demolishing fences as it went. Hezekiah discontinued the dam operation after that for the continual warfare with his neighbors downstream was too heavy a price to pay. Years afterward, when the fences were repaired or rebuilt, the farmers' anger subsided. Their amusement at Hezekiah's unusual public notice, didn't, however. The story of it survived, adding to the legends surrounding Hezekiah Scalf. (5)

By this time Hezekiah and his sons had acquired the name of the "Kiah Bunch," they were so inclined to fight. William Preston or Bill as he was called, acquired distinction as "Rock-Throwing Bill," or "Bony Bill," from his local fame as a deadly shot with a stone or from his bony and angular physiogomy. He could throw a rock with accuracy from more than a hundred feet. John was less aggressive but always ready to back his brother or father in a fight. Melvin, several years younger, usually stood on the sidelines in battle and gave vocal encouragement, One time "Rock-Throwing Bill," enraged at the Nunnerys for some fancied or real injury, drove them into the mill house of the splashdam with rocks. The Nunnerys didn't dare to come out as Bill sat nearby, a silent sentinel with rocks in his hands. Only the peacemaking intervention of the mother released the Nunnerys from their imprisonment. (4)

The years passed, John B. married and went to housekeeping on the lower end of the farm in the house in which his father had settled when he moved to Buffalo Creek. "Bony Bill." having lost some of his "chip on the shoulder" attitude mellowed a bit with the responsibilities of adulthood, married the widow, Phoebe Stratton Nunnery. John B., having constructed a large two-story house, the newly-weds went to housekeeping in the house he vacated. Their two of their children, John T. and Mary, were born. Within a few years they moved to Mare Creek on Alice's part of the Stratton homestead.

The new century came and everywhere there was talk of the new frontier of Oregon and Washington. There was land and game and adventure. Many Buffalo Creek families, among them the Musics and Thompsons, sold out, left for Washington. Melvin Scalf, who had married Elsie Goble, of Martin County, and had a small family, followed in 1904. He settled on the Cowlitz River in Southern Washington, homesteaded a ranch and added to his family. He returned in 1921, after an absence of 17 years. His wife had died and he remarried, went to housekeeping again on the Scalf farm.

Hezekiah and Sarah grew old and since all of their children were married and gone, they went to live with their son, John B., now a widower with several children. Hezekiah died first, April 17, 1924. His wife survived until Jan. 14, 1925. Both are buried in the Scalf cemetery on Scalf branch.

Issue of Hezekiah and Sarah Scalf were:

I.  JOHN B. MCCLELLAN SCALF. Born Jan, 13, 1864, on the McGuire farm, on Johns Creek; married Belle Jackson Collinsworth of Johns Creek. She was born May 3, 1867. John spent his life in farming, logging and in the mercantile business. He always kept accurate and detailed records of his business affairs and to an old ledger he had we are indebted for an entry typical of scores of others: "John Scalf hauled at Tom's Creek (tributary of Buffalo Creek) the year 1899, 130 logs and John and Ras Scott guessed each at 281 cubes." Hundreds of other logs were handled by him, according to the ledger. Associated with him were Henderson (Hent) and Scott and Tom James, Sr.

Belle Scalf died Nov. 25, 1915 after a long illness. John survived 17 years, living on at the home and rearing his children. He died Feb. 5. 1932, at the Methodist hospital, Pikeville, Kentucky. Both are buried in the Scalf cemetery.

II.  WILLIAM PRESTON SCALF. Born Oct, 2. 1868, on the McGuire farm. He married Phoebe Alice Stratton Nunnery, widow of Andrew Nunnery, and mother of a son, Lee Nunnery. They were married March 14, 1889, at the home of William and Susan Courtney, on Mare Creek, Floyd County, the Rev. Wm. H. Layne, Baptist minister officiating. Witnesses were William Courtney and Tandy N. Stratton. They went to housekeeping on the Scalf farm and there two children were born. Within a few years he moved to Mare Creek, on the lands inherited by his wife from her parents, Harvey Washington Stratton and Phoebe Sellards Stratton. There five other children were born. Lee was reared by an aunt, Susan Stratton Courtney, and her husband, William Courtney. He later went west as a young man and died 1914 at Los Angeles, California, W. P. Scalf spent his life in farming, logging and livestock raising. At the time of death he was the second largest landowner in Floyd County.

William Preston Scalf died after a long illness at home, May 26, 1912. His widow lived on at the farm, a large estate of several hundred acres, and died Jan. 13, 1955. Both are buried in the Stratton-Scalf cemetery on Mare Creek. (For additional information on William Preston Scalf and Phoebe Alice Scalf see addenda.)

III.  ROBERT E. LEE SCALF. Born 1872. He was never married and lived for years with his parents on the Buffalo Creek farm. "Uncle Bob," as he was known to all the Scalfs and neighbors, was a distinguished looking man, dressed well and always wore a derby hat. He was a good singer of the old church hymns and was in demand at church and other gatherings as a vocalist. In his fifties he became an employee of the Pike-Floyd Coal Company, at the present Betsy Layne, Kentucky. While there he became suddenly ill at the club house where he was staying and was rushed by train to River View hospital Louisa, Kentucky, where he died within a few days. He lies buried in the Scalf cemetery.

IV.  MELVIN SCALF. Born 1875. Married first Elsie Goble, Martin County, Kentucky. He resided for several years on the Scalf farm where three of his children were born. In 1904 he migrated to the Cowlitz River section of Southern Washington where he founded a homestead. Three other children were born there but one, Walter I, died while a young man. Melvin worked at farming while living in Washington, sometimes as far from home as Oregon. He returned to Buffalo Creek in 1921, after his wife died, bringing with him two children. He remarried to Ann Spears Collins, widow. They were parents of four children, one son named Walter II.

Melvin Scalf, after a long illness, died Dec. 17, 1936, and is buried back of his homesite on a cedar covered knoll he selected while living. His widow, born 1882, lived until 1962 and was buried beside him.

V.  JAMES PINCKNEY SCALF. Born 1880 on Buffalo Creek. He married first Angeline Collins. He spent his life in logging and farming. James P. and Angeline Scalf were the parents of four children. Following the death of Angeline, Dec. 23, 1918, he married Dovie Lyons. They were parents of four children. While working for his nephew, Wallace Scalf, on a farm, on Mare Creek, he was accidentally killed by falling over a cliff while constructing a fence, Dec. 17, 1936. He lies buried in the Stratton-Scalf cemetery on Mare Creek. His widow, Dovie Lyons Scalf, survives at this date 1966.

VI.  LOUANNA SCALF THOMPSON. Born May 1, 1876. Married Ireland Thompson of lower Johns Creek section. They resided on a part of the Scalf farm on Buffalo Creek where they reared nine children. Ireland was a farmer and woodworking craftsman. Two of their children, Martha and Floyd, died in their early adulthood. Ireland died at home in 1948 and his widow at the Prestonsburg General hospital, Jan. 20, 1963. Both are buried In the Scalf cemetery.

VII - VIII. Reconciliation of the 1880 Pike County Census with the Bible and other records of the Hezekiah Scalf family is difficult. The census lists a daughter, Anna J., 14 years old, who, would thus have been born in 1866. This could not be Louanna whose birth date was 1876 . The census also lists a Nancy E., age two. This daughter could not be Louanna. Anna J. is listed in the 1870 Pike County Census as 4 years old, adding evidence that Anna J. was a daughter of Hezekiah and Sarah Scalf. It is believed she died between 1880 and 1890. Nancy E., of whom no other record exists, must have died before the turn of the century.


I.  JOHN B. SCALF AND BELLE COLLINGSWORTH SCALF DESCENDANTS

                               (Hezekiah - Brittan - John, Sr,. - Lewis)

1. Wayne Preston Scalf. Born Dec. 17, 1888. Died Oct. 8, 1965. Never married. Merchant and sawmill operator most of life. Buried in Scalf cemetery.

2. Ervin Scalf. Born May 30, 1895. Married Violet Runyon, born Feb. 41 1904. Veteran of World War I. Died Nov. 5, 1955. Buried Scalf Cemetery, Buffalo Creek, Children were (1) Phoebe Jane, born April. 23, 1924, married first Dennis Taylor, second Thomas Clark (2) Zella Juanita, born Oct, 14, 1925, married Hassel Collins - children are Peggy, married Jack Stanley, and Ritchie (3) Josephine, born June 10, 1927, married Thomas Collins -children are Ernie, Sharon and Chadwick Shawn. (4) Joe Robert, born June 10, 1929, killed World War II, Feb,, 13, 1951, buried Scalf Cemetery (5) William Beverly (Dock), born Oct, 199 19332 married Maxine Stratton (6) Margaret Ann, married Ernest Wright (7) Billy Jack, married Virgie Rose Boyd (8) John B., born July 13, 1931 (9) Rosalee (10) Hobert Deane, married Donna Trimble. One son of Ervin Scalf is Roland Scalf, married Geneva Smith, resides at Prestonsburg, Ky.

3. H. Scalf. Born Sept,, 8. 1901, Married, Nov. 29, 1930, Zora Conn, born July 23, 1914. Children are (1) Arbutus, born Feb. 18, 1932, married Harold Hardy (2) Ralph Edgar, born July 15, 1934, killed in accident at Zanesville, Ohio, March 21, 1962 (3) Lucy Jane, born June 17, 1932, married Leslie Griffie (4) John Alex, born May 16, 1940, died age nine months (5) Dimple Jean, born Dec. 1, 1946.

4. William Rush Scalf. Born Jan. 26, 1904. Married Lilly Harvill, daughter of Millard and Pearl James Harville. Divorced. Issue were Ginerva, married Clyde Webb; Mary Lou; Perry, died young in 1932; William Rush, Jr., died young, July 7. 1932; Shirley, died infant.

5. Beverly (Beb) Scalf. born August 10, 1892, killed Battle Of Chateau Thierry, France, World War I, Oct. 3. 1918. He never married. The body was returned to the United States and was buried with military honors in the Scalf cemetery on Buffalo Creek.

6. Columbia Josephine. Born March 14, 1908. Married Virgil Maynard. Divorced. No children.

7. Otto. Born 1898, died 1900.


       II. WILLIAM PRESTON SCALF AND PHOEBE ALICE SCALF
                                                 DESCENDANTS

                                   (Hezekiah - BrIttlan - John, Sr. - Lewis)

1. John Tandy Scalf. Born Dec. 4, 1889. Married Anna Lee Gose. Children were John Woodrow. married Elizabeth Elliott; Hubert Preston, married Marie Parsons; Greetis Evelyn, married Connell Miller; Major Herbert Russell, married Claude .........; Mildred, married Harry Clark.

John Tandy Scalf entered the teaching profession for a few years following his marriage but left that work for employment in the coal mines of West Virginia and Kentucky at which he spent a lifetime. He retired from mine work as a general foreman for Stephens Branch Coal Company. He now resides at Middletown, Ohio.

John Woodrow Scalf operated coal mines in Floyd County, Kentucky for several years but finally began a general merchandising business at Beaver, Kentucky, which he still conducts. His wife, Elizabeth Elliott Scalf, born October 26, 1912, died June 24, 1968. She lies buried in the Elliott Cemetery at Beaver, Kentucky. Children were Patricia, now deceased; John, III; Phyllis; Mary Helen.

Hubert Preston Scalf spent many years as a manager of a chain meat market in Ohio but moved to Titusville, Florida, where he is in business. Children of Hubert Preston and Marie Parsons Scalf are

Greetis Evelyn Scalf and her husband, Connell Miller, reside at Middletown.Ohio, where he is employed by the American Rolling Mills Company, a steel manufacturing plant. The eldest son, Connie, a graduate of Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, was killed in an auto accident in Texas in 1966. Three other children are Barbara, Roger, and Ricky.

Major Herbert Russell Scalf married while in France during World War II. He is a specialist in electronics and supervised the erection of radio stations in Germany during the military occupation. One station he erected was that of Nuremberg, Germany, where the war crimes trials were held. He now resides in California.

Mildred Scalf and her husband, Harry Clark, reside at Jacksonville, Florida, where he is a stenotyper in a newspaper plant. Mildred, before marriage, was a commercial artist. Children are Stevie and Priscilla.

2. Mary Louise Scalf, Born Dec. 26, 1892. Married first Samuel D.C. Adams. One son, Bernard Ollner, married Pearlie Bryant. Mary Scalf Adams, following the death of S.D.C. Adams, remarried to Everett Thompson, No children. One daughter of Bernard and Pearlie Adams was Judy, married to James Villens, a geologist. Mr. and Mrs. Villens have a son, Edward Mooree One daughter of S.D.C. Adams and Mary Louise Scalf was Vernice, who died at age three. Mr. and Mrs. Everett Thompson reside (1968) on a farm at Stanville, Kentucky.

3. Phoebe Jane Scalf. Born June 22, 1895. Married first Lindsay Hunt who was killed in a mine accident at Stanville, Kentucky, Jan. 8, 1940. Children were Norvell, died young; Alex Preston, married Vena Thompson; Carada, married Norma Faye Spears; Erschel, married Pauline Collins. Alex Preston Hunt was killed in an auto accident at Broad Bottom, Kentucky, Nov. 10, 1953. He and Vena Thompson were parents of children: Lindsay Lee, who now resides at Emma, Kentucky and is an employee of Jenny Wiley State Park at Prestonsburg, Kentucky. Carada Hunt and Norma Faye Spears Hunt are parents of five children: Freddie Darrell, John Michael, Betsy, Don Robin, and William Douglas. They reside at Stanville, Kentucky.

4. Henry Preston Scalf, Born Feb. 20, 1902. Married first Myrtle Butler, May 2, 1925. She was born March 3. 1906, a daughter of Milton Butler and Dove Thompson Butler, and died at Pikeville, Kentucky, September 14, 1930. She is buried on the Stratton-Scalf Cemetery at Stanville, Kentucky. One child of Henry Preston Scalf and Myrtle Butler Scalf was Mary Alice, born at German, Kentucky, May 3. 1926, died May 7, 1926. She lies buried on the Thompson Cemetery, Souders Creek, Floyd County, Kentucky.

Henry Preston Scalf married second to Norah James, daughter of Thomas and Angeline Robinson James, of Pike County, Kentucky. They were married by the Rev. M.C. Reynolds, Oct. 21, 1931, at Coal Run, Pike County, Kentucky. Norah James Scalf was born Jan. 5, 1912 at Gulnare, Kentucky. A veteran teacher for 20 years in Pike and Floyd counties, she is now (1968) a teacher in Stanville.

Children of Henry Preston Scalf and Norah James Scalf are Ballard Preston, Wallace Julian, Albert DeVon, Brenda Sues and Anna Lois, who died infant.

Ballard Preston Scalf was born at Pikeville, Kentucky, Nov. 15, 1933. He attended the public schools of Floyd County and Mayo Vocational School, Paintsville, Kentucky. He is a welder and employed by a construction company. He married Anna Jewel Moles, daughter of Richard and Gay Hatfield Moles, Justell, Kentucky. Two children are Gregory Preston and Richard Lloyd. They reside at Justell, Floyd County.

Wallace Julian Scalf was born at Stanville, Kentucky, April 6, 1936. He is a graduate of Betsy Layne (Ky.) High School and of Mayo Vocational School, Paintsville. He is a welder and proprietor of an ornamental iron fabrication shop. He married Dolores Jean Hunt, daughter of Mack and Elva Boyd Hunt, Ivel, Kentucky. Three children are Rita Karen, Wallace Dwayne, and Stephen Anthony. They reside at Harold, Kentucky.

Albert DeVon Scalf was born at Vernon, Florida, Dec. 23, 1943. He is a graduate of Prestonsburg (Ky.) High School and of Mayo Vocational School and is now (1968) attending Pikeville College, Pikeville, Kentucky, preparing for the teaching profession. He married Polly Ellen Thacker, March 1, 1969.

Brenda Sue Scalf was born at Stanville, Kentucky, Sept. 17, 1945. She is a graduate of Prestonsburg (Ky.) High School and attended Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky. She is now employed in a secretarial capacity by the Hoover Wire Springs Co., Georgetown, Ky. She married Edward Leo Smallwood, Jan. 30, 1965, at Independence, Kentucky. He is a son of William and Aleida Pennington Smallwood, of Independence. A graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, he is employed by Georgetown (Ky.) city school system. One child of this marriage is Sheila Marquetta, born Jan. 10, 1966. Mr. and Mrs. Smallwood reside at Georgetown, Kentucky.

5. Della Scalf. Born Nov. 22, 1904, at Stanville. Married Carada Terry, Wayland, Kentucky. Terry is the proprietor of an office supply sales business. They reside at Wayland, Floyd County. Children are Irettes, married Betty Deits, and have one child, Stephen Mark; Joyce Ray, former-Floyd County teacher, married Claydean Sherman and have a daughter, Barbara Sue; James Kenneth, who married Rose Cavins, and they have a son, David Michael.

6. William Wallace Scalf. Born Sept. 15, 1907. Graduate of Morris Harvey College, Charleston, W. Va., as is his wife, Delsie White. Both are now teachers in the public school system of Logan County, W. Va. William Wallace Scalf spent several years as a Pike and Floyd counties teacher and at one time was employed in shipbuilding at Panama City, Florida. He afterward worked at the atomic energy plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He resides at Amherstdale, West Virginia.

Children of William Wallace and Delsie White Scalf are William Ronald, who married Joyce Beach, of Dallas, Texas and now reside at Indianapolis, Indiana; Linda Gay, married Darrell Schaut and reside at Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Nancy Carol, a graduate of Concord College, Athens, West Virginia, married Robert J. Coates, of New Brittain, Conn.; and Sallie Jean, unmarried. Children of Mr. and Mrs. Darrell Schaut are Michael Jerome, Michele Denise, and Vicki.


      IV. MELVIN SCALF AND ELSIE GOBLE SCALF DESCENDANTS

                       (Hezekiah - Brittan - Jr. Sr. - Lewis - James - John)

1. Walter Scalf I. Never married. Born in Pike County, Kentucky, taken to Washing by his parents where he died in early adulthood.

2. Perry Raymond (Harry) Scalf. Logging contractor in Washington and Montana. Born in Pike County, Kentucky, 1903. Married Maxine..... They live in Bellingham, Washington.

3. Lenora Scalf. Born 1901, Pike County, Kentucky. Married Thomas R. Grover, 1924. Two children are Sheldon Gene, born June 26, 1925, and John Thomas, born Nov. 17, 1929. Thomas R, Grover died in 1963. The Grovers have an adopted daughter, Barbara Coler, born 1942, Lenora Scalf Grover lives now (1969) at Route 5, Box 255, Olympia, Wash. Sheldon Gene Grover married Carolyn Jan Doran. They have two children, Thomas Allen, born August 18, 1949, and Katherine, born Feb. 10, 1951. Thomas R. Grover married Jane Whitford, born 1934. They have two children, Patricia and Jon.

4. Albert Scalf. Born 1908, in Washington. Married Eleanor Holmberg. Children are Kristi, Jon, Sherry, Teresa, and Albert, Jr.

5. Pearl Scalf, Married Carl Gunnells, son of Benjamin and Eliza Gunnells, of Betsy Layne, Kentucky. She was born in Washington but came to Kentucky with her father when he returned in 1921. After her marriage she and her husband removed to Washington.

6. Aulton Scalf. Born in Washington. Married first to Estelle Gunnells, daughter of Ben and Eliza Gunnells. One son, Jackie Donald Scalf, who married Bonnie Blackburn. Jackie Donald lives on Buffalo Creek. Aulton Scalf and Estelle Gunnells were divorced. Aulton lives now (1968) in Norfolk, Virginia.


        MELVIN SCALF AND ANN COLLINS SCALF DESCENDANTS

1. Walter Scalf II. Married Madeline Burchett. Divorced. Lives in Ohio.

2. Gertrude Scalf. Married Samuel Lewis. Lives in Ohio.

3. Mata Alice Scalf. Married Walter Scalf, son of Trimble and Minnie Lyons Scalf.
Lives in Ohio.

4. Carol Lee Scalf. Married Tom Lewis. Lives in Ohio.


  V. JAMES PINCKNEY SCALF AND ANGELINE SCALF DESCENDANTS

                             (Hezekiah - Brittan - John, Sr. - Lewis)

1. Melvin Scalf. Married Josephine Lafferty. Killed by stray bullet in West Virginia gun fight. Buried in Pike County, Ky. One daughter, Mary Imojean, married Charles B. Gray, of Williamson, W. Va.

Josephine Irene Lafferty was a daughter of William Jack Lafferty and Eva Fraley Lafferty, of Floyd County, Kentucky. Josephine was born Nov. 26, 1912, Floyd County.

Mary Imojean Scalf was born Nov. 1, 1932, at Lobata, Mingo County, W. Va. She married Charles Boland Gray, July 27, 1951, at Virginia Beach, Virginia. He was born July 17, 1930, at Kimball, McDowell County, W. Va., a son of Howard Lee Gray and Alice Marie Board. He is a career naval officer, now (1968) serving on the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, an airplane carrier.

Children of Charles B. Gray and Mary Imojean Scalf are Angela Marie, born Oct. 1, 1953, Bethesda, Md.; Connie Irene, born Oct. 21, 1954, Millington, Tennessee; Kathy Anne, born May 29, 1957, Port Hueneme, Calif.; Elizabeth Louise, born August 24, 1959, San Diego, Calif.; Jennifer Marlene, born Feb. 25, 1963, San Diego.

2. Magdalene Scalf. Married David Hall, Honaker, Ky. Lives in Ohio.

3. Daisy Belle Scalf. Married Hi Goble, of Emma, Ky. Lives at Meta, Ky.

4. Nora Scalf. Never married. Died at age 18. Buried Stratton-Scalf cemetery.


JAMES PINCKNEY SCALF AND DOVIE LYONS SCALF DESCENDANTS

1. Dorothy Scalf. Never married.

2. James Scalf, Jr.

3. Thomas Ervin Scalf.

4. Denver Lee Scalf.


     VI. LUANNA SCALF THOMPSON AND IRELAND THOMPSON
                                              DESCENDANTS

                              (Hezekiah - Brittan - John, Sr. - Lewis)

1. Martha Thompson. Never married. Died early adulthood.

2. Dewey Thompson. Married First Nov. 1, 1922, Jencie Deskins. She died Feb. 2, 1937. Married second, Sarah King.

3. Floyd Thompson. Never married. Died age 20.

4. Mary Belle.Thompson, Married first Robert (Bob) Damron. Divorced. Married second, L.T. Mills.

5. Harley Thompson. Married first, Mary Sellards. Married second, Beatrice Smith. Harley died about 1962 at Seco, Ky.

6. Chester Thompson. Married Catherine Smith. Lives at Seco, Ky.

7. Tennessee Thompson, Married John Bevins, who is deceased. She lives at Lancer, Ky.

8. Burley Thompson. Married Marjorie Cecil.

9. Gracie Thompson. Married first, Elder Crider. Married second, Sam Music. Lives at Auxier, Ky.

10. Sarah Thompson. Married first Lawyer Farley; second Daniel Gross.


                                                      NOTES

1. Sarah Vaughan Riddle, born 1844, was a daughter of Andrew Riddle and Susannah Vaughan Riddle, who were married October 8, 1837, Floyd County, Kentucky. Susannah (Susan) Vaughan Riddle was a daughter of Ayres T. Vaughan, Jr. and wife, Sarah. Ayres (Aris) Vaughan wrote his will, June 30, 1851, and it was probated September Term, Floyd County Court, 1851. He names his wife, Sarah; sons, Burwell, Jacob, LeRoy, Straughter; heirs of his son George W.; daughter Susan; daughter Elizabeth Crider, wife of William Crider. Land devised was on Johns Creek. The will may be found in Will File No. 27, Floyd County Clerk's office, Prestonsburg, Ky.

According to the 1870 Pike County Census, Susan Vaughan Riddle was 49 years old at the time, being born in 1821. She was residing in the household of Hezekiah Scalf and Sarah Riddle Scalf at the time of both the 1870 and 1880 census. In the latter census she is listed as "55 year old, mother-in-law, father born in Kentucky and mother in Virginia." She was born in Kentucky. If this latter census is correct she was born in 1825.

 

                               APPENDIX

   "AUNT ALICE'S MEETING" HELD AS 43RD MEMORIAL SERVICE

   From The Floyd County Times, Prestonshurg, Kentucky, September 9, 1954

(It is one of the most difficult of all attempts at composition to write about one's own mother. There can be no true objectivity, for the circumstances of care and maternal love are curtains through which a son must peer. Into cold print creep evidence of warm tears and the poignant regret that there must be the finality of great age wherein one retreats into history with the inexorable years. Into this relationship between mother and son there is a retreat of the seasons and years, and inevitably a sudden harsh closing of the door and time, for one, stands still.

After this there can be only memory, but memories are, bits of history and all who have lived were either observers or participants in the drama of the past. As a bit of history and a contribution to the record of things, this story is offered. -H.P.S.)

                                             __________________________

In August of this year the Rev. Isaac Stratton went upon the old Tandy R. Stratton cemetery on Mare Creek and again conducted a memorial service in compliance with a request extended more than four decades ago. The first service, in 1912, was in memory of William P. Scalf who had died in May of that year.

Alice Stratton Scalf, widow of the man in whose memory Rev. Isaac preached, sat this August day under the shade of two giant oaks on the cemetery. She had sat there in the same place and listened to her kinsman preach, barring an absence or two due to illness, each fourth Saturday in August for 43 years. The oaks under which she sat would stand a long time. William P. Scalf had requested they never be cut.

Forty-three years ago she had ridden mule-back through the hills and woodlands that separate Mare Creek from Buffalo Creek to ask Rev. Isaac to come and preach a memorial sermon. Journey and return had been 16 miles. She was middle-aged then and strong. Now she is frail and in her ninetieth year. That first service was a gathering of friends and relatives who knew Bill Scalf in his prime. This year it was a congregation of a sept, a gathering of four generations, most of whom had never seen the man in whose memory the service was held. They were here because it was "Aunt Alice's meeting."

She was born in 1864, a daughter of Harvey Washington Stratton and Phoebe Sellards Stratton, of Mare Creek. Her entire life had been spent on the ancestral farm, and those acres had never been out of the family since pre-emption in 1796. She is. the only living grandchild of the pioneer John Sellards, of Montgomery county, Virginia, who came to Buffalo and founded in 1794 what oldsters called the Sellards Settlement. There was no Floyd county then: The Big Sandy valley was a part of Mason county. The state of Kentucky was two years old.

Grandfather John Sellards, brother to the border captive, Jenny Wiley, was born in 1765. So the lives of him, his daughter, Phoebe Sellards Stratton, and his granddaughter, Phoebe Alice Scalf, covered the entire period of organized American history. Three lives that span a dozen years less than two centuries! Being the only surviving granddaughter of John Sellards, she is a grand-niece of Jenny Wiley and as such is the nearest living relative.

Her mother, Phoebe Sellards Stratton (1830-1906) talked of Aunt Jenny as if she had known her personally, although the border captive had died the year following Phoebe's birth. These two had not seen each other, for Jenny had not visited the household of her brother John since 1825 when she rode horseback from Tom's Creek in the present Johnson county. But the story of Jenny's captivity was kept alive by Phoebe's mother, Susannah Sullivan Sellards.

Susannah was a daughter of Peter and Catherine Ayrehart Sullivan. Peter was a Revolutionary War soldier and for good reason, having been exiled from England for breaking a riding switch from a coffee tree transplanted to Merrie England by a great lord. He "took up" land near the present Ivel but died in Wayne county, West Virginia. Small wonder that Susannah Sellards told and retold old stories of the past and inculcated in her descendants a love of historical lore. It may have been this legendary story of the coffee tree that caused Phoebe Stratton, mother of Alice Scalf, to set out a coffee tree in her garden. Where it came from no one remembers, and it died under adverse climate.

After the death of John Sellards in late 1838, Susannah kept the household intact at Ivel, and she survived until 1876. Knowing her sister-in-law, Jenny intimately, she often related the experiences of the Indian captive to her granddaughter, Phoebe Alice Stratton. The border captivity story comes down to, the present, almost first hand, after Jenny has been dead 123 years.

Grandmother Susannah was a small, spare woman, graceful and vivacious, even in old age. She was 90 at death and lies buried on Buffalo Creek, having died at the home of her daughter, Ella Sellards Goble. When Jenny Wiley visited her brother's home at Ivel in 1825, she, in making hasty preparations for return to Tom's Creek, left her spectacles there in the Sellards home. Travel in those years was mostly by horseback and the two never saw each other again. Jenny's spectacles were passed from generation to generation and today, although corrosion has eaten at the metal frames, they remain in the family of a Sellards descendant.

Such is the background of a long life that began for Alice Scalf in the dying years of the Civil War. Few months, remained of the war when she was born. The day, Oct. 2, 1864, corresponded to the Battle of Saltville, in Virginia, when so many Floyd countians were charging Gen. Burbridge's embankments. Col. Edwin Trimble was carried from the field with a bullet in his brain. Big Sandy lay under a pall of dread, The day she was born, Wash. Stratton stood his rifle at the door of the house. Guerillas had come, might come again.

Life in the Wash Stratton home on Mare Creek was life in any home of Big Sandy during log cabin development days. Clothing and the many utensils of everyday life were manufactured there, and it must have been indeed a beehive of industry. There were shoes to make, which Wash did under a lean-to at the end of the house. Hides were tanned, barrels made, summer hats of wheaten straw woven, cotton picked and processed, sheep were sheared and the wool, picked, carded and spun, was woven into jeans. Flax was raised and processed into fine linen.

Seemingly no other activity in the home could have been attempted, but Jane, sister to Alice, raised silkworms. Sheets of white linen were by means of framies, hung from the ceiling. Here the worms were hatched, emerged to eat mulberry leaves provided by Alice and Jane. Sleeping in a bed under the voracious worms, they could hear the soft crunch, crunch all night long as they ate and ate. When the worms reached the end of a certain span of life they wove a cocoon around themselves of gossamer-like threads. Jane dipped these cocoons in hot water to kill the worms and unwound the thread. After much doubling of these fine threads, she wove silken scarfs and other articles of clothing. Jane discontinued the work about 1875 when Alice was 10 or 12 years of age.

Education was not neglected in the Stratton family, for both sides of the parental home had a tradition of learning. Books, hard to procure then, were plentiful in the home. One volume of Jonathan Edwards', a dry, theological treatise on the religious .affections, was read. It had been given to Wash by Tandy R., his father. The old volume, of quaint binding, dry and ponderous almost to the unreadable point to moderns, was published in 1832. Alice passed it on to a son. That it has been in the family 122 years was evidence that the old Strattons loved books.

Hiram, a brother, taught writing school. In the winter months he went to some community and by subscription accepted pupils for instruction in the art of writing, for art it was in the early eighties and nineties. He died, unmarried while a young man in his twenties and his old writing copy that came down to us is something not seen today. Quality cannot be attained when themes of several thousand words are written as a matter of course.

Andrew was a school teacher. Schools being far between, he found it necessary to teach in West Virginia and on the Levisa Fork at the mouth of Card Creek in 1889 in Kentucky. This school at the Mouth of Card was composed entirely of the Phillips families. Andrew had a picture taken of the boys in the school, and we like to imagine what would be the result if a group of husky youngsters, barefoot but wearing waistcoats and bowler hats, were to enter a modern school room today. Only a rare, old picture can truly reveal how customs and fashions do really change.

Andrew, too, died unmarried and was buried by the side of Hiram and John Tandy, another brother. The old row of graves extending 200 feet, the entire length of the Stratton cemetery, was begun by Wash's father, Tandy R., who was buried there. Mahala Lewis Stratton, his wife, was interred beside him. At the long end of the family row of Strattons was buried William P. Scalf, in 1912.

Alice was married, first to Andrew Nunnery and one son, William Lee, was born to them while they were living on Johns Creek. Andrew died in his early twenties and was buried in the Walker cemetery at Gulnare. Lee went west in the early part of the present century and died in Los Angeles. When the letter came that brought the news of his death and burial, she disappeared for sometime. When the family found her, she was at the wash house, bowed in prayer.

Alice and William P. Scalf were married March 14, 1889. She brought to this union the family passion for land and security. It was this love of her land that caused her to cling to the large farm she and her husband had acquired.

William P. Scalf was ill 18 months, several of these months bed-fast. He had acquired the illness that killed him on a bitterly cold day when he had worked and came home with frozen clothes.

Alice Scalf never re-married. The children grew to adulthood, .steeped in the lore of their people. The memory of their father remained ever green, for she would have it so. The "meeting on the hill" was an annual event of transcendent importance to them and her. The first few years, crowds came riding over the hills from Buffalo, the river and Johns Creek. Some came a week in advance to help "fix for the meetin'." At the homes of the few neighbors beds were full. Boys, sons of the visitors and hosts alike, slept in the hay and enjoyed the adventure.

Each year at the meetin' when the last song is sung the children gather, as if at a signal, walk along the long row of old Stratton graves in the front of the cemetery and stop where William P. Scalf lies buried at the end. There is no ceremony, only deferential casualness around a headstone, and in a moment they turn away. The "meetin"' is over.

Next year, barring the many circumstances of life that would prevent, Rev. Isaac will preach again as he was requested to do, decades ago, and "Aunt Alice" will sit and listen under the great oaks.


                                                       APPENDIX

                            OBITUARY OF MRS. PHOEBE ALICE SCALF

      From The Floyd County Times, Prestonsburg, Kentucky, January 13, 1955

                                               MRS. SCALF IS VICTIM
                                               OF PNEUMONIA AT 90
                                              AT HOME OF DAUGHTER

Mrs. Phoebe Alice Scalf, one of the county's oldest women, died today (Thursday) at the Mare Creek home of her daughter, Mrs. Mary Scalf Thompson. She was 90 years old and succumbed to pneumonia.

The home at which Mrs. Scalf died was on the exact spot where she was born Oct. 2, 1864. She was the last of the family of Harvey Washington Stratton and Phoebe Sellards Stratton, pioneer residents of the county. Mrs. Scalf had been a member of the Methodist Church 65 years and was one of the section's most revered women.

Her husband, William Preston Scalf, died in 1912.  Surviving sons and daughters are: Henry P. Scalf, of Mare Creek, and a member of the Floyd County Times staff; Mrs. Mary Thompson and Mrs. Jane Tackett, both of Mare Creek; Mrs. Della Terry, Wayland; John T. Scalf, Prestonsburg; and William Wallace Scalf, Amherstdale, W. Va.

Funeral rites will be held at the Thompson residence at 10 a.m., Sunday, the Revs. Isaac Stratton, P.L. Hunt, Walter Collins, and Howard C. Church officiating. Burial will be made in the Stratton cemetery on Mare Creek, the Moore Funeral Home directing.


                                                            NOTES:

1. Obituary written by Norman Allen, editor.

2. Mare Creek, Ky. is now Stanville, Ky.

3. The Stratton Cemetery is Stratton-Scalf Cemetery and is situated on the
                old pioneer Stratton farm.



       JAMES BRECKINRIDGE SCALF AND REBECCA SCOTT SCALF
                                                 DESCENDANTS

                                     (Brittan - John, Sr. - Lewis - John)

James Breckinridge Scalf, son of Brittan and Talitha Couch Scalf, was born May 18, 1842, Russell County, Virginia. He was four years old when his mother moved across the Cumberlands to Pike County, Kentucky. He married Rebecca Scott, April 21, 1863, of Pike County. She was a descendant of William (Billy) Scott, pioneer Johns Creek settler. (1)

James and Rebecca lived all of their lives on Johns Creek. He was a farmer and carpenter, his services in the last vocation being much in demand in the area. When he was first married he resided on the Miles Hunt Branch, his house being near the site of the battle between the partisans of Dr. Robert Jackson, Confederate, and Peyton Blackburn, Unionist, when John McGuire was killed. James, who was at work at the time on the farm, heard the first shots and when the whistling bullets came near he sought refuge in the home.

Eleven children were born to James and Rebecca Scalf. Jeremiah Lee became a carpenter and stonemason. He resided after marriage to Sarah Pinson on the McCombs Branch at the present Gulnare postoffice. John C.B. Scalf was an officer for many years and Mitchell Thomas was a carpenter. Christopher Columbus ("Lum") was a carpenter. William M. Scalf was a carpenter and custodian. Rebecca Scott Scalf, born December 16, 1642, died on her birthday, in 1910, at Gulnare. Her husband survived until November 1916. Both are buried on the Scott cemetery at Gulnare.

I. Jeremiah Lee Scalf, oldest of the children of James B. Scalf and Retecca Scott Scalf, was born February 21, 1864. He married Sarah Pinson. Issue were Florace C. Scalf, a teacher for a few years but for years a government employee in Washington, D.C., where he died in 1952, married McNaulty; Carl Scalf, married Polly James, daughter of Malcolm James; Ernest Scalf, died not married; Dovie Scalf, married Robert Leedy; and Nona Scalf, died not married.

II. John C.B. Scalf, married Victoria Smith, daughter of Henry and Lucretia Bevins Smith, of Pike County, Kentucky, 1889. They resided most of their lives on Big Creek and Pond Creek, Pike County. Issue of this marriage were (1) Fannie Lucresia Scalf, born May 2, 1891, married Roy West. Children were Luther, Edna, Ella, John, Claude, Ester Hopkins, and John. (2) William M. Scalf, born December 14, 1892, married Ethel Bevins. (3) Roscoe Scalf, born August 7, 1897, married first in 1920, Pina Blackburn. One foster daughter, Evelyn. His wife died in 1953 and he married Goldie Charles Bevins. Two children are Charles David and Cynthia Lynn. (4) Maude Scalf, born August 20, 1899, married Troy Williamson. Their children are Goldie, Elizabeth, and Troy, Jr. (5) Virgil Scalf, born June 19, 1907, married Kathleen Hatfield. One son is Randall. (6) Monroe Scalf died young.

III. Green Brittan Scalf, born Feb. 21, 1869, died ca 1889.

IV. Mitchell Thomas Scalf, born March 31, 1871, died 1952, at Pikeville, Kentucky, where he had lived for approximately 40 years. He married Arzella Louise McGuire, Nov. 10, 1892, daughter of Frank P. McGuire and Arnetta Jane Stratton McGuire. Arzella was born July 11, 1878; her sister Susannah McGuire, who married Christopher Columbus Scalf, was born May 3, 1880. Frank P. McGuire was born June 21, 1855, died June 17, 1881, married Arnetta Jane Stratton, born May 28, 1851, a daughter of Harvey Washington Stratton and Phoebe Sellards Stratton. Arnetta Jane McGuire was the mother of a third daughter, Lucy Jane, who died in July 1882, The mother did not long survive. Arzella Louise McGuire Scalf died October 28, 1957.

Children of this union of Mitchell T. Scalf and Arzella Louise Scalf were (1) Victoria. Jane Scalf, born March 29, 1895, died in early adulthood not married; (2) John C.B. Scalf, born Feb. 24, 1898, married Grace Charles; (3) Roland Rush Scalf, born Nov. 25, 1902, married Mildred Nickerson; (4) Robert E. Lee Scalf, born Nov. 11, 1904, married Chelsie Bayler; (5) Minnie Alice Scalf, born March 3, 1900, married Wilson Robinson; (6) Rebecca Phoebe Scalf, born Dec. 31, 1906, married Arby Layne, August 2, 1922. Their three children were Edwin, born July 2, 1923, killed in combat in Germany in World War II, June 23, 1943; Louise, born Oct. 2. 1935, married Douglas McKay; and Jackie, born June 15, 1938, married Judy Bevins; (7) Ada May Scalf, born Sept, 15, 1924, married James Maxwell; (8) Nora Esta Scalf, born Jan. 8, 1894, died March 1894; (9) James Brittain Scalf, born Feb. 25, 1908, died 1910; Joseph Edgar Scalf, born Nov. 7. 1919, married Princess Abshire.

Issue of Wilson and Minnie Scalf Robinson are Woodrow, married Catherine Huffman; Catherine; married Ed Billiter; James, married Glenna Hall; Juanita, married Albert Simpson; and Jettalee, married Bill Green.

V. Mary Emily Scalf, born June 26, 1875, burned to death at the fireside in the home as an infant when the babe's clothing caught on fire.

VI. Victoria Adelaide Scalf, born May 26, 1873, married first John Riley Nunnery. They were parents of four children: Thomas 0. Nunnery, married Nora Burchett; James Henderson Nunnery, married first Octavia Brown, second Sylvia Foley; Effie Nunnery, married Goldie Layne; Rebecca Nunnery, died young. Victoria Adelaide Scalf married second to Thomas Crum. To this second marriage was born a son, Clarence, married May Weddington; and a daughter, Alice May, married Connell McCoy. Victoria Adelaide married third to Walker Mayo, No issue.

VII. Christopher Columbus Scalf, born April 22, 1877, married Susannah McGuire, Feb. 1898. Eight children were born to this union. Susannah, born May 3, 1880, died Nov. 8, 1930, and he married second Emily Worland. No issue. Christopher Columbus died Feb. 8, 1965, at Justell, Ky., and interment was made in the Scott cemetery at Gulnare, Ky.

Issue of Christopher Columbus Scalf and Susannah McGuire Scalf were; Sterling J. Scalf, born Jan. 3, 1899, married Lillian Gose; Lula Scalf, born June 16, 1901, married Wallace Young; Emily Scalf, born June 19, 1907, married Raymond Adams; William Lee Scalf, born July 31, 1903, died April 2, 1922 in a mine accident at Betsy Layne, Kentucky; Edna Scalf, born Feb. 26, 1911, died Dec. 20, 1931; Everett Scalf, born Aug. 1, 1909, married Minnie Justice; Woodrow Wilson Scalf, born Jan. 17, 1917, married Dorothy Justice; Edgar Scalf, born Nov. 8, 1905, died young.

Children of Emily Scalf Adams, daughter of C.C. Scalf, and Raymond Adams, are Raymond Adams, Jr.; Geraldine Adams; Albert Lee Adams; Phyllis Jean Adams; Bradley Adams; Barbara Sue Adams; Roxie Ann Adams. The family lives in Columbus, Ohio.

VIII. William M. Scalf, born Aug. 19, 1879, married Gracie Blackburn. Eight children were Clyde Scalf, married Sallie McCoy, Glenn Scalf, married Beulah May Johnson; Clell Scalf, married Francis Adkins; Clara Scalf, married Frank Mattox; Carie Scalf, married Hansford Rogers; Carroll Scalf, unmarried; Thomas Scalf, married Jerry Hayes; Ronald Scalf, married Patricia Stapleton.

IX. Ruth Ann Scalf, born September 19, 1881, married William C. Clark. Five children were Emery E. Clark, married May Davis Hill; Victor Clark, married Oriole Price; Gaynell Clark, married Ollie May; Lawton Edward Clark, an airman in World War II, was killed in a mission over Germany, Sept. 10, 1944; Ballard Elmer Clark, killed Sept. 23, 1930, by a train at Dinwood, near Martin, Kentucky.

Emery Eugene Clark, born May 19, 1897, married May Davis Hill, Nov. 9, 1922. She was born April 25, 1903, a daughter of Edward P. Hill, Sr., (who served several terms as Floyd County Judge) and Adda Louellen Davis Hill (2) Issue of Emery E. and May Hill Clark were (1) Emery Eugene Clark, Jr., born Feb. 4, 1924, died March 4, 1924; (2) Edna Estelle Clark, born Dec. 6, 1925, died Feb. 4, 1926; (3) Ethel Elaine Clark, born May 7, 1929, married Howard Carr Leming, July 30, 1949, born March 21, 1925 - two children; Howard Clark Leming, born June 20, 1953, and Laura Elaine Leming, born August 29, 1955; (4) William Edward Clark, born Nov. 15, 1934, married Janeth Rhea Graham, May 29, 1955, who was born April 10, 1937 - two children: Barbara Sue Clark, born Dec. 2, 1957, and Mark Graham Clark, born March 25, 1962.

Gaynell Clark, born Dec. 21, 1904, married, July 2, 1927, Ollie Powers May, born Nov. 6, 1904. Issue of this marriage are Kathryn Lorraine May, born April 10, 1928, married Beryl Fraley; Alphajean May, born Nov. 25, 1929, married David Duane Watson; Altonette May, born September 29, 1936, married Earl Bentley.

Victor Clark and Oriole Price Clark were parents of James Dempsey Clark, born Jan. 21, 1922, married Anna Sue Layne; Darwin Eugene Clark, born March 29, 1924, unmarried in 1968; Alvanell Clark, born Dec. 28, 1925, married Petty Leon Thompson. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have a son, Kenneth.

The Clarks were pioneer settlers of the Johns Creek area of early Floyd County, Kentucky. Reuben Clark erected a mill, known as Clark's Mill, near the mouth of Brushy Fork of Johns Creek at the present Pike-Floyd County line, which served a wide area in log cabin development days. The mill was mentioned frequently in Order Book I, Floyd County.

Emery Eugene Clark was born at Gulnare, Kentucky, and associated himself with the infant gas industry of the Big Sandy valley. He was promoted several times and at his retirement was vice-president in charge of production of the Kentucky West Virginia Gas Company. He now resides at 50 Dix Drive, Ormond Beach, Florida. Victor Clark, also a native of Gulnare is engaging in the insurance business at Williamson, West Virginia. Gaynell Clark May and her husband, Ollie Powers May, reside at Martin, Floyd County, Kentucky.

X. Peter M. Scalf, born Nov. 4, 1884, died at about age four years.

XI. Talitha Belle Scalf, born May 4, 1885, married Malcolm James. Issue were Mabel, married Moses Runyon; May, born June 5, 1912, married, September 21, 1931, Rev. Bill Childers, born Jan. 17, 1908, died Oct. 17, 1965; Quentin, married Violet Runyon; Guy, died young; Imogene, married Luther Boyd.

Malcolm James was first married to Margaret Roop and one daughter, Polly, married Carl Scalf. Malcolm James died July 14, 1957 and his widow, Talitha Belle Scalf James, survived until Nov. 3, 1966. Both are buried on the James Cemetery, McCombs, Kentucky.

Issue of Carl Scalf and Polly James Scalf were Floris Wesley, married Leona Williams; James Ernest, married Mary Lou Patton; John Williard, married Margaret Slone; David Allen, married Jean Morrison; William Alex, married Wilma Phillips; Elster Eugene, married Betty June Lowe; Nina May, unmarried; Peggy Ann, married Bill Hite; and Lawton Edward, unmarried.

Issue of Rev. Bill Childers and May James Childers were Kenneth, born Jan. 26, 1933, died March 3, 1957, married Lulavee Lowe; Jimmy, born Sept. 26, 1937, died March 17, 1945; and Grover, born Feb. 26, 1944, married Blanche Maynard, born July, 1941. One daughter of Kenneth and Lulavee Low Childers is Bonnie, born Oct. 26, 1949. Bonnie Childers married Elmer Abner and they are the parents of a son, Jimmy. Issue of Moses Runyon and Mable James Runyon are James Thomas, married Justine Blackburn; Winifred Justine, married Darwin Taylor; Barbara May, married Rush Fitch; Elpha Jean, married Noel Howard; Ronnie Dean, unmarried.

Issue of Luther Boyd and Imogene James Boyd are Gary, married Edwenia Davis; Jaqueline, married Johnnie Stanley.

Issue of Quentin James and Violet Runyon James are Millie Sue, married Ballard Gross; Cletis Carl, married Mary Ann Craig; Shirley Mae, married Gene Stepp; Freddie, married Jannis Friend.


                                                        NOTES

1. William Scott, Jr., pioneer Johns Creek settler, was born in Virginia ca 1785, son William Scott, Sr. and Lucy Scott. William Scott, Sr. died in Bedford County, Va. in 1794 and his will was probated Nov. 24 that year. (Will Book 2, page 147)

William Scott, Jr., married Elizabeth McCoy, born ca 1785, as deduced from census records. They came to the Big Sandy region prior to 1810. Issue of William and Elizabeth Scott were Nancy, Mary, Andrew, John, Axton, Daniel, Barnabus, Evan, James Thomas, and Rebecca.

Axton Scott, son of William and Elizabeth Scott, was born ca 1814, Floyd County, Ky., married Oct. 27, 1836, to Ruth Ann Blevins, born 1821 in Scott County, Va. Issue of this marriage were Sarah Ann, Mitchell, Rebecca, (who married James Breckinridge Scalf), Emeline, Peter, John B., Matilda, Ellen, Ruth Abigail, Andrew, William and Bell.

2. Adda Louellen Davis Hill, wife of Judge Edward Prebble Hill, was born Nov. 27, 1885, died August 17, 1960. Her parents were Austin T. Davis and Margaret Auxier Davis. Edward P. Hill, Sr., born April 29 1883, was living in 1968 in Mount Sterling, Kentucky.

A brother of May Davis Hill Clark was Edward P. Hill, Jr., of Prestonsburg, Ky. An attorney, he served as Floyd County Judge, several terms as Circuit Judge, and is presently (1968) serving as Kentucky Appellate Judge on the Court of Appeals.


                                    DESCENDANTS OF
     WILLIAM BLACKBURN AND ELIZABETH SCALF BLACKBURN

                            (Brittan -.John, Sr., - Lewis - James - John)

Elizabeth "Betsy" Scalf, daughter of Brittan and Talitha Couch Scalf, married William Blackburn in Pike County, Kentucky, October 27, 1850. Her husband was known as "Monkey Will" by everyone. They resided on Johns Creek and on a tributary stream, Buffalo Creek.

William Blackburn had been married ten years when the Civil War began and he enlisted in the Thirty-Ninth Kentucky Mounted Infantry, U.S.A. under Colonel John Dills, at Pikeville. Since the regiment was designated to defensive operations in the Big Sandy valley, Blackburn was stationed in his home area. He became a partisan of Peyton Blackburn, Union leader in the valley, and participated in the local struggle against Dr. Robert Jackson and his Confederate sympathizers who were organized under the banner of the Fifth Kentucky Infantry.

The partisans of Peyton Blackburn and Dr. Robert Jackson collided in several pitched skirmishes. on Johns Creek. One fight occurred. at the mouth of the present Clark Branch and John McGuire, a member of the Fifth Kentucky Infantry, C.S.A., was killed. Another fight, in which no one was killed on either side, occurred on the Blankenship farm near the present postoffice of McCombs. Seeking to revenge the death of McGuire, the Jackson followers ambushed Peyton Blackburn in Pettit (Peyton) Gap, a pass leading from Johns Creek to Brushy Creek, and killed him. One of the participants in this ambush and a member of the Jackson party was William ("Bill") Collins, who afterward married Mary Blackburn, daughter of William Blackburn and Elizabeth Scalf Blackburn.

Seven children were born to William and Elizabeth Blackburn. These were William H. ("Bud") Blackburn, Thomas ("Trucker") Blackburn, Mary ("Sis") Blackburn, John Henry ("Dink") Blackburn, Jane Blackburn, Mintie Blackburn, and Hudson ("Hut") Blackburn. (Hudson Blackburn married Mary Jackson. No other information in this compilation).

Elizabeth Scalf Blackburn preceded her husband in death several years and lies buried on the Blackburn cemetery on Missouri Branch, a tributary of Johns Creek, at McCombs, Kentucky. Her husband subsequently remarried twice. He is also buried on the Blackburn cemetery. The cemetery is on the farm of Roscoe Blackburn, a grandson, and a memorial service is held annually in October on the cemetery. It is attended by Blackburns and their relatives from a wide area and other states.

I. W.H. ("Bud") Blackburn was twice married. His first wife was Mary ("Pop") Scalf, daughter of Jeremiah and Sarah Brinstone Scalf. Two children were born to this union: W.C. ("Bogue") Blackburn, who married first Maude Damron, of Yeager, Kentucky; and Mary Jane Blackburn, who married Jessee Daniels, of Johnson County, Kentucky. W.C. Blackburn served as Pike County Justice of the Peace.

W.H. Blackburn married second to Margaret ("Sis") James, daughter of William James. Issue of this union were Roscoe Blackburn, married Della Justice; Vatie Blackburn, married C.C. ("Lum") Whitt; Van Blackburn, married Bird Ratliff; Gordie Blackburn, married Mellie Justice; Verdie Blackburn, married Allen Click, French Blackburn, married Bessie.Spears; Bradley Blackburn, married. Cora Justice; Okie Blackburn, married Willie Justice; and Beechie Blackburn, married Ambrose Roop.

II. Thomas ("Trucker") Blackburn married Elizabeth Sherman, daughter of Jeff and Kate Clay Sherman and granddaughter of Matthew Clay, early Buffalo Creek resident. Thomas was a farmer and logger. He earned his nickname when he operated a logging vehicle on a tram road on Buffalo Creek in the early 1880's. He lived and died on the Lick Branch of Buffalo Creek. Issue of his union with Elizabeth Sherman were W.H. ("Buddie") Blackburn, married Alice DeRossell; Thomas Blackburn, married Bertha Burchett; Alice Blackburn, married Joe Ray; George Blackburn, married Susan Endicott; Elbert Blackburn, married Antha. Lowe; Floyd ("Blue") Blackburn, married Effie Justice; and Emma Jane ("Sis") Blackburn, married Bailey Hite.

III. Mary ("Sis") Blackburn married William Collins, of Pike County. Issue were Reuben, who died not married; Jack, married first Ann Branham, second Lynn Hall; Garfield, married Nora Spears; John D., unmarried; Rastus, married Esta Burchett; Tobias, married Cooch Ratliff; Betsy, married George Runyon; Henry, died unmarried. This family resided on Johns Creek, chiefly near. Gulnare postoffice.

IV. John Henry ("Dink") Blackburn, married Susannah James. Issue of this marriage were Thomas, married America Burchett; Anna, married Fletcher Cisco; Elzie, married George Washington Cisco; Willie, married Anna Sherman; Leck, married Laura Sherman; Margaret, married first John Justice, second Jenk King; Maudie, married Garfield James.

V. Jane Blackburn, married Wesley Thompson, moved to State of Washington, about 1911, at the time of the Scalf-Goble-Music migration to that state. One son was James Thompson, who did not move to Washington. James married Mary Ratliff, Pike County. James was a miner at Betsy Layne, Ky.

VI. Mintie Blackburn married Harry Burchett. They resided on the Missouri Branch of Johns Creek. Issue of this marriage were James, married Belle McCoy, moved to Washington; Emmet, married Mary Blackburn; Stella,, married Gilbert Justice; Louanna, married Buck McCoy; Turner, married Lucy Hatfield Spears; Jeannette, married in Virginia; George, married in Virginia; Birgie, married in Virginia; Roland, died not married; Walter married a Mullins, in Virginia; Zona, married Mont Walker; Julia, married James Blackburn, Two children of the union of Zona Burchett and Mont Walker were Sallie, died young, and Trevert, who married Eunice Spears.

Issue of Thomas Blackburn (son of John Henry and Susannah James Blackburn) and America Burchett Blackburn were Wade, married Ora Burchett; Lucy, married Forrest Burchett; Ona, married Floyd Harris; Elizabeth ("Lizzie"), married Otta Cisco; Della, married Will Hunt; Elmer, died young.

Issue of Stella Burchett (daughter of Harry Burchett and Mintie Blackburn Burchett) and Gilbert Justice were Emery Justice, married Sadie Maynard; Floris (Forest) Justice, married first Della Maynard, second a Miller; Curtis Justice, married Nell Ruth Spears; Clyde Justice, married Magdalene Spears, divorced; Laura Justice, married Joe Foley, divorced; Minnie Justice, married Everett Scalf; Kathleen Justice, married Grover Blackburn; Dorothy Justice, married Woodrow Scalf.

 

   JEREMIAH SCALF AND SARAH BRINSTONE SCALF DESCENDANTS

                        (Brittan - John, Sr., - Lewis - James - John)

Jeremiah (Jerry) Scalf, son of Brittan and Talitha Couch Scalf, was born in Russell County, Virginia, in 1823 and named for his uncle, Jeremiah Couch. We know nothing of his teen-age life except that when he was about 17 years old, in 1840, he crossed over the Cumberlands to Southeastern Kentucky to be with his uncles, Robert, Jesse and Peter Scalf. At about this time he married Sarah Brinstone, the place not known. It is conceivable that he married in Virginia and moved to Clay County, Kentucky, after his marriage. She was the same age as her husband, according to the 1850 Clay County Census.

At the time of the enumeration of the 1850 Clay County Census he and Sarah were the parents of three children: James Brittain, born 1845; Cynthia, born 1847; and William, born 1849. All were listed as born in Kentucky. A Frances Paine, age 19, born in Kentucky, was living in the household.

Sometime between 1850 and 1860 Jeremiah and his family moved from Clay County to Pike County, Kentucky. We know no reason for the move but he was possessed of 1ittle land in Clay County and had a small real estate holding of a value of only $200 in 1850 so it was an easy matter to make arrangements to move. His mother and younger brothers and sisters had preceded him to Pike County several years. Archibald, a brother, was now married and living in adjacent Floyd County and Levy and John, two other brothers, were married and residing in Pike County as was a sister, Elizabeth, and her husband, William Blackburn. Nancy Bo (Mary) had married Columbus C. Mills and lived in nearby Martin County, then Floyd. Jeremiah's move may have been the natural inclination of a person to follow his people.

The 1860 Pike County Census shows that four other children had been born between 1850 and 1860. These were Nancy L., born 1852; Mary, born 1854; Melissa, born 1856; and a daughter, her name uncertain, but probably Hemy, born 1959. In addition, another child, which probably died infant, was born in Pike County, March 12, 1854. It was named Tabitha.

Jeremiah resided on Buffalo Creek, Pike County, Kentucky, on land afterward owned by his son, Amos Scalf, and after that by Floyd Scott, and now (1968) owned by James Clark, about a mile from the Pike-Floyd County line. His homesite was less than half a mile from the land patented by his brother, Hezekiah Scalf, in 1886.

Jeremiah died previous to 1864 for his widow remarried August 26, that year, to LeRoy Vaughan, according to Floyd County marriage records. Two of Jeremiah's children, James Brittain and Cynthia, married in 1866 so we can rather safely assume that he and Sarah Brinstone were married in the early 1840's, previous to the date of the migration of Talitha Scalf to Kentucky.

Farming and logging were the occupations of residents of Buffalo Creek during the life of Jeremiah and little of the latter for the industry scarcely touched the isolated valleys like Buffalo Creek. He lived chiefly by farming and since the area was dominated by near pioneer conditions of life was a severe struggle., Elderly residents of the area several decades ago recalled that Jeremiah was a quiet natured man and of undoubted integrity in the transactions of the day.

Of the children of Jeremiah and Sarah Scalf, a son, Amos, was born in 1862, probably about a year prior to his father's death. Amos was two years old when his mother remarried. Of the nine children we have full or meager records of only seven. There are no records on Hemy and Tabitha.

I. Amos (Witch) Scalf, born June 22, 1862, married, 1878, Sarah Jane Music, born April 6, 1858, daughter of Andrew Music and Emily Bowen Music. Amos Scalf and family migrated near the turn of the century to the State of Washington. He and wife died there. They were-the parents. of nine children: Mary, Andrew, Wesley, Emma, Lee, Callie, Anna, Nora, Jerry.

1. Mary Scalf, born June 12, 1880, Married Albert H. Goble, born September 13, 1876, died May, 1966, (see Appendix). She died February 6, 1907. They were the parents of four children: Edna S., Bertha, Anna M., Otis S.

(a)  Edna S. Goble, born September 5, 1898, married Stanley C. Bright. Parents of two children: Betty Ja Bright, born March 31, 1924 and Jack S. Bright, born January 3, 1927. Betty Bright married Clifton E. LaHue, born August 9, 1924. Clifton E. LaHue and Betty Bright LaHue had three children: Claudia J. LaHue, born July 28, 1950, Deborah J. LaHue, born May 2, 1954, and Kelly K. LaHue, born October 21, 1958. Jack S. Bright, son of Stanley C. Bright and Edna S. Goble Bright, married June 26, 1955 Phyllis Fairweather, born June 10, 1934. Jack S. Bright and Phyllis Fairweather Bright were parents of three children; Glenn R. Bright, born July 7, 1957, Sheryl Ann Bright, born October 18, 1958, and Robert N. Bright, born Feb. 3, 1962.

(b) Bertha Goble, born November 15, 1901, married Gregory H. Greiter, died July 12, 1947. She died April 3, 1948. They were the parents of three children; Gilbert R. Greiter, born July 2, 1928; Jean R. Greiter, and Joan F. Greiter, twins, born November 20, 1934. Gilbert R. Greiter married, March 8, 1951, Patricia Bennett and they were the parents of four children; Gregory L. Greiter, born December 15, 1951; Kimberly J. Greiter, born May 9, 1956; Tamera S. Greiter, born August 3, 1958; and Judith K. Greiter, born July 13, 1960. Jean R. Greiter married October 23, 1954, Jack White, born May 13, 1935 and were parents of two children: Timothy Ad White, born July 5, 1959, and Tracy J. White, born June 14, 1961. Joan F. Greiter married, January 16, 1954, Robert H. Canfield, born July 22, 1935, and are parents of two children: Patricia J. Canfield, born November 20, 1955, and Karen A. Canfield, born September 18, 1957.

(c) Anne M. Goble, born July 30, 1905, married March 10, 1941, Barney F. Field, born August 5, 1901.

(d) Otis S. Goble, born March 8, 1903, died May 3, 1906.

2. Andrew Scalf, born June 6, 1882, married Martha Goble. Andrew made a journey to Alaska to prospect for gold but returned to Washington where he died ca 1936.

3. Wesley Scalf, born March 9, 1885, died 1887.

4. Emma Scalf, born April 16, 1887, married Thomas Coleman.

5. Lee Scalf, born October 5, 1889.

6. Callie Scalf, born March 19, 1892, married, August 15, 1921, Thomas A. Saunders, born May 13, 1883, died May 3, 1959. They were parents of six children: Daughter died infant, Thomas M.., Evelyn, Arleen, Donald, Gilbert.

(a) Thomas M. Saunders, born September 13, 1923, died August 1, 1948. Thomas M. married Delaine Jagar; one daughter, Lee Ann, living in St. Paul, Minnesota.

(b) Evelyn Saunders, born June 16, 1925. Married Roy Conradi. Five children: Linda, Pamela, Paula, Deborah, Julie.

(c) Arleen Saunders, born September 25, 1927. Married Melvin Frederickson. Six children: Sharon, Melvin, Tommy, Connie, Marcia, Mike.

(d) Donald Saunders, born June 15, 1929.

(e) Gilbert Saunders, born July 2, 1933. Married Patricia Burkett. Two children: Kristen and Susan.

7. Anna Scalf, born October 12, 1894, married Wallace Morris. Three children of Wallace Morris and Anna Scalf Morris were Lee, Hubert and Willard. Lee, born August 11, 1913, married Agatha Marian Graves, born August 22, 1918. Issue of Lee and Agatha Morris are Robert Lee, born April 30, 1935; Betty Jean, born May 17, 1937; and Donald Francis, born December 19, 1939. Robert Lee Morris married Sara Etta Smith, born April 16, 1936 and were parents of four children: Jay Dion, born January 18, 1958; Timothy Dan, born January 21, 1959; Sarah Marie, born August 26, 1960; Karlita Rose, born July 31, 1962. Betty Jean Morris married Wayne Gordon Ridlon, born April 27, 1932 and four children were Susan Kay, born January 27, 1957; Cheryl Ann, born June 21, 1958; Diana Lynne, born May 1, 1961; Debra Jo, born May 14, 1962. Donald Francis Morris married Suzanna Boncore, born July 3, 1937 and three children were Lorraine Elizabeth, born April 14, 1958; Craig Steven, born October 26, 1959; Donna Sue, born October 28, 1960.

Hubert Morris married Barbara Mae Brewster, born May 22, 1929. She was a daughter of Van Horn Brewster (1885-1946) and Anna Estelle Brewster, born May 24, 1899. One son of Hubert and Barbara Brewster Morris is James Richard, born September 12, 1959.

Willard Morris, son of Wallace and Anna Scalf Morris, married Violet Burlingame. Two children are Willard, Jr., born 1938, and Anna Mae, born 1941. Willard Morris, Jr. married Dee Asbury. One son is James Dean, born May, 1962. Anna Mae Morris married Gene Love. One son, name not learned, was born 1965.

8. Nora Scalf. Born April 12, 1897. Married Carl Smith.

9. Jerry Scalf, born December 10, 1899, married Nellie Larson. Three daughters by this marriage; Verna, Myrtle, and Dora. Jerry remarried second to Virginia Morriell. Three sons by this marriage: Paul, David and Morris.

                                  (End of Amos Scalf Generation)

II. James Britton (Bud) Scalf, Married Mary Elizabeth Thompson. Resided on Buffalo Creek, Pike County. Two sons: William Wayne Scalf (1870-1931) and John Wesley Scalf (1873-1962). They were known all over the area as "Willie and Cooge." Loving the solitude of the mountain woodlands and the excitement of the chase they became expert marksmen. In the first decade of the present century there was much talk of the State of Washington in Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky and Andrew Scalf, son of Amos Scalf, visited the state and sent back glowing reports of the opportunity offered on the west coast.

Many area families made plans to migrate to Washington, among them the Musics, Gobles, Thompsons and Scalfs. Several completed their plans and left for the West in 1911, among them the families of John Wesley and William Wayne Scalf. (See appendix at the end of chapter).

1. William Wayne Scalf, born February 28, 1870, killed in a car accident January 3, 1931. Married Martha DeRossett, daughter of Thomas DeRossett, Floyd County, Kentucky. Issue were Everett C. (Ras), born July 22, 1890; Thomas, born December 23, 1891; Joseph K., May 13, 1894; John Wesley, born November 28, 1897; Mary Jane, born January 21, 1901, died December 24, 1903; Bailey, born March 13, 1904; Melvina, born February 3, 1908; Alice; Cleo; and Ida May.

(a) Everett C. (Ras) Scalf never married. He died in 1960. He visited relatives in Eastern Kentucky in the early 1920's and was employed here for a few months but returned to Washington.

(b) Thomas Scalf married Grace Short. Children were Floyd, Howard, Myrel, Audry, Wilford. Information on this family incomplete except that all of them married.

(c) Joseph K. Scalf married Mary Bell Bishop, born Dec. 4, 1898, died June 2, 1927. Children were Lola Belle, born 1920, drowned in Cyprus River in 1932; Geneva, born Feb. 22, 1923; Helen, born Feb. 27, 1924; Willis, born Sept. 29, 1925. Willis married, wife's name unavailable, but had three children: Donald, Tina, Dwane. Geneva Scalf married Wilbur Hackney, son of James and Eliza Hackney and two children were William, born 1949, and Debra, born 1952. Helen Scalf married Harry Lindberg and to them were born three children: Harry Joseph; Karen Elaine, born Dec. 2. 1943; and Lola Belle, born Dec. 19, 1946. Harry Joseph Lindberg and his wife, name unavailable, had two children: Cheryl Lee, born May 9, 1963; and Joseph Dwayne, born Sept. 13, 1965. Karen Elaine Lindberg married R.V. Smith and three children are R.V. Smith, Jr., born Dec. 27, 1962; Sonya Lynn Smith, born July 5, 1964; and Domin Dean Smith, born June 18, 1965. Lola Belle Lindberg married Bowen. Two children are Ronda Helen Bowen, born April 15, 1964; and Sheila Dell Bowen, born April 26, 1966.

(d) John Wesley Scalf married Lucille Velma Hackney, born March 27, 1914. Children were Barbara Ella, born Jan. 19, 1933; Ernest Morris, born April 13, 1935; Betty Ann, born July 13, 1937. Barbara Ella Scalf married Elmer Day, son of Enoch and Mary Short Day and children were Roger John, born Dec. 26, 1948; Darrell Dean, born June 13, 1950; Twila Fern, born Aug. 6, 1951; and Wayne El, born June 5, 1956, Ernest Morris Scalf married, wife's name unavailable, and had three children: Marty Joe, born Dec. 2, 1956; Dona Marie, born April 18, 1958; and Aaron Ernest, born June 25, 1959, died April 23, 1960. Betty Ann Scalf married Dale Workman and children were Penny Frieda, born May 5, 1953, and Delbert Emery, born Jan. 16, 1955.

(e) Bailey Scalf married Bertha Ward. One daughter, Phyllis, born Nov. 13, 1933. Phyllis married a Richie or Ritchie and two known children are Dannie and Mike.

(f) Mary Jane Scalf was born Jan. 21, 1901, died Dec. 24, 1903.

(g) Melvina Scalf, born Feb. 3, 1908, died Dec. 7, 1944. Married Herbert Morris, son of Jack and Melinda Mills Morris. Issue were Winifred, born Dec. 31, 1924; Gene, born Sept. 8, 1928; Beverly, born March 18, 1933; and Lois, born Jan. 15, 1935. Winifred Morris, wife's name unavailable, had two known children: Susie, born July 25, 1954; and Steven, born Sept. 26, 1956. Gene Morris, wife's name unavailable, had four children. Dave, born May 2, 1951; Keven, born Aug. 26, 1952; Wendelyn, born Jan. 9, 1954; Rachell, born Feb. 16, 1956, Beverly Morris married Perkins and children were Diane, born July 27, 1954; Donna, born Dec. 6, 1955; Karen, born June 8, 1957; and Sharon, born Jan.17, 1961. Lois Morris, husband's name unavailable, had two known children: Wanda, born Nov. 12, 1953; and Claudette, born May 4, 1956.

(h) Alice Cleo Scalf married Charles Hackney. Two children were Dale and Shirley. Dale married first Jerri Hessley, daughter of Clarence and Zeila Hessler. Divorced. One daughter was Pamela Hackney, born 1949. Dale married second to Phyllis Abel. Sons of this union were Bruce, Wayne, and Charles R., born May 30, 1965, died April 24, 1966. Shirley Hackney married Eddie Whatron. Daughters of Shirley and Eddie Whatron. are Ronda, born Jan. 16, 1955, and Brenda, born Feb. 1, 1958.

(i) Ida May Scalf married George Moore. One daughter was Loretta Moore, married Lowery. Loretta had three children: Arlan Lowery, born 1951; Patrick Lowery, born 1952; and Melody Lowery, born 1954.

2. John Wesley (Cooge) Scalf, son of James Brittain and Mary Thompson Scalf, and grandson of Jeremiah and Sarah Brinstone Scalf, was born March 22, 1873, died Oct. 4, 1962. He married first Martha Viola Clark, born March 20, 1873, daughter of Addison and Sarah Adams Clark, of Floyd County, Kentucky. Martha Clark Scalf died in Washington, Oct. 28, 1912, and John Wesley Scalf remarried to Emma Music, daughter of Marion and Caroline Crider Music. Nine children were born to the first union and 11 to the second marriage. Four children of the first marriage, Roland, Brian, Elizabeth and Nellie, died in April 1910 from measles contracted on the train enroute to Washington. The other five children of the first marriage were General L., born Feb. 22, 1899; Mae Sarah, born Jan. 31, 1905; George Quilvens born Feb, 21, 1907; Vada A. born Feb. 15, 1910, and Nora Viola, born Oct. 28, 1912.

General L. Scalf married May 11, 1929, Lucinda Taylor, born Floyd County, Ky., June 6, 1895. They were the parents of a son, Robert, born Jan. 22, 1932. Mae Sarah Scalf married March 5, 1923, Russell L. Kirkpatrick, born July 19, 1899. He was a son of Robert H. Kirkpatrick, born Dec. 4, 1851, died Dec. 6, 1936, and Amanda S. Harp Kirkpatrick, born Dec. 8, 1655, died Oct. 1957. One son, Earl George Kirkpatrick, born Dec. 8, 1923, died in an airplane crash, Jan. 4, 1953. Earl was married 1943 to Virginia Jennings, and they were parents of two children; Anita Louise Kirkpatrick, born June 25, 1944, and Daniel Dewey Kirkpatrick, born July 10, 1945. Daniel Dewey married Judy Miller and have two children: Daniel Dewey Kirkpatrick, born Oct. 4, 1964, and Roenita Lynn, born Feb. 23, 1967. Mr. and Mrs. Russell L. Kirkpatrick reside at Elbe, Washington.

George Quilven Scalf, born Feb. 21, 1907, married Aug. 20, 1938, Ethel Tiller, born May 21, 1919. She was a daughter of Ivan K. Tilller, born 1880 and Alice Jackson Tiller, born 1887. Issue was Gaylon Laverne, born Aug. 3, 1941. Vada A. Scalf, born June 16, 1919, married Aug. 17, 1928, Ernest Loden, son of Richard Loden and Magda S. Loden. One son, Ernest Dwayne Loden, born June 11, 1935, married August 1955, Irene E. Goodwin, born Dec. 8, 1936. Ernest and Irene Loden were parents of three children: Cheryl Ann, born Aug. 25, 1956; Susan Lynn, born Nov. 15, 1957; and David Ernest, born June 16, 1963, Mora Viola Scalf, born Oct. 9, 1912, married, June 20, 1931, Roland Harting, son of Christopher and Emma Harting. Children were Allen Wayne Harting, born Oct. 9, 1933, and Carol Jean Harting, born July 7, 1936. Carol Jean Harting married Donald Paulsen and two children were Martin and Chrissie Ann. Allen Wayne Harting married Mary Van Vleet and a son is Glenn Allen Harting, born Dec. 20, 1965.

The 11 children of John Wesley Scalf by his second marriage to Emma Music Scalf were Lee Brittain Scalf, born June 29, 1914; Olie Oliver Scalf, born June 1, 1915; Alverda Minnie Scalf, born Aug,. 22, 1917; Andrew Lloyd Scalf, born Nov. 15, 1918; Myrtle Marie Scalf, born Oct. 26, 1919; Opal Virginia Scalf, born March 9, 1921; Irvin Bennie Scalf, born Dec. 20, 1923; John Wesley Scalf, Jr., born Feb. 7, 1924; Hazel Bernice Scalf, born May 9, 1925; Jency Luanna Scalf, born March 23, 1931; and Eva Jean Scalf, May 4, 1935.

Lee Brittain Scalf married Ada Levinia Pax and one child was Mary Violet Ruth, born Jan. 18, 1943. Olie Oliver Scalf never married nor did Andrew Lloyd Scalf. Alverda Minnie Scalf married Arthur Lowe. Children of Alverda Minnie and Arthur Lowe were Donald, born March 15, 1937, died Jan. 21, 1943; Donna Kay, born Nov. 7, 1939; Robert Lowe, born April 10, 1941; William Lowe, born Jan. 9, 1944; Richard Lowe, born June 29, 1948. Robert Lowe married Judy Zemon. Two children of Robert and Judy Travis, born Sept. 30, 1964, and Jeff, born Aug. 5, 1965. William Lowe married Ann Westfall, daughter of William and Frances Tucker Westfall and three children are Billie Lowe, born Apr. 7, 1963; Danny Lowe, born June 20, 1965; and Julia Ann Lowe, born Nov. 20, 1966. Donna Kay Lowe married Lloyd Hartley and children were Linda Kay, born Jan. 4, 1957, and LaVerda Ray, born Jan. 2, 1962.

Myrtle Marie Scalf married first Peter Phillips, son of Alex and Mary Phillips. Three children: Carolyn Marie, born Nov. 18, 1944; James Wesley, born April 7, 1947; and Sandra Sue, born Oct. 4, 1943. Carolyn Phillips married Larry Osbourne. Two, sons are Randy Joe Osbourn, born Jan. 17, 1965, and Ricky Dwayne, born April 2, 1966, Sandra Sue Phillips married Joe Goble and had two daughters; Tina, born July 27, 1965, died July 30, 1966; and Trina LaVern, born Aug. 14, 1966. James Phillips married Carol Ford and a son, Jimmy Joe, was born May 26, 1966. Myrtle Marie Scalf Phillips married second to Gilbert Neimi, son of Ben and Gertrude R. Neimi. One son of this union was Gilbert Benjamin Neimi, born Jan. 8, 1953.

Opal Virginia Scalf married Monroe Tiller, son of Ivan K. and Alice Jackson Tiller. One daughter, Sharon Tiller, born Feb. 16, 1939, married William Leydig. Two children are Dean Leydig, born March 24, 1957, and Kenneth Allen Leydig, born Feb., 18, 1966.

Irvin Bennie Scalf, born Dec. 20, 1923, died July 2, 1959, married Feb. 17, 1948, Cora Alice Mullins, born July 28, 1932, daughter of Mart and Melissa Tennessee Hackney Mullins. Three children of Irvin and Cora Alice Scalf are Wanda Marie, born March 23, 1956, John Wesley Scalf, Jr. married Jan. 23, 1953, Virginia Lou Mullins, born Jan. 18, 1935, sister to Cora Alice Mullins. John Wesley Scalf, Jr. and Virginia Lou Mullins Scalf had no children.

Hazel Burnice Scalf married June 9, 1940, John Mullins, a brother to Cora Alice and Virginia Lou Mullins Scalf. Children of this union are John Edward, born 1943; David Wayne, born Sept. 7, 1945; Elaine Janice, born April 21, 1947; Larry Kenneth, born May 27, 1951; and Marty Joe, born Jan. 29, 1965, John Edward Mullins married Jerri Bowen, daughter of James Lindsay Bowen and Gladys Marie Spears Bowen. One son, Curtis Evan Bowen, was born Sept. 15, 1962. Elaine Mullins married Glen Bowen and they are parents of a daughter, Marcia Lynn, born July 23, 1964, and a son, name unavailable, born July 27, 1966.

Jency Luanna Scalf married first Ralph Kerr, son of George and Amanda Kerr. One daughter: Joan Kerr, born Oct. 23, 1948. Jency Luanna married second to William Schmitt. Two sons are Michael Schmitt, born July 16, 1955, and William Edward, born Feb. 2, 1966.

Eva Jean Scalf married March 22, 1949, James Thomas Dean, son of William and Marie Dean. Two children: Judith Elaine Dean, born Nov. 3, 1950, and Thomas James Dean, born Dec. 20, 1952. Eva Jean and James Thomas Dean divorced and she remarried to Jack Mullins, son of Mart and Tennessee Hackney Mullins. One son is Jack Wayne Mullins, born April 14, 1956. Judith Elaine Dean married Gordon LeRoy Harper. One daughter, born May 10, 1965, May 11, 1966.

                           (End of James Brittain Scalf Generation)

III. Melissa Scalf. Married John Adams, brother to Rev. Robert Adams and Samuel Adams, but father's name unavailable. They were parents of three children, a son, Floyd Adams, and two daughters, Lou and Virgie Adams. Lou died unmarried. No other information on this family, John Adams and Melissa Scalf Adams probably lived in Pike County, Kentucky.

IV. Nancy Scalf., Married Wesley Stratton, son of Tandy Richard Stratton and Mahala Lewis Stratton, Floyd County, Kentucky. Wesley and Nancy moved to Arkansas following the Civil War and reared a family. No other information except they lived near Little Rock.

V. Cynthia ("Sis") Scalf. Married Jan, 31, 1866, Thomas Henry Burchett, Floyd County, Kentucky. They resided on the Clark Branch, a tributary of Buffalo Creek, Floyd County. He was a farmer and a large landowner. Issue of Thomas Henry Burchett and Cynthia Scalf Burchett were Joseph, George, Perry, Floyd, Alice, and James Henry.

   Joseph Burchett married Angeline Dotson and resided on Buffalo Creek, Pike County. They were parents of Henry, married Fanny Bevins; Ollie, married Kentucky Endicott; Elbert, married a Hunt; Nora, married Thomas Oliver Nunnery; Amy, married Mont Taylor; Georgia, married Rev. Walter Collins; Stella, married Eugene Stratton; Della, married Stanley Wagner; Sylvia, married Therman McCoy; Opal, married James Clark.

George Burchett married Fairy Crider; Ferry Burchett died not married; Floyd Burchett married Polly Blankenship; Alice Burchett married Dallas Layne; and James Henry Burchett married Elizabeth Nunnery. George Burchett was a farmer and lived in Greenup County, Kentucky. Floyd a farmer and merchant, lived at Gu1nare, Pike County. Alice Burchett Layne and Dallas Layne resided at Harold, Floyd County. James Henry and Elizabeth Nunnery Burchett lived on Clark Branch, Buffalo Creek, Floyd County, near the home of his father, Thomas Henry Burchett. Issue of James Henry and Elizabeth Nunnery Burchett were Esta, Maxie, Nellie, Alice, Lincoln, Rebecca, Winn, Elige, William E., .............

William E. ("Willie") Burchett has had a distinguished career in his adopted state of West Virginia. He married Clara Bartholomew. Beginning his career as a rural schoolteacher in Floyd County, he accepted employment as store manager for Norfolk & Western Railway Company, Williamson, West Virginia, and as a salesman for a wholesale grocery firm. Named postmaster at Williamson in 1934, he was elected sheriff of Mingo County to break a long-entrenched Republican political machine dominated by the Hatfield family.

Later he was elected West Virginia State Senator from Mingo and McDowell counties and while serving in that capacity was named to the post of Superintendent of State Police in 1945 by Governor Clarence W. Meadows. He resigned in 1953 to engage in the oil. and gas business. In 1960 he was renamed to the superintendency of the state police by Governor W.W. Barron, a post which he now holds under Governor Hulett Smith. (He retired June, 1967).

VI. William Scalf. Married Elizabeth Scott. They lived on Johns Creek, Pike County, Kentucky, at the present postoffice of Gulnare. He served a term as Pike County Justice of the Peace. He and his wife are buried in the Scott Cemetery at Gulnare. Issue were Nettie, Lethia, Alice, Hester, Ballard, Trimble, and Dallas.

Nettie Scalf married Lindsey Lacey Layne, son of Lindsay Layne and Adaline Mead Layne. This was the second marriage of Lindsey Lacey Layne, his first wife being Alice Palmer. He was born Dec. 12, 1853, died 1940. Only one child, a son, Samuel George Layne, was born to this union of Lindsey Lacey Layne and Nettie Scalf Layne. Samuel George married Ocie Leedy and died in 1945.

Lethia Scalf married first A.J. ("Jack") Cixco, Pike County, Kentucky. Issue were Georgia, married Lando Scott; Jettie, married Clinton Taylor. Following the death of A.J. Cisco, Lethia remarried a Mr. Ronk. A third marriage was to John Compton. No issue of the last two marriages.

Alice Scalf married Sherman Nunnery. No issue.

Hester Scalf married Will Hunter, Pikeville (Ky.) barber.

Ballard Scalf married Judy Roop. Ballard was a notary and real estate broker and a resident of Tram, Ky. for many years, where he died. His children were Eunice, married Alonzo Stratton, former member Floyd County (Ky.) Board of Education; Nettie, married Lawrence Adkins; Barney; Elizabeth, married Ed Layne; Wm. Ballard; Earle, married Magdalene Steffey; Edward, deceased, married Catherine Sparks; John Henry, married Velma Jean Adkins; Maggie, married Robert Johnson.

Trimble Scalf married Minnie Lyons. They resided at Gulnare, Pike County. Children were Don Walter, married Mata Alice Scalf, daughter of Melvin and Ann Scalf; and Ernest, married Emma Lou Burchett, daughter of Henry and Fanny Bevins Burchett. The Don Walter and Ernest Scalf families reside in the Detroit., Michigan, area.

Dallas Scalf married Florence Cisco. Children were Carter, died as a young man, and three others. They reside in Ohio.

VII. Mary ("Pop") Scalf. Married W.H. Blackburn. . See descendants of William Blackburn and Elizabeth Scalf Blackburn.


                                                APPENDIX I

From the column, HISTORICAL NOTES, by Henry P. Scalf, in Floyd County Times, Prestonsburg, Kentucky, May 12, 1960:

                                               SCALF FAMILY

Forty-nine years ago many Eastern Kentuckians were migrating westward to free, virgin lands in Washington state. One of these families was that of John W. ("Cooge") Scalf, of Buffalo Creek. Joining him in the westward trek were several neighbors and related families...

Cooge, as he was nick-named, was a brother of Willie Scalf, and both were expert hunters. Oldsters recall yet the exploits of these two, particularly of Cooge ....

The Scalfs went West in 1910 and little was heard from them. Only an occasional letter came back. People may migrate to, other lands but the nostalgia for their homeland ever remains. Recently, Feb. 99 to be exact, and on March 5, two, letters came to relatives in this county. They reviewed the story of the migrating Scalfs.

We excerpt the last letter fully as it is in more detail. It was from Mrs. Mae Scalf Kirkpatrick, Box 276, Elbe, Washington, and written to Wayne Scalf; Endicott resident.

"I live about 35 or 40 miles from my father, John W. Scalf. I am his third daughter. You may remember the ones born in Kentucky. The oldest son's name is Roland. Two are Brian and General. My two sisters' names are Elizabeth and Nellie. There was Quilven and Vatie. Vatie was born about three weeks before the family started out here. The two oldest boys and the two, oldest girls died. We all got the measles on the train and the two oldest boys and two oldest girls did not recover. General, Quilven, Vatie and I got the disease. The loss of the children near killed my parents. Mother lived two years after that and had another baby girl in 1912 but she died at childbirth. The baby was named Nora and the five of us are living close to father's place.

"After mother died father married Marion Music's oldest daughter, Emma, and they had 11 children. She died two years ago at the age of 67 years and the son next to the youngest by Emma was killed in a car accident last August.

"Dad has had so, much grief in his life that I am amazed at the way he holds up. He is 87 years old and has been in a wheel chair for seven years this month. He had a stroke after I lost my son....

"I have had only one son. He had a plane of his own that he used for pleasure and business. He went to get Quilven to go with him to look over a stand of timber. Quilven was sick that day and couldn't go. My son started out alone. He got the plane up well but the motor died and he fell within 500 feet of Quilven. He left a wife and two children, a boy and girl.

"Dad's stroke was on his right side so he can't use his right hand. He can't walk alone or even stand alone. He can walk a little with one of us on each side of him to hold up part of his weight. He only weighs 110 pounds. He can't write but he reads nearly all the time when he isn't watching television. He reads without glasses. His mind is as sharp as ever.

"I can remember Uncle Burris Clark and Uncle Tom Clark and Aunt Kanny Goble .... I was only five years old when I left Kentucky. General, Quilven and I have talked a lot about coming back to Kentucky to see the folks but never get started. Quilven is married and has an 18year-old-son .... Vatie had only one, a boy, now 23 years old. Nora is married and has a son and daughter and two grandchildren. Vatie is a grandfather, too.

"I can't remember Aunt Bird Harville .... Aunt Mary Granville Thompson died in 1932 and Uncle Granville died three years ago last month. John Thompson died awhile before that and his wife, Mary, still lives. She has lived next door to me for five years. At present she is in the hospital. She is 79 years old.

"Uncle Willie Scalf has been dead several years. He was killed in a car wreck and his wife, Martha, has been dead several years. Their oldest daughter, Melvina, died 10 or 12 years ago. The rest of his children are living, mostly in Lewis County, Washington. All but Ras have a family, many of them grandchildren,

"Uncle Granville's daughter, Lena, made two or three trips back to West Virginia where her husband's people live. His name was Jess Horn. She is living here where her three children live.

"Vashti Music Scruggs is still living although she has been blind for 10 years. Her husband, Andy Scruggs, and a son Andy, have been dead several years. Her daughter, Lizzie, is about 58 years old and is living at Randle, Wash., about five miles from Dad's place.

'Dad lives on the old homestead he took up right after he came here from Kentucky in 1910. He has 27 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.

"The other letter was from John W. Scalf, Sr., Route 4, Randle, Washington. It was addressed to Irvin Scalf, who died a few years ago."

Mrs. Kirkpatrick's letter exemplifies the nostalgia of expatriate Eastern Kentuckians for their homeland and people. The genealogy of the Washington Scalfs was prepared by her for this publication and the author is indebted for her untiring dedication to a heavy task.

                                                      APPENDIX

                    OBITUARY OF ALBERT HAYES GOBLE (1876-1966)

                        From a Morton, Washington newspaper, May 23, 1966

                                            RITES SET FOR GOBLE

Morton, Wash. - -.Albert Hayes Goble., 89, a Morton resident since 1902, died Monday in a Morton hospital. He was born September 13, 1876, at Inez, Ky., and was a retired logger and farmer.

Survivors include eight daughters, Mrs. Edna Bright, Mrs. Anna Fields and Mrs. Olive Geidel, all of Morton, Mrs. Bess Greiter, Randle, Mrs. Beryl Davis, Ajlune, Mrs. Virginia McMillion, Alaska, and Mrs. Constance Nostrant and Mrs. Goldie Danhouser, both of Tacoma; four sons, Emery and Claude Goble, both of Randle, Albert Goble, Lester, and Donald Goble, Morton; two sisters, Mrs. Martha Scalf, Seattle, and Mrs. Ethel Stepp, Inez, Ky.; 28 grandchildren and 32 greatgrandchildren.

Funeral services are Wednesday, 1 p.m., at the Jesus Name Tabernacle in Morton with the Rev. Donald Jones officiating. Interment will follow in the Morton cemetery. Pallbearers are Bill Moe, Jim Morris, Dan Longmire, Paul Kindle, Conrad Mandt and Charlie Lewis. Arrangements are under the direction of the Fissell-Brown Mortuary, Morton.

 

          MARY SCALF MILLS AND COLUMBUS C, MILLS FAMILY

                          (Brittan John, Sr. - Lewis - James - John)

Mary Scalf, daughter of Brittan and Talitha Scalf, was born in Russell County, Virginia, in 1834, according to her marriage record in the Pike County, Kentucky, County Court Clerk's office. She was thus approximately 12 years old when her widowed mother moved with the orphaned family to Johns Creek.

Mary grew to adulthood in the home on Johns Creek, having attended the primitive local schools and learned the household chores of weaving,, carding, spinning and sewing under the practical eye of her mother. She met Columbus C. Mills, son of an old Virginia family that had migrated to the area from Virginia. They were married Nov. 13, 1855 "at the home of the Widow Scalf on Johns Creek in the presence of W.B. & J.S. & L.S." according to the marriage record found in Register 4, page 53, File 1323. Considerable confusion has resulted from an old copyist of Pike County marriage records and which were afterward published, who took the name down as Nancy B. Scalf. Only by a careful examination of the marriage record was it possible to disprove what had been published in several genealogical volumes.

Columbus and Mary Mills went to housekeeping on Johns Creek, the exact location undetermined but it was somewhere in the section between the present postoffice of Gulnare and the mouth of Dick's Creek. If they owned land, no record exists of it. Their first child, Henry, was born there, Feb. 22, 1859. The family withstood the vicissitudes of civil war, and its attendant horrors of guerrilla anarchy until the year 1864. The Civil War was slowly ending on the battlefield but peace was not returning to Johns Creek for the renewed fury of guerrilla activity had reduced the valley to hatred, murder, pillage and arson. Guerrillas robbed the family several times. John Scalf, brother of Mary, living in the nearby valley of Buffalo Creek, was left destitute with a family by roving bands.

How to survive became the most pressing of problems and Columbus sought a haven somewhere in Eastern Kentucky which guerrillas were overlooking. He found it on Rockhouse Creek, a long tributary stream of Rockcastle Creek that flows into Tug River. Few settlers had entered the long valley and free land and game abounded. Columbus and Mary, she now pregnant with her second son, Laban, decided to move there. As the crow flies it is no great distance but considering the rugged terrain over which they would have to travel it would be a trek of magnitude. Gathering their household furnishings and farm tools they loaded a farm wagon and moved. Down Johns Creek they wended their way, the family cow, which had escaped the guerrillas tied to the tail gate of the wagon. They came to the mouth of Johns Creek, descended the Big Sandy River. Turning north, they crossed several mountains onto Rockcastle Creek, ascended it a distance of several miles and finally after another mountain over which there was scarcely a road at all, they arrived on Rockhouse Creek. Neighbors were several miles away. Columbus and Mary built a rude cabin for the approaching winter. Site of the new home was near the mouth of a little stream, Trace Fork, a few miles from the present postoffice of Tomahawk, in the present Martin County.

Shortly after they had settled on Rockhouse Creek, their second son, Laban, was born. Henry had been five years old when they had moved to the new location. The family increased until there were eight children - five sons and three daughters. Slowly the years passed, the children married into the nearby families and all built homes on Rockhouse Creek except Montraville, who married Renda Bowen. Near the turn of the century many Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia families had become infected with the western fever. Going to the State of Washington were Bowens and Gobles from the nearby area, Scalfs, Thompsons and Musics from nearby Floyd County. Melvin Scalf, nephew of Mary Scalf Mills, and several other Scalf relatives, pioneered the Cowlitz River in Washington. They wrote back glowing letters about the richness of the soil and the abundant game. Montraville and Renda Bowen Mills could not resist the lure of the new land and soon joined their relatives on the Cowlitz River.

Within a few years Archibald Scalf, brother of Mary Mills, moved with his family to Rockhouse Creek. He stayed several years and moved back to Dick's Creek on Johns Creek. There is evidence that Archibald may have moved twice to Rockhouse, finally in his old age dying on Dick's Creek.

There was always a close relationship of the Scalf and Mills family. Scalfs of Buffalo Creek would ride over the mountains to Rockhouse and stay for days. In turn, many Mills visited Buffalo Creek, especially Henry Mills who had formed a close friendship with his cousin, William Preston Scalf. The latter engaged in logging to a large extent and Henry Mills was an employee several times. The present writer was named by his father for Henry Mills.

We are indebted to the 1880 Martin County Census for information on the Columbus and Mary Scalf Mills family. Columbus is listed as having been born in Kentucky of native Virginia parents. He was 47 years old, a discrepancy of one year when compared with his marriage license that stated he was 23 in 1855, the year of his marriage, According to this, he would have been born in 1832. According to, the 1880 census he would have been born in 1833. Mary, listed as 21 when she married, is listed as 45 in 1680, or born in 1835. Here, again, there is a discrepancy of one year. The discrepancies may be of no significance and due to the time of the year when the enumerator made the roll.

In 1880, Henry was 21, Laban T., 16, Jeremiah, 15, California ("Callie"), 13, Columbus, 9, Montraville, 5. There was a Mary Johnson, age 11, in the household at the time, listed as a servant.

Columbus Mills died in either 1889 or 1890, he was either 39 or 40 years old, a middle-aged man by modern statistics of longevity. His widow, Mary Scalf Mills, survived until 1925, Both are buried on the Mills Cemetery on Rockhouse Creek, near the old home, now long torn down.

Sons and daughters of Columbus and Mary Scalf Mills were:

1. Henry Mills, born Feb. 22, 1859, died Feb. 7, 1931. Married Malissa Ward, born Jan. 1, 1862, died August 15, 1950. Both lie buried on the Boyd Cemetery on Rockhouse Creek. Henry spent his life in logging and farming. He was the father of nine children, hereinafter enumerated.

2. Nancy Mills, married Kenas Williamson, born 1850, son of Stephen and Ellen Blevins Williamson, who lived on the Spence Branch of Rockhouse Creek. Kenas and Nancy Mills, Williamson resided on Rockhouse Creek. They had eight children, hereinafter enumerated.

3. Jane Mills married Benjamin ("Benny") Ward, brother of Rev. Ali Ward, a Baptist minister of the area. They resided on Rockhouse Creek.

4. Laban T. Mills, born 1864, married Cynthia Ward. They lived on Rockhouse Creek. Two sons were John H. Mills and L.T. Mills. The latter son married Mary Belle Thompson, a cousin, daughter of Ireland Thompson and Louanna Scalf Thompson. They were later divorced and he died in West Virginia.

5. California ("Callie") Mills, born 1867, was twice married, first to John Boyd and second to Jack DeLong. California spent most of her life with her second husband on the Trace Fork of Rockhouse Creek.

6. Jeremiah Mills, born 1865, married Mary Boyd. They resided on Rockhouse, Tomahawk postoffice.

7. C.C. ("Lum") Mills, married Martha VanHoose, lived at Tomahawk.

8. Montraville Mills, born 1875, married Renda Bowen, moved to the state of Washington. No further information.

Issue of the marriage of Henry Mills and Malissa Ward Mills were:

1. Millard Mills, born April 17, 1882, died Jan. 4, 1957, married Nannie Spears. They resided on Rockhouse Creek and had three children.

2. Sarah Mills, born July 26, 1883, died May 23, 1885.

3. Epperson Mills, born August 3, 1886, died Feb. 13, 1962. He married Lilly Mills, a cousin. They lived at Tomahawk, Ky. They were parents of five children.

4. Vina Mills, born April 3, 1889, died April 70 1890.

5. Albert Mills, born Nov. 27, 1890, died Sept. 30, 1954. Married Elmel Preston. They had three children, lived and died at Akron, 0.

6. Bascom Mills, born Sept, 7, 1892, still living in 1968, married Maudie Salmons, born Feb. 8, 1894, died March 11, 1960. They lived all their lives on Rockhouse Creek. Had nine children.

7. Nancy Mills, born July 11, 1894, died March 6, 1943. Married L.W. Spencer, lived at Charlie, Lawrence County, Kentucky. No children.

8. Henry Mills, Jr., born April 6, 1896, died June 26, 1942. Married Exer Ward. They lived on Rockhouse Creek, had four children.

9. Zilpha Mills, born Nov. 30, 1897, still living in 1968, married Richard A. Penix. They lived on Rockhouse, had two children.

Issue of the marriage of Bascom Mills and Maudie Salmons Mills:

1. Ersel Mills, born Jan. 7, 1916, married Marie Boyd, live on Rockhouse Creek, Tomahawk, Kentucky.

2. Rebecca Mills, born July 12, 1918, married Edsel Ward. He was killed in a coal mine. She resides at Shelby, 0. but had lived for a time on Rockhouse,.

3. Artie Mills, born Jan. 25, 1921, married Elmer Conley. They live at Willard, Ohio.

4. Irene Mills, born Oct. 20, 92, married Howard Boyd. They now live at Willard, Ohio.

5. Arbie Mills, born Jan. 31, 1921, married Ruby Small, Live on Rockhouse Creek.

6. Lewis Mills, born March 3, 1927, married Vivian Hinkle. They live on Rockhouse Creek.

7. Hazel Mills, born April 4, 1929, married Alex Adams.

8. Nelsie Mills, born Feb. 29, 1932, married Bernard Mollett. They live at Shelby, Ohio.

9. Floann Mills, born Nov. 15, 1938, married John Wilson, They live at Shelby, Ohio.

    Maudie Salmons Mills, wife of Bascom Mills, lies buried on the Boyd Cemetery on Rockhouse Creek near the home in which she lived.

Issue of the marriage of Nancy, Mills and Kenas Williamson

1. Sanford Williamson, married Sallie Price.

2. Stephen Williamson, Jr., married Mary Belle Spears.

3. Stella Williamson, married James A. Maynard.

4. Crit Williamson, married Clementine Blevins.

5. Calla Williamson, died single.

6. Cora Williamson, married Chris McCoy.

7. Malissa Williamson, married a King.

8. Josie Williamson, married Millard Sesco.



                         ARCHIBALD SCALF DESCENDANTS

Archibald Scalf remained in the home of his mother on Johns Creek only six years following their migration from Russell County. He and his younger brothers assisted their mother to carry the burden of rearing the family and when he married several of the other children were growing up and had begun to help with the farm and household chores.

Arch, as everybody called him, born 1835, married Sarah Ann Sellards, September 2, 1652, in Floyd County. She was 15, Sarah Ann was a daughter of John. W. and Elizabeth Burchett Sellards of the pioneer Sellards Settlement on Buffalo Creek, Floyd County. Her grandfather, John Sellards, Indian fighter and brother to the borderland Indian captive, Jenny Sellards Wiley, had come to the Big Sandy valley and founded the community in 1794 when the area was a primitive wilderness. Four years after Arch and Sarah Ann were married, John Henry Scalf, a brother increased the marital bonds of the two families when he married Clarinda Sellards, first cousin to Sarah Ann. (1)

The 1860 Floyd County, Kentucky Census lists the Archibald and Sarah Ann Sellards family with Prestonsburg as the postoffice. They were probably living in the lower Johns Creek area at the time. He had a personal estate valued at $750.00. His age was given as 26 years, his wife's as 32 years. This census is incorrect as to Archibald and Sarah Ann's ages as he was 20 and she 25 when they were married in 1852. If the age given at time of marriage is correct he was born in 1832 and she in 1827.

Easter, or Esther L. as in the census, was five years old in 1860 and Martha Jane was one year old. One puzzling entry in the census was a Mary E. Scalf, 48 years old. This could not be his mother as her name was Talitha, although a deed record of Virginia does show it as Delitha. The entry is puzzling but it may be just another one of the errors found in early census records.

War clouds had been hovering over the nation for years and Arch and Sarah Ann were married nine years before the Civil War erupted. The predominant sentiment of the Scalfs, Sellards and other area families was pro-Confederate and Arch and his brother, Hezekiah, enlisted in Company A, Fifth Kentucky Mounted Infantry, organized at Prestonsburg by Col. Andrew Jackson May. Their service was brief. Hezekiah was captured following the Battle of Middle Creek in January 1862 and paroled. Arch was captured later by the Unionists and with several others of Confederate sympathy, among whom was Hiram Clark, a Buffalo Creek resident, were sent off to a prisoner-of-war camp in Michigan. Tradition recalls that Arch was seized while visiting his home. He suffered a great deal in the Michigan camp but survived until the end of the war. Clark succumbed in the camp and was buried in the camp cemetery (2).

The war over, Archibald returned to his family, then residing on Johns Creek and they picked up the pieces of their shattered lives and began anew. John Henry Scalf, who had resided on Buffalo Creek through the war, had been robbed repeatedly by guerrillas as had others. John died in the spring of 1864, a year before, his brother returned from Michigan. (3)

Arch resided most of his life in Martin County, near the postoffice of what is now Tomahawk, Kentucky, but did live for several years on Dick's Creek, a tributary of Johns Creek, in Floyd County. He spent his life in farming and carpentry with occasional work as a stone mason, particularly the construction of hand-hewn stone fireplaces and chimneys.

He was a deeply religious man and was affiliated with the United Baptists, a church indigenous to the area founded by the Rev. Wallis Bailey in 1837 and which today has a large following in Eastern Kentucky. He attended church regularly over the area from Johns Creek to Martin County and having attained to high degree of accomplishment in hymn singing was in great demand as a song leader at the rural church gatherings.

It was while he was living in Martin County that he was visited by his sister, Nancy ("Mary"). She met Columbus C. Mills, a member of an old Martin County settler family. They were married in 1855 and she and Arch resided near each other in the community for years.

Many elderly people who remember Arch Scalf are wont to recall his appearance at church and his deeply spiritual rendition of the old hymns. He had a shock of white hair and long whiskers, commonly affected by old men of the time and one person, in commenting on his appearance in the pulpit, remarked that he reminded her of her conception of the Hebrew prophets. (4)

Sarah Ann Scalf died several years before her husband and was buried in a cemetery at Dick's Creek, Archibald died at the home of son-in-law, Rev. William Cook, at Tomahawk, Ky. The body was brought from Martin County and interred by the side of Sarah Ann. Prior to 1949 when Dewey Lake was impounded many graves of the area were relocated, Archibald and Sarah Ann Scalf, were exhumed and reburied at the Government Relocation cemetery at Auxier, Kentucky.

Seven daughters and a son were born to the union of Archibald and Sarah Ann Sellards Scalf.

These were:

I. Easter Scalf, married William Crider. They resided in Lawrence County, Kentucky. Their children were Leotta, married Henry Collins; Morgan married MintIe Collins and moved to Oklahoma; Lewis, also moved to Oklahoma; Etta, married Collins, moved to Oklahoma; Budget, married Rice; Minnie, married Marion Hurd, who was killed.

II. Eliza Scalf, married first John Henry Lilly, second Henry Webb. Eliza and John Henry Lilly were the parents of three children: Jane, married James Aldridge; Rosa, married Jeff Ward; Mintie, married Harless. There was no issue from the second marriage.

III. Mintie Bartola Scalf, married Jack Webb. The names of the children of Jack Webb and Mintie Bartola Scalf, Webb, if any, are not known. Mintie Bartola lies buried on Daniel's Creek, at the mouth of Sycamore Fork, Johnson County, Kentucky.

IV. Andrew Scalf, married Phoebe Jane Webb. They resided most of their lives in Martin County but in later life lived for a short period of time on Prater Creek, near Banner, Kentucky. Their children were Tom, crippled for life in a mine accident; Buck, killed in the mines; James; Floyd; and Virgie, married Joe Mills. Andrew and Phoebe Jane Scalf are buried on Prater Creek.

V. Nancy Caroline Scalf, married Levi Strickland in 1887. Nancy Caroline was born in 1862, died August 1900. Children were Anna, married William Burchett; Luverna, married first John Branham, second Farmer Marshall; Martha, married Tobe Nichols; Edna, married Richard Carter. (5)

VI. Sarah Scalf, married William Cook. He was a minister of the United Baptist Church. Two children were Lizzie and Dixie.

VII. Martha Jane Scalf, married Amos Spears, November 20, 1873. She died July 28, 1934, her husband preceding her in death September 19, 1926. Five sons and three daughters were:

1. Lafayette Spears, born Nov. 16, 1874, died Nov. 3, 1947. Married Mintie James.

2. Marion Jefferson Spears, born July 3, 1876, married Farinda Justice.

3. Margaret Spears, born March 17, 1877, died August 30, 1899.

4. Rutherford B. Spears, born April 28, 1882, died Jan. 14, 1936. Married Rebecca Damron.

5. Andrew J. Spears, born June 28, 1887, killed by a falling tree near Boldman, Kentucky, in 1935. Married Elizabeth Taylor.

6. Roland Spears, born Jan, 31, 1901, married June Goble.

7. Ilzady Spears, born April 28, 1896, married T.B. Blackburn.

8. Ballard Spears, married first Sissie Blackburn; second, Della Clark.

Amos and Jane Scalf Spears reared their family on Johns Creek near the postoffice of McCombs, Kentucky. He was a large landowner and engaged in logging. Two of his sons, Rutherford B. and Andrew were teachers.

Ronald Melba Spears, son of Roland, born August 14, 1933, was drowned in Johns Creek, August 28, 1948.

VIII. Mary Scalf, married James Caudill. They resided at Riceville, Kentucky. Children were Frank Caudill, married Rose Rice; Thomas, married Amy Conley; Archie, married Mary Hackworth; Cynthia, born Oct. 28, 1884, married William Howard; Elizabeth, born June 10, 1886, married Greeley Hackworth; John D. Caudill, married Dollie Conley; Sarah Alice, born Jan.14, 1881, died May 31, 1945, married Garfield Music, born Nov. 1, 1880. One son is Worth Music, married Darcus Montgomery. Children of Worth and Darcus are Tom Ed and Billy Worth. John D. Caudill was killed in the mines at Wayland, Ky., Nov. 5, 1951.


                                                            NOTES

1. From THE SELLARDS THROUGH TWO CENTURIES, by Elias Howard Sellards, pages 65-66 we excerpt the following on John W. Sellards, Jr.: "John Sellards, Jr. (John W. Sellards), a grandson of Hezekiah, was born in Kentucky in 1798. Little is known of his personal life other than he lived in Floyd County near the Pike County border and in the neighborhood in which he was born. He is said to have taught school at some time in his life. Land records indicate he acquired considerable land. The earliest record that has been found of John Jr., by name is in the 1820 census of Floyd County, Kentucky. He was then married and had two daughters both under five years of age. His wife, Elizabeth Burchett, born in Virginia, was then twenty years old, being approximately twelve years younger than he. His will, made in 1888, indicates that his wife was then living. This will contains much of interest. He was still mentally alert at the age of ninety as shown by the detailed description of each parcel of land, marked by trees and bounded by old fields, drains, hollows, brooks, streams, ridges, and hilltops ..... The will of John W. Sellards, made December 9, 1888, was entered, following his death, as part of the Floyd County Court records February 11, 1889. It was recollected by Phoebe Alice Stratton Scalf (1864-1954), niece of John W. Sellards, that he was, always referred to as "Uncle Jackie." He was a small man and was crippled, by what cause Mrs. Scalf did not know. He had several children, besides Sarah Ann. Their names as best they can be ascertained were Elias (1834-1862), James (1835-1863), Martha, born 1838, Drury, born 1841, Lorena Jane, born 1843, Nancy F., born 1846, John W. born 1849, William Benjamin, born 1850, Burrell Jefferson, born 1852, Elizabeth, born 1855. Others, not mentioned in his will were Andrew, Polly, Margaret, Alice and Katherine.

2. Archibald Scalf was awarded a Confederate pension by Kentucky in 1913, effective July 30, 1912. The pension certificate for $10 per month, to be paid quarterly, was signed by J. Tandy Ellis, Adjutant-General, and W.J. Stone, Examiner of Pensions. The certificate was number 1179. Archibald's address then was Brandy Keg, Ky., which served the lower Johns Creek area near Dick's Creek.

3. See section of John Henry Scalf and Clarinda Scalf descendants.

4. Recalled by Mrs. Dove Butler Collins, who was reared near Dick's Creek.

5. Levi Strickland, oldest man in Eastern Kentucky at the time of his death, Feb. 29, 1964, was born November 15, 1860, at Clendennin, West Virginia, a son of Stephen and Barbara Auxier Strickland. He came to Kentucky when 25 years old and engaged in farming and logging on Johns Creek. In later life he removed to Prestonsburg vicinity. He was buried in the Strickland family cemetery near East Point, Kentucky.



DESCENDANTS OF LEE SCALF AND MARY ANN BEVINS REED SCALF

                         (Brittan - John,Sr, - Lewis - James - John)

Lee Scalf, son of Brittan and Talitha Couch Scalf, was born in Russell County, Virginia, in 1837. He was eight years old when brought to Johns Creek by his widowed mother. His name has been variously written as Levi and Levy but he was known to everyone as Lee. This was probably his correct name. On his marriage license the name was written, Levy.

Lee Scalf married Mary Ann Bevins Reed, widow of Reubin Reed, of the Big Creek section of Northern Pike County, Kentucky. The marriage occurred in Floyd County, Kentucky, August 10, 1653. His wife was born in 1841, according to the 1880 Pike County census. Reubin Reed, her first husband, was born in 1829 and died probably in the 1850-1852 period. Reubin and Mary Ann were parents of a daughter, Amie. (1)

There is a tradition extant with one line of descendants of Lee Scalf that he was a Union soldier, having enlisted at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, now West Virginia. No record of this service has been found. If he did enlist as a Union soldier this service would have been contrary to the sentiments of all his brothers who were staunch Confederates. The possibility exists that Lee may have been affiliated with some Home Guard organization.

Lee and Mary Ann Scalf resided on a farm on the Elkins Branch of Rockhouse Fork of Big Creek of Pike County. Besides farming he engaged in logging. They were the parents of one son, James Emery, who married Frances E. Maynard ca 1880, daughter, of Barney Maynard and Pricie M. Robinson Maynard. (2) Mary Ann Bevins Scalf preceded her husband in death and he remarried to Susan Varney. There were no children of this second union.

Descendants of Lee and James Emery Scalf are concentrated in the Tug River Valley which separates Kentucky and West Virginia. Some live in Williamson, W. Va., vicinity, others in Ohio.

Issue of James Emery Scalf and Frances Maynard Scalf, according to research of Frank Scalf, Columbus, Ohio, were: Louisa Scalf, born 1881; Lincoln Scalf, born Jan. 12, 1882; Samuel D. Scalf, born Dec. 1, 1885; David W. Scalf, born March 13, 1886; Benjamin Scalf, born Oct. 8, 1888; Oliver Scalf, born August 9, 1892; and Mary Ann Scalf, born Jan. 5, 1897.

Mrs. Laura Elkins Jackson, Gulnare, Kentucky, who was acquainted with the James Emery Scalf family, gives a variant list of children: Louisia ("Vicey"), married George Young; Lincoln Scalf; Dallas Scalf, married a Stepp; William, married a Varney; Benjamin Scalf, never married; Mary Ann Scalf, married a Young; and Matt, died age three. The research of Frank Scalf and the remembrances of Mrs. Jackson can probably be reconciled and the differences may be due in part to common, ordinary nicknames that were so often bestowed in families or neighborhoods.

James Emery Scalf had some legal training but there is no evidence that he practiced the profession. He did, however, serve as a notary and gave advice to relatives and friends on legal matters. During the last decade or more of his life he became a minister of the Church of the Brethren (Dunkards). He was stricken in the spring of 1899 while at work in a field, probably with a heart attack. He executed his will, July 17, 1899 and died July 30, 1899. He and his father are buried on the family cemetery on the Elkins Branch of Rockhouse Fork.

Oliver Scalf, son of James Emery and Frances Maynard Scalf, married Edna Maynard, daughter of Rev. Heeon Maynard and Alice Ann Lowe Maynard. Oliver resided for years on Big Brushy Creek, Pike County, Kentucky, near the postoffice of Heenon, Kentucky. One daughter, Elsie, married Arthur Clark, of Pike County.

Lincoln Scalf, son of James Emery Scalf and Frances Maynard Scalf, married ca 1901, the name of his wife unavailable except that her first name was Daisy, born Nov. 17, 1885, died Nov. 28, 1903. A son, the name unavailable, was born Feb. 9, 1903. He remarried March 12, 1906 to Ella Stacy, at the home of Jonathan Estep, a minister, Mingo County, West Virginia.

Issue of the marriage of Lincoln Scalf and Ella Stacy Scalf were: Inez Scalf, born Dec. 28, 1907, married C......... E Shaheen; James Emery Scalf, born April 26, 1910, married Georgia Stepp (3); Kelba Scalf, born April 27, 1911, married Ollie H. Shaheen; Elaine Scalf, born Feb. 13, 1911, married Harry Dale Cross; Marie Scalf, born March 24, 1919, married Dennis Conley; Hazel Scalf, born Feb. 10, 1922, married Don Carnes; Margaret Scalf, born Nov. 9, 1924, married Gilbert Irvine.

Lincoln Scalf was employed most of his life in and around Williamson, W. Va. as a carpenter. He was killed Oct. 15, 1934 by John Tilley at the corner of Pike and Third Street, Williamson, W. Va. He lies buried on the Elkins Branch of Rockhouse Fork.

James Emery Scalf, son of Lincoln Scalf, was born April 26, 1910, married Georgia Stepp, of Inez, Martin County, Kentucky, Jan. 3, 1927. She was born July 7, 1905, a daughter of John R. Stepp and Amanda Melvina Stepp.

Issue of James Emery Scalf and Georgia Stepp Scalf were James Scalf, born Jan. 12, 1928; Ella Louise Scalf, born Oct. 20, 1929; Frank Scalf, born Feb. 25, 1932; Oll Ray Scalf, born Nov. 19, 1933; Florence Scalf, born March 2, 1936; Anna Belle Scalf, born Nov. 17, 19 38; William Russell Scalf , born June 2 3, 1942; Buddy Ralph Scalf born Oct. 8, 1946; Charles Edward Scalf, born April 19, 1949.

James E. Scalf was a carpenter, employed mostly in the vicinity of Williamson, W. Va. He moved after marriage to Martin County, Kentucky. He entered the U.S. Army Jan. 3, 1944 and was discharged Nov. 26, 1945. He moved in January 1960 to Clendennin, West Virginia.

Frank Scalf, son of James E. and Georgia Stepp Scalf, was born on the Collins Fork of Coldwater Creek, Martin County, Kentucky. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, Feb. 6, 1948, served in Korea and Japan, and was discharged Feb. 5, 1952 at Denver, Colorado. He married Peggy Ann Crouch, of Monticello, Kentucky, August 29, 1953, at Paintsville, Kentucky. Their children are Ada Marie Scalf, born June 27, 1954; Wanda Lea Scalf, born Feb, 20, 1956; Dorothy Joan Scalf , born July 29, 1961; Donna Jean Scalf, born July 29, 1961; and Michael Frank Scalf, born April 29, 1966.

The Frank Scalf family moved to Columbus, Ohio in the summer of 1953. He has been an employee of Westinghouse Electric for 15 years and is now in a management position.


                                                         NOTES

1. Mary Ann Bevins Reed Scalf was a daughter of George Bevins and Nancy Williamson Bevins of the Rockhouse Fork of Big Creek. George Bevins was a son of John Bevins and Mary Jane Stacy Bevins. John was a son of the pioneer, Joseph Bevins, who came to Pike County, Kentucky, from Belfast, Ireland. Nancy Williamson was a daughter of John and Elender Black Williamson. John Williamson was the second son of Alden and Isabell Thompson Williamson, Eastern Kentucky pioneers.

2. The Maynard family of Big Brushy Creek, a tributary of Johns Creek, was founded by Christopher Columbus Maynard, of North Carolina, sometime in the first decade of the Nineteenth Century. Two sons of Christopher were James and Christopher ("One-eyed Kit"). James married Rebecca Chappel, a native or Virginia, and Christopher ("Kit") , a son, married Eva Shockey. Christopher ("Kit") and Eva Shockey Maynard were parents of Barney Maynard, father of Grantie Maynard Scalf, wife of Emery Scalf. Heenon Maynard, father of Edna Maynard who married Oliver Scalf, was a son of Jarar Maynard and Martha Ann Tunmire Maynard. Jarad was a son of James, who was a son of Christopher ("Kit") Maynard.

3. Georgia Stepp Scalf, wife of James E. Scalf, was born July 7, 1905, the seventh daughter of John R. Stepp and Amanda Melvina Maynard. John R. Stepp, born August 10, 1870, was a son of Moses Stepp and Jane Meek, married July 1, 1890, Martin County, Kentucky. Jane Meek, born ca 1870, was a daughter of William Meek and Elizabeth Mollett. William and Elizabeth were married in Lawrence County, Kentucky, Sept. 5, 1833. John R. Stepp died March 9, 1940 and Amanda Melvina Stepp died Oct. 27, 1951. They are buried in the family cemetery on Collins Branch of Coldwater Creek, Martin county.

Ella Stacy Scalf, wife of Lincoln Scalf, was a daughter of Thomas Jefferson Stacy and Parlina Scott Stacy, natives of the Pond Creek section of Pike County. He was the son of James Stacy and Melinda Mullins. Parlina Scott was a daughter of Thomas Scott and Levina Stafford.



JOHN HENRY SCALF AND CLARINDA SELLARDS SCALF DESCENDANTS

                                 (Brittan - John, Sr. - Lewis)

 John Henry Scalf, son of Brittan and Talitha Couch Scalf, was born ca 1836 in Russell County, Virginia on the Clinch River farm of his parents. He was about ten years old when he was brought to Pike County by his mother in 1846.

As a young man he worked on the farm alongside his brothers and following the marriage of his brother, Archibald, in 1852, he became the chief support of the family. Since Archibald had married Sarah Ann Sellards and resided for a time in the Sellards Settlement community on Buffalo Creek, John visited his brother frequently and became acquainted with Clarinda Sellards, cousin of Sarah Ann's.

John Henry Scalf and Clarinda Sellards were married, March 25, 1856, probably at the home of the 17 year-old-bride's parents, Thomas A. and Mary Clark Sellards. They went to housekeeping on Buffalo Creek on the Sellards lands. Site of their home was a mile west of the original homestead of the pioneer John Sellards, grandfather of Clarinda. Their first child, Solomon, was born there, March 27, 1857. A second son, John Breckinridge, was born April 24, 1859.

John and Clarinda, both inured to hard work under near pioneer conditions, were rapidly establishing themselves with a measure of security on the Buffalo Creek farm when talk of civil war pervaded the isolated valley. Archibald and Hezekiah were discussing plans to join Captain Andrew Jackson May who was recruiting for the Confederacy at Prestonsburg. All around the countryside young men were marching away to war, either to fight for the Union or Confederacy. John, his wife carrying another unborn son, listened to the talk but decided to stay with his family. His third son, James Wise, was born Sept. 18, 1861.

Guns were blazing in the region within a month after John's third son was born. Gen. W.O. Nelson pushed into the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, defeated May's Confederates at the battles of Hazel Green and West Liberty. May and his raw troopers, among whom were Archibald and Hezekiah Scalf, made a stand Nov. 9, 1861, at Ivy Mountain, a few miles from the John Scalf home. The Confederate leader, his troops severely mauled by Nelson's superior army, pulled his force back toward Virginia.

Law and order disappeared in the Big Sandy valley after the Battle of Ivy Mountain and many residents, in order to protect themselves and family, joined rapidly forming partisan groups. Dr. Robert Jackson, who had induced Talitha Couch Scalf to move to Johns Creek from Russell County, gathered neighbors and kinsmen of Southern sympathies. Peyton Blackburn, inclined to the Union, rallied neighbors and began a guerrilla war with Jackson.

John Scalf, although of Confederate sympathy, determined to stay out of the struggle if he could. To all overtures that he join with his. brothers, he turned a deaf ear. He had his family to guard and feed. Assiduously applying himself to his farm he began to accumulate livestock and feed. But for the war he could look around his acres with a measure of satisfaction.

The internecine struggle waxed fierce in the valley. Jackson's Confederates stalked Blackburn's Unionists. Dow Elkins, searching the countryside for Blackburn, was killed by the accidental discharge of his rifle as he talked with his fiancee at her door step. Finally Jackson and Blackburn met in battle and John P. McGuire was. killed. Seeking revenge, Jackson and his adherents, ambushed Blackburn and shot his brains out.

The roar of the partisan guns, a few miles from the John Scalf home, had scarcely died when his fourth child, a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, was born June 14, 1863. While the babe lay in its cradle the partisans of the South roamed the valley but they inflicted no harm on the John Scalf family for they knew for all his facade of neutrality his sympathies were with the Confederacy. Someday, he feared, the Union guerrillas would come.

A few months after the birth of his, daughter the dreaded event occurred. Men swarmed over his farm and at the point of guns robbed his pantry and smokehouse of all the food on the place. With their bayonets they ripped the featherbeds apart.  Much of the furniture was burned in the yard while John stood helpless and his wife and children cried.

The bogs and cattle were butchered on the farm and the meat packed on their horses. A team of horses with which John did his farm work were taken from the barn and driven away. When they left the Scalf farm that bitter winter day the family was destitute. Their neighbors, stricken as they, were impoverished, too, particularly the family of James W. Sellards, brother of Clarinda Scalf. The guerrillas left only the roofs over their heads and the clothes they wore. A hundred years later the dastardly deed was still green in the traditions of the Scalf and Sellards descendants.

John Scalf and his wife's kinsmen of the Sellards Settlement, faced the spectre of starvation and want, comforted each other by a division of food that escaped the clutching bands of the jackals. The weeks wore away and spring came. John, without a team with which to plow, fell fiercely upon his soil with band tools. He dug and planted. Weak from lack of food and hard work he took pneumonia and died in May, 1964.

Thomas A. Sellards and his wife, Mary Clark Sellards, assumed the protection and care of their daughter, Clarinda, and her four orphaned children. The year 1864 had been a struggle for survival for ail of them and 1865 was little better. Thomas and Mary began to talk of migrating west, Minnesota, a state since 1858, was now free of Indian troubles. Little Crow was dead and his Santee Sioux were defeated and dispersed. Just why Thomas and Mary picked Minnesota as a place to settle we do not know. It may have been that they had heard of the fast developing state from others of the area who wrote glowingly of the new land.

The decision to move being made, Thomas sold his lands, the last alienation of title being made May 6, 1866 to Charles Goble. Preparation for the migration were advanced and within a few days following the last sale of land, covered wagons carrying the families pulled away from the Sellards Settlement on Buffalo Creek for the West. Domiciled in the wagons were Thomas A. Sellards, his wife Mary and their small children; Clarinda Sellards Scalf and her four children; James W. Sellards, son of Thomas and Mary, with his wife, Lydia Parsons Dials Sellards and several children. Solomon Scalf was nine years of age, John Breckinridge, seven, James Wise, four, and Mary Elizabeth, three.

Of the journey tradition is strangely silent. They probably went by covered wagons to the Ohio River and by boat on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. John Breckinridge, who lived to be very old, recalled that the last part of the journey was made on the two rivers with a short overland trip to the actual site of the homestead in Minnesota. They settled between the town of Dassell, Meeker County, and Washington Lake on lands drained by a tributary of the Middle Fork Crow River. Nearby was a little lake with an Indian name but henceforth to be known as Sellards Lake.

The Sellards families prospered and Clarinda remarried, October, 1869, to, Jefferson Shortridge, a Civil, War veteran. Six children were born to this union of Jefferson Shortridge and Clarinda Scalf Shortridge. (1) Mary Clark Sellards died in 1885 and was buried at Dassel. Her husband went to Fredericktown, Missouri, where relatives from Kentucky had settled, He died in 1889 at Fredericktown.

Jefferson Shortridge, son of Andrew Shortridge, grandson of Robert Shortridge and great-grandson, of Colonel John Shortridge, Revolutionary War soldier, was born May 24, 1646, in Tazewell County, Virginia. Clarinda could not have made a better choice for a second husband and for step-father of her four children. He was fond of his step-children and they grew up to return his affection.

Solomon Scalf was the first to leave the parental home. He married Mary Frances Fuller, Jan. 28, 1883. They were the parents of six children, all born at Dassel. Solomon is best described by a nephew who knew him intimately, and said: "Solomon was a patient an4 enduring man, never unkind and always considerate of others."

Solomon homesteaded at Norma, North Dakota, in 1900 and at one-time, he and his half-brother, William Shortridge, conducted the Lewis Store, an establishment widely patronized. In 1908 he moved to near Coronach, Sasketchewan, Canada, a small hamlet north of the Montana border. It was 25 miles to Scobey, Montana, the grain center of the region and Solomon freighted his wheat there. In 1925 he moved to Coronach where he died, June 3, 1932. His widow survived until February, 1937, and died at Centralia, Washington.

John Breckinridge Scalf, namesake of a famous Kentuckian, married Emma Hanson, October, 1908. Previous to his marriage and while Solomon was developing a homestead at Norma, North Dakota, Breckinridge moved to the area in 1902 but left the next year. He was the businessman of the family and preferred dealing in realty to homesteading. In 1911 he and a nephew, Wayne Coleman, returned to Eastern Kentucky to visit relatives. He never came again.

John Breckinridge or "Bracky", as his friends called him and his wife, Emma Hanson Scalf, were the parents of five children. Breckinridge died Dec. 15, 1952 at Culver City, Calif., and his wife, Emma Hanson Scalf, born July 17, 1886, died in April, 1923. They are buried in the Dassel cemetery at Dassel, Minn.

James Wise Scalf married Lucinda Dancoke, April 25, 1888. They were the parents of a daughter, Myrtle (1888-1913) who married Oscar Broberg. James Wise died Sept. 18, 1893. James and Lucinda are buried at Dassel.

Mary Elizabeth Scalf, only daughter of John Henry Scalf and Clarinda Sellards Scalf, married Lewis Coleman, Dec. 25, 1882. They were parents of eight children. Mary died July, 1938, she and Lewis are buried at Dassel, Minn.

Clarinda Sellards Scalf, born Feb. 10, 1840, died January, 1914 and her second husband, Jefferson Shortridge, survived until April, 1933. She buried in Dassel Cemetery, and Jefferson, who remarried, is buried at Minneapolis.



THE JOHN BRECKINRIDGE SCALF AND EMMA HANSON SCALF FAMILY

                                     (John - Brittan - John, Sr. - Lewis)

 I. John Robert Scalf, born Sept. 8, 1909, married Eva Catherine Arntz, born March 28, 1909. John has had an outstanding career as a soil scientist with the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. He retired in 1966 after, developing a system to determine the origin, development and ages of soil. He resides at 619 Dazell, Shreveport, La. He has six children: John Robert, Jr., born Nov. 14, 1939; Ann Clare, born April 18, 1943; Catherine Celeste, born December 26, 1944; Helen Marie, born October 13, 1946; Mary Margaret, born March 21, 1950; Elizabeth Eva, born November 9, 1951.

II. Vera Margaret Scalf, born January 17, 1912. Married Lawrence Larson. One daughter, adopted, named Christine, born ca 1949. Lawrence Larson is a teacher, resides at Riverside, California.

III. Eleanor May Scalf, born June 20, 1914. Married Richard

Ransdell. Two chilaren, both adopted: Phillip ("Tim"), born ca 1949, died 1967, and Linda, born 1951. Richard Ransdell is an engineer. Resides at Culver City, California.

IV. Mary Ethel Scalf, born December 18, 1915. Married Arne Nousanen. Two children: Diane, born November 28, 1945, and Marcia, born December 31, 1947. Nousanen is a forest ranger at Grangeville, Idaho and Hamilton, Montana, (retired March 1969).

V. Wilson Lee Scalf, born February 13, 1918. He is an accountant and resides at Culver City, California. Wife's name was Vivian Lucille Corwin.


                                                     NOTE

 Issue of Jefferson Shortridge and.Clarinda Sellards Scalf Shortridge were:

1. Ellen, born May 23, 1873, married Federick Irving Tunnell, Nov. 24, 1897. Seven children. In 1966 resided at Seattle, Washington. She died there in August of 1966.

2. William, born August 23, 1875, married Susan Smith, June 30, 1899. Five Children. William died June 30, 1950. His widow lives at Anoka, Minn.

3. Joseph, born November 30, 1877. Died unmarried, Feb. 5, 1960.

4. Elsie, born March 10, 1882. Unmarried.

5. Emily, born June 20, 1884. Unmarried.

6. Florence, born October 29, 1870, married William Rexford, March 25, 1893. Three children. She died July 3, 1909.

Issue of Frederick I. Tunnell and Ellen Shortridge Tunnell were:

1. Fred, born 1899, married. Wife's name unavailable. One child. Fred resides at Bismarck, N.D., was deputy state auditor.

2. Josephine, born 1902, married Vance Remington, Dec. 25, 1927. Three children. Remington accidentally drowned in 1953. Josephine is a clerk, lives at Seattle.

3. Grace, born 1904, married Al Fisher, August 30, 1930. Two children. Fisher died by accidental gunshot ca 1950. Grace is a clerk, lives in Seattle.

4. Leslie, born 1906, married Sylvia Mahnke, Nov. 3, 1931. Two children. Leslie is creamery plant manager at Mahall, N.D.

5. Edith, born 1907, married Dr. Theodore Dozoia, April 4, 1942. One child. Dr. Dozoia is an entomologist and they reside at Logan, Utah.

6. Ella, born August 1909, married Jacobson, August 16, 1930. Four children. Husband is automobile salesman and they reside at Seattle.

7. Claribell, born 1911, married Dr. Robert St. Clair, April 12, 1938. Three children. Dr. St. Clair is an M.D., and they reside at Northwood, N.D.

All information on the Shortridge descendants was compiled in 1955.


THE SOLOMON SCALF AND FRANCES FULLER SCALF DESCENDANTS

                                 (John - Brittan - John, Sr. - Lewis)

Solomon Scalf, born March 27, 1857, in Kentucky, married at Dassell, Minn. Mary Frances Fuller, January 28, 1883. She was born September 29, 1863. Between 1900 and 1902 the Solomon Scalf family moved from Dassell, Minn., to Norma, N.D. where they lived until 1911, when they moved to Coronach, Saskatchewan, Canada. Solomon died there June 3, 1932 and his widow, with sons John, James and William, moved to the state of Washington. She died at Centralia, Washington, February, 1937.

Solomon Scalf and Mary Frances Fuller Scalf were parents of six children, all born at Dassell, Minnesota.

I. John Henry Scalf. Born February 13, 1884. Married Mabeld ...... Died August 1949 and buried at Tacoma, Washington. Five children: Erbelle, Martes, Vernon, Kenneth, Marie. Erbelle and Marie were missionaries in 1958. No information available on Kenneth. Vernon married Dorothy Robertson and were parents of Larry, Lonny, and Michael. In 1955 Vernon and Dorothy were living in Washington. Martes married Esther Battdorf at Seattle and parents of one child. Esther is deceased and Martes is a minister and last heard from was residing at Des Moines, Iowa.

II. Richard Lee Scalf. Born October 14, 1886. Died at Dassell, Sept. 23, 1889.

III. James Harrison Scalf. Born June 6, 1889. Was never married. Lived for years in Oregon and California.

IV. William Leslie Scalf. Born February 7, 1892. Married Fern Randall, March 26, 1918, at Plentywood, Montana. Fern died October 23, 1930 at Coronach, Saskatchewan, Canada. Address of William Leslie Scalf in 1958 was Stanfield, Oregon. Seven children.

1. Donald Dale Scalf. Born Eddyside, Saskatchewan, December 27, 1918. Married Neva ("Trudy") McNair, May 1, 1938, Kalespell, Montana. Children of Donald Dale Scalf and Neva McNair Scalf were William Dale, born April 28, 1939, Coquille, Oregon; Donald Richard, born Seattle, Washington, Sept. 22, 1940; Vicki Ann, born Oct. 9, 1949, Renton, Washington; Sue Ellen Scalf, born January 7, 1951, Seattle, Washington; Mark, born May 15, 1956, Portland, Oregon.

2. Virgil Glenn Scalf. Born East Poplar, Saskatchewan, Sept. 16, 1920. Married Ruth Burns, August 6, 1940, at Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Two children: Glen Dale, born March 9, 1941, Yorkton, Saskatchewan; and Joyce Elaine, born June 7, 1943, Seattle, Washington. Virgil Glenn Scalf remarried second to Wilma Potts, March 18, 1947, Seattle, Washington. Two children by second marriage: Nylene Annette, born January 29, 1949; and Floyd Leslie, born June 3, 1957. Virgil Glenn, a fleet truck operator, was residing in Seattle in 1958.

        3. Eugene Vincent Scalf. Born November 11, 1921, East Poplar, Saskatchewan. Married Ruth Heinle, July 7, 1941, Vancouver, Washington. Seven children: Sharon Gayle, born June 28, 1942, Hermiston, Oregon; Gary Gene, born October 4, 1943, Hermiston, Oregon; E. Randall, born January 11, 1945, Atascadero, California; Dennis, born May 24, 1947, Pittsburg, Illinois; Kathleen and Kandyce, twins, born September 13, 1952, Los Angeles, California; Tami, born August 28, 1954, Hillsboro, Illinois. Eugene Vincent Scalf, a construction worker, was living in Portland, Oregon, in 1958.

        4. Veryl Clyde Scalf. Born September 18, 1924, Coronach, Saskatchewan. Married Pearl Beauchamp in 1947. One child: Carol, born May 10, 1951, Kennewick, Washington. Married second to Lillian Wagner, September 18, 1955, Camas, Washington.

         5. Lila Irene Scalf. Born July 25, 1926, Scobey, Montana. Married Gale Peterson. No children. Living in Brandon, Oregon, in 1958.

         6. Lowell Leslie Scalf. Born August 21, 1928, Coronach, Saskatchewan. Married Jean Hynek. Divorced. No children.

         7. Marvin Manley Scalf. Born November 21, 1929, Coronach, Saskatchewan. Married Florence Marianne Roberts, September 10, 1948, New York, N.Y. Children are Dale Henry Scalf, born March 1, 1949, Kindley Air Force Base, Bermuda Island; Gloria Ann, born March 16, 1951, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. City, Oklahoma; Teresa Marie, born January 29, 1953, Seattle, Washington. Bus driver and living in Gresham, Oregon, in 1958.

V. Clarence Easterly Scalf. Born May 18, 1895. Died at Dassell, Minnesota, February 24, 1896.

VI. George Edward Scalf. Born March 14, 1897. Married Mildred Agnes Randall, October 19, 1917, Plentywood, Montana. George Edward Scalf is mayor of Swan River, Manitoba, Canada and in 1958 had served nine years. He engaged in the farm implement business.

In 1958, Mayor Scalf, in seeking to establish contact with his relatives in Eastern Kentucky, wrote Kentucky Governor A.B. Chandler, asking for the address of the author of this history of the Scalf family, then associate editor of the Floyd County Times, Prestonsburg, Kentucky. Governor Chandler forwarded the letter to this writer. In May, 1959, Clare Vincent Scalf, the Mayor's son, and his wife, visited at Prestonsburg and made a return visit in 1961. Mayor Scalf subsequently visited the writer.

Children of George Edward Scalf and Mildred Agnes Randall Scalf are:

1. Ethel May Scalf. Born August 19, 1918, Eddyside, Saskatchewan. Married Byron Levenseller, October 7, 1944, Bremerton, Washington. Divorced 1958. One child: Gregory Alan, born July 2, 1946, Bremerton. Ethel May remarried, April 12, 1958, to Phillip Earl Roberts, in California. Address in 1958 was Brentwood, Calif.

2. Alverne Clifford Scalf. Born May 1, 1920, Eddyside, Saskatchewan. Died at Norma, N.D., November 2, 1920, age five months.

3. Irwin Stanley Scalf. Born July 3, 1922, Eddyside, Saskatchewan. Married Evelyn Redford, October 20 1948, Yorkton, Saskatchewan. One son: Lloyd Stanley, born July 14, 1949, Kamsack, Saskatchewan. Irwin Stanley Scalf was drowned at Murray Lake, Saskatchewan, June 23, 1953. His widow remarried, June 21, 1954, to James Edward Jordan, North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

4. Clare Vincent Scalf. Born May 3, 1924, East Poplar, Saskatchewan. Married Rose Delina LaFontaine, August 20, 1947, Kamsack, Saskatchewan. Two adopted children: Gay Teresa Scalf and George Randall Scalf. Clare now lives at Byron, Ontario, and is a service station operator. (See story in appendix.) Gay Teresa was born at Winnipeg, Manitoba, December 10, 1951, and George Randall was born April 8, 1954, at Ste. Rose Du Lac, Manitoba.

5. Gloria Vivian Scalf. Born January 20, 1928, Coronach, Saskatchewan. Married Alvin Franklin Allison, April 4, 1953, at Juneau, Alaska. One child: Gordon Franklin, born at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, May 1, 1955. Alvin Franklin Allison and family reside at Mile 1016, Haines Junction, Alaska Highway, Yukon Territory, where he is postmaster and merchant.

6. Gordon Wendell Scalf. Born January 29, 1930, Coronach, Saskatchewan. Married Edith Almeda Elizabeth Stewart, May 26, 1952, Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Gordon Wendell Scalf is an accountant and employed by the Bank of Montreal, Tribune Building, 257 Smith Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Three children: Stewart Gordon, born April 15, 1953, Melville, Saskatchewan; Karen Rae, born April 16, 1954, Yorkton, Saskatchewan; Janet Alice, born July 22, 1956, at Yorkton.

7. Glen Alva Scalf. Born June 23, 1932, Coronach, Saskatchewan. Not married in 1958. Bank accountant at Bank of Montreal, 97th Street Branch, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.


THE FIVE SONS AND THREE DAUGHTERS OF LOUIS AND MARY SCALF COLEMAN

I.   Charles Breckenridge Coleman (1883-1958)
     Married Louise Elizabeth Stelton (1886-1951)

The following excerpts from a letter received from Mrs. Ty Coleman, Cut Bank, Montana, dated Nov. 8, 1966, gives much information on the Charles Breckenridge Coleman Family.

"Grandfather Charles B. Coleman was always interested in learning about his relatives and their whereabouts as he left home at a very early age. Grandfather was in farming for several years in North Dakota in the dry years. He quit farming and worked at an elevator until he came to Montana in the 30's. He was in the oil fields here working and then was caretaker of a cemetery the later years of his life. After his wife passed away in 1951 he lived with my father-in-law (Timothy Herman Coleman) and his family. He was a hard worker, loved to argue, and had a keen sense of humor.

"His two sons lived here in Montana. Woody (Woodrow Curtis Coleman) lived in Sunburst, 35 miles from here. He was employed by the Texas Company refinery as head boilerman. He was transferred to Anchortus, Washington, in 1958 where he lived until he passed away. He died of a heart attack while coming home from work in his car. Woody was good-natured, always had a smile and easy-going. While in Sunburst he bought some land and ran a few head of cows and farmed. He and Gladys had only one child, a son, Curtis, who lives in Sunburst and is engaged in farming and ranching there. Curtis had a lovely wife and two other children which he lost in one of our snow storms four years ago. (1962) It happened just a week before Christmas. She ran into a ditch returning home from town. They were waiting for help and were gased in the car.

"Tip, my father-in-law, whose real name was Timothy, was Charles' oldest son. He came out to Montana right after he married Ruth Hall. He worked for the Texas Company for a few years, then went over to Washington and worked on a pipeline and later on Grand Coulee Dam. He returned to Cut Bank and again went to work for the Texas Company. He was a pumper and also for several years had an orchestra. He was a good trumpet player. Along with working for the Texas Company, playing with the orchestra, he started painting on the side. He had a spray painting outfit and did a lot of painting of houses, roofs, tanks, etc. In 1947 Tip bought some land and moved two miles north of Cut Bank and started farming along with everything else. He soon retired from the Texas Company, after putting in 20 years with them. He acquired more land and kept up painting and sand blasting. In about 1954 he started up a small construction business and did backhoe work, digging pipelines, sewers, etc. His son helped him and they also did painting. Tip quit playing the trumpet in 1954. He was a great horse enthusiast. He helped to form the Cut Bank Saddle Club. He and all of his family were good riders.

"Ty (Tytus) and I were married in 1956, Ty went in with his father in his many ventures. Tip bought several houses from the oil companies, which they were selling, and moved them in on his land and fixed them up for rental. Tip was the proudest grandfather in Montana when we presented him with a granddaughter, Cindy, in 1957. I am glad he had her for 10 months before he was taken from us. He was in an accident and killed outright .... Ty is now farming and ranching here on the home place .... Ty's mother lives next to us and she has Tip's rental properties and works at a hardware store in town.

"We now have a son also whom we call Tip after his grandfather whom he never knew. The family still rides. Ty does a lot of team roping and enters the rodeos close home in this event. Karen, his sister, is married and lives in Circle. Her husband is county agent there. He is also a cowboy, bull rider and bulldogger and competes in rodeos in Montana. Karen does a lot of barrel racing. She graduated from Montana State College in 1965. She was on the Rodeo Team in college all four years. She went to the National Collegiate Rodeo in Denver in 1964 and won the National Goat Tying championship. So you see she is quite a cowgirl herself. She broke the horse my husband is now roping off. Ty and Karen, being the only two children, are very close.

"Our children are also interested in horses. Cindy, who is now nine, is going to enter her first rodeo this spring. She will run the barrels. She has competed in gymcannas and has won seven ribbons already. Tip, our son, is six years old and he rides also but has not won a ribbon yet. He swings a good rope on the ground but not yet on a horse. He says he wants to be a bull rider but only time will tell.

"We raise wheat and barley. We finished combining in September. We have Black Angus cows but not too many head. Ty usually goes hunting in October but this year he didn't go. That's the first time he hasn't gone big game-hunting in 12 years. He usually gets deer, elk or antelope or whatever they go for. They take horses and pack back in the Rocky Mountains for a week or 10 days. He has also gotten mountain goats and grizzly bears. He went pheasant hunting last week...

"We are only about 40 miles from Glacier National Park and we can see the mountains from our living room and they are beautiful. It has been real cold the last few days. I imagine you hear that Cut Bank listed as the coldest spot in the nation many times. It really doesn't seem to get so cold. It is a dry cold so it doesn't go through you like back east where the air has more moisture. The people are so friendly out here you would love our state. July is one of the nicest months to visit.

"Ty's aunt, Charlie Coleman's oldest, lives in Illinois. Her name and address is Mrs. Phil Isokwich (Jaye Elizabeth), 240 West Locust Street, DeKalb, Illinois."

Copyright (C) 1970 by Henry P. Scalf, All Rights Reserved.