Paul Shepherd: Lick Creek, Caney, Brushy, head of Licking River

I love learning about rivers, valleys, creeks, and hollows. I did a presentation a few years ago about the Big Sandy Valley, in which David, Kentucky, my home-place, was situated.. Last year, I taught my grandson, Dawson, about the valley we lived in. He said they hear it all the time, name businesses after it, but none of the kids really know what "the Big Sandy Valley" is. I asked Paul Shepherd if David was on the left or right fork of Middle Creek. I believe it was the left fork and the fork where the Battle of Middle Creek was fought January 10, 1862. According to Wikipedia, "The battle [of Middle Creek], along with the Battle of Mill Springs, positioned the Union armies to invade Middle Tennessee.

Home place of Elizabeth (Mrs Ashland) Shepherd. Elizabeth was the wife of our wonderful Company Carpenter, Ashland Shepherd and mother of our friend, Paul shepherd and our childhood teacher, Grace Shepherd Clark.
I'd like to know it's exact location so we David natives can have a better sense of how we connected to the broader rural area owned by early pioneers. Our fathers mined coal all under these hills so I'd love to know more. Paul, would you tell me name of creek, hollow, route, so we can get a perspective? I know you can. Also, was "Lick Fork" the main street of David, that led over the new road to the head of the Licking river? I always said "the other hollar".......I didn't know we lived in Official Hollow. I never felt like we were "higher ups" as you mention below. I thought we lived in "Fisher" hollar..and wondered why, since the dam was in the "other hollar". Then there was *school house hollar". When I tried to talk proper and called it "hollow", I was teased. Your sister Grace loved for her students to use Standard English. I teach standard versus non standard still today. Our David teachers were excellent! I look forward to Paul Shepherd, son of early settlers, discussing the region to help me tie the land to the rivers and creeks. The following is our recorded comments from Facebook a few years ago.


Paul Shepherd
Judy, David was a continuation of the left fork of middle creek.If you turn up towards Caney, it was the Caney Fork of Middle Creek.Then just past the number two mine and tipple. Lick fork went right to Ruff & Tuff and straight on, to David.I had always heard it was called Lick Fork because of the Salt springs Daniel Boone discovered there. Fisher hollor I thought was Official hollor because that is where all the high up men lived that worked in the mine. School house Hollor was because of the school. Keep in mind before the road crossed the Mountain into Magoffin county, that was the end. So many people have not taken notice when you come off the mountain from Magoffin county into David, Floyd county is over 300 feet lower than Magoffin County-a very unique place. This is why Daniel Boone, when he spent his first winter in Kentucky in steep hillside camp, near David, called it the coldest place he had ever spent a winter and, "Not fit for human habitation" according to Carrico's book. Floyd County at this point was like a big hole in the ground from the breaking away of the Earth.

Now back down to the start of Lick Fork, at one time was Goodloe Post Office. You cross the railroad tracks about two to three miles to the Right is Open Fork, as you travel another three miles to the left is Hicks Branch, then traveling on another one mile to the right is Beach Branch.Then another one half mile is Pyramid where there use to be a post Office, And there to the right is Howard's Branch,Then another quarter mile to the Left is Pitts Fork, Another quarter mile on the left of the road is my mom's (Ashland and Elizabeth Shepherd ) home place, Then another quarter mile to the right is Hell or Hale Fork,From there one mile to the right is another Hicks Branch where everything ends before roads were made across into Brush Creek.

From this point coming back if you climb any mountain to the left it will take you into Magoffin County To what is called the head waters of the Licking River. Brushy Fork, Royalton down the valley to Salyersville, the County Seat.

On the way back if you cross any mountain to the Right It will take you into Caney Fork of Middle Creek. Cross any mountain to the right You come back to the Pitts Fork area, And if you cross to the Left you come into the head of Spurlock Fork Of Middle Creek. At the head of Caney, which is Stephens Branch, is where one of my grand parents couple, on the Stephens side of the family is buried. You cross over near Martin, Kentucky.

Now you can see why PECC had number one and number two mine. Number two mined the left side of the valley and number one mined the right side or they would have had to build a trussell across the valley.

The way a crow flies very short but follow the valleys you travel for many miles. All these valleys lie connected to one ridge.
I would love to fly over these ridges just to see the magnificence.


There is more history I feel I should write about this area so it can be passed on.

At one time back in the heyday of mining there were at least six mines located in this area as well as all of Middle Creek.
Beginning at the Forks of Lick Fork and up this direction There were between a dozen or two mining operations going on.
A man by the name of Bill Jack Stevens was a mining icon. He had what was called "Truck Mines".
Two openings were made in the hillside going back aways and came together. One of the openings was to place a very large fan in to pull bad air out of the mine, the other opening was to haul coal out.
Steel tracks were laid out to the chute that held the coal. It was large enough for one large dump truck when it was full.
As the coal was mined it was shoveled into cars on the track back in the mine. When a car was full a team of mining ponies were hitched to the car and pulled out to the opening, the driver would lift up the connector from the car moving the ponies either to the right or left and the car would continue on to the chute. When it got over the chute the over balance of weight on the front would dump the load into the chute The driver would back the ponies back to the car, hook onto the car and upright it, and was on their way back to get another car load. This went on all day long.
Each time the chute was filled a truck would come back under the chute, empty it and take it to the PECCO tipple to processed. The timing was so each driver would know what chute was ready to collect.
I can still remember the drivers of the trucks, My uncle Ashland my mom's brother, was one. Ernest Prater, Arnold Prater I believe, Rady Davis and others that worked for the mining industry.
Just in this view alone. There was one just to the left of the picture. Going in a circle at the top of the picture, one farther up going right at the top, then one straight across to the far right, then coming back right on the curve, on around to the right just out of the picture one, then cross over to the very right of the picture one.These mines were right at the edge of the highways to have easy access for the truck drivers.
The ponies were housed close by and were taken care for by one of the neighbors. They could have from a dozen to two dozen ponies. The ponies would get a day off for rest and never worked five day straight.
Just to the right was the place where the ponies were taken care for by The Goble Shepherd family, food and water was in place twenty four hours a day seven days a week.
There was also a powder house where they kept all the black powder and rolls of fuse to ignite the explosive after it was placed in the drilled hole in the mine. The black powder came in rolls one to two inches thick and up to twelve inches long. Depending on how much the load in the hole should be the rolls were broken to the length they need for the explosion in the hole to break up the coal so it could be loaded into the cars.
A long fuse was placed in a hole in the black powder and laid far away in a safe distance so when it was ready to lite the person would have time to go where it was safe. After the explosive went off the large fans would pull all the smoke out of the mine so it would be safe to return in side.
All of this work was done at the end of the shift so the mine would be safe to enter the next day.
There were also private families that had their own mine and the same operation was used Bradford family, Prater family, Howard family and many more.
In time things started to go modern where buggy cars were used powered by electric. and pony mining went dead.
This was a big part of mining for the out crop mining.

Before all of this most of the land owners had what was called "coal banks" where the family would dig their coal from the edge of the mountain to heat their homes in the winter
Before electricity came available, when the coal bank was closed water would stand in it very cool and this is where the milk and butter would be kept.
I am proud to say in these modern times I was a part of those times, We did not go to the store to buy milk when we wanted a good cold glass to drink or spread some butter on a hot biscuit, we went to the coal bank or a cool spring. Of course the cows had to be milked first and if you got more milk than your family could use you gave it to your neighbor, We always had at least two milking cows because when a cow is with calf she will "go dry" as they said.I don't think mom or dad ever sold a gallon of milk as far as I remember
In this picture on the left to the top was a one room school house. As more kids came along they moved in another building which we called the "Tin building" because it was made of metal.
If you go around the right at the foot of the hill there used to be a cool spring cut from the rock, each recess and lunch time all the kids would line up and go there for water and return back to the school house. Now we have bottled water and I hear we are shipping our fresh water in large tankers to china, then I hear our fresh water is running out here in our nation. Have I missed something? Why is this taking place if we are running out of fresh water/ Oh well that's another story I will have to write about at a later date. Have a great day friends.
I would love to fly over these ridges just to see the magnificence. Judy Bussey wonderful! Thanks so much! This will definitely be a blog piece all it's own.
Judy Bussey Paul, we used to ride bicycles or even walk to Howard Hills store, is that the Caney Fork of Middle Creek? Seems we used to go that way, cross some creek beds to Brushy then cross a little bridge into Martin.....just to get to Stone Coal to visit Mothers parents, John A and Lizzie Gunnels Hicks.. Tell me a little bit more.
Ruth Goble Paul you are amazing,where did you learn all this from.

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Glen DeBoard ‎.Paul, Have you been looking at Google or do you remember all this. I swear you have taken me back through the years. You have such a good memory.

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Paul Shepherd Glen This is all from memory. As I wrote this I could see every mile along the way. These were just the forks and branches and up each of theses were many smaller branches. I think I have covered each one.
Paul Shepherd
Judy I remember the store Howard and Jenny Hill had. It was just at the point where you turn to go up Lick Fork, Which they also had the Post Office Goodloe, KY.
Caney Fork was back toward Prestonsburg at the end of the Airport Where Alan Slone had his store and that Post Office was Blue River, Ky,
Yes you could go up Caney and crossover into Martin turn right go into Garrett, Stone Coal, Mousie and Right Beaver or you could go left to Left Beaver.
You could also walk over the mountain to Brush Creek walk down to the main road and ride a bus going into Right Beaver.
Before the roads crossed the mountains you had to go all the way into Prestonsburg take US 23 to 80 go right to Right and Left Beaver. I remember mom and I walked to Howard Hill's store and rode a bus to Prestonsburg so I could have a tooth pulled. I will never forget that, Was that ever a killer very little Novocaine given in that day. That was as bad as being at school and the nurse dressed in her white uniform walking in the door with that big black bag. Now you talking about a nightmare, How did we survive all that torture when we were kids!

Back up in my other post it shows Margin County, I have no ideal what I was thinking, lol That should be Magoffin (I knew what you meant and corrected it Paul. JB) Rod Bussey Paul you are so remarkable!........have you considered recording your memories on audio......rod
Fran Justice Great idea, Rod! Paul, consider it.
Judy Bussey Yes, Paul, you are remarkable. Audio is a great idea. Thanks for the specifics. Rod and I spent many an hour in Daddy's Hudson and 57
Chevy on the dusty road to Stone Coal. I'm so inspired and have no idea how to capture all you know!!!
Walta Lee Pack Paul do you have a sister named Sally? We went all through high school together and were very good friends. Where does she live and is she on fb?
Ruth Goble Paul, I have bad vision ,wish you had the time and money to publish all your writing so I could read it at my level of time, before Parkinson's takes what little brain I have now. love you
Venelia Prater Beck When I was about 5 we lived next door to the store the Hills ran. Me and their daughter got to ride to David and back on one of the coal engines. We use to wait every day for the train to come by. We got acquainted with the engineers.
Paul Shepherd Walta. Yes, Sally was my sister.Sad to report She passed away in January.
Paul Shepherd Venelia, Didn't you just love those old trains? When it came up Middle creek You could hear it chucking, the black smoke puffing ,steam spitting out all over. Gosh I wish they still had them. Then they had to switch to diesel. I would love to take a trip for a whole month and never leave the train. just sit and see the country side through the windows. The last time I got to ride one was on my Senior trip to Washington DC. I even got to go back and ride on the caboose
Paul Shepherd Rod, That would be a good idea. A few years before mom passed I begged her to do that, even took a recorder to her.She had so much history and her memory was good till the day she died at the age of 92. I'm happy she got to pass it on to me. I remember things that took place years before I came into this world
Glen DeBoard Paul, We are sure sorry to hear about Sally. Just to pause and think how many of our family members and friends we grew up with that we are losing is so sad. I know each family member is especially hurt when this happens and will be missed by many friends. Our hearts go out to you Paul and family members.

Paul Shepherd
Everything to the left of the bridge my uncle bought for less than $10,000.00. Just as much is hidden to the left of the picture. He told dad he would sell it to him for what he paid for it. Dad said he didn't need it. Oh dad what if?
This i...s one of the most beautiful land views on Middle creek. It has four points that meet, you can stand in the center and see in all directions.
Hundred of artifacts have been found here dating back thousands of years.
When we first move here in 1945 there was remnants of an old sawmill just to the left of the white trailer. There were trees 100 feet and up standing in the bottom land. In time the old saw mill sank in the ground, we cut the trees and tiled it to drain the water and planted corn in it.
I remember Norm and Sadie Hicks's sons, Thomas, Ray, Carl,Glen, D.B., Clifford would bring their team of horses and plow it with what was called a two horse turning plow. In time, after they would get it in shape, after a couple years, dad went and bought what was called a hill side turning plow. The difference between a two horse and a hill side was the two horse you had only one way to turn the ground either start from the center and plow outwards or start from the out ends play toward the center, then this would would leave a low place in the field. One of these plows I could not move it was so heavy.
The hill side plow was half the size you got to the end kick a little latch on the plow and give it a swing as the horse was turning presto the plow would flip over and right back down the row.
I was only 10 or 11, but boy was I good as most young boys were if you had a good work horse. When the horse got to the end of the row, he knew what to do, Just call out gee or haw, pull on the right or left reins slightly, as he turned, you lift on the handle the plow would lift off the ground you give it a snap the plow would flip and lock in place right down the row again and never had to stop.
My dad believed in the old way all the time I was at home I never knew what a piece of farm equipment with a motor on it was like.
Man did i ever get an education. Now if I have something go wrong with my equipment. I grab my tools and make my replacement part.
Friends ask why don't you go buy one. Man I can't Wait 3 weeks to get it then pay $150.00 just for a blade pulley for my riding mower, this grass ain't going stop growing. My neighbor will want to know why I haven't cut my grass. Melissa Verne-Leksell That is a gorgeous piece of property.!
Paul Shepherd Thanks Melissa, Lots of memories still there.I now live 400 miles north. But it still in my mom and dad's estate.
Darrell Stephens likes this.
Sandra Prater Beautiful land with great narration and story-telling.
Darrell Stephens the property that Paul is talking about was auctioned off late 50"s or very early 60"s and Ashland never intended to bid on that land that day. He said that morning when he left the house that he was just going to watch and not bid but he did and ended up with the winning bid
Dolores Hall Where is this? It looks a lot like the Ozarks.
Judy Bussey Foothills of the Appalachians, David, Kentucky, on Middle Creek , in East Kentucky--my homeland, too.
Ruth Goble home long ago.
Ruth Goble Paul, I would pass by where the ponies were kept, to get to school, the old road, remember the two mines near there also. thanks
Paul Shepherd
Ruth, I loved that dirt road. In the spring all the wild flowers, the Sweet Williams, blood root, wild letters, may apple, red bud, dog wood,then in the fall all the leaves falling from the trees. Yes you all had to walk right behind Goble Shepherd's home right by the mine as you got past the mine it was so low when the creek would rise the water backed up to cover the path right on up where I lived through the gate then out the other gate on the other side on across Henry Hale field to the school. Close your eyes and dream. I take many a journey of the past. A great quote was once made, " Your young will see visions and your old shall dream Dreams"
May you be blessed
Paul Paul Shepherd Judy there is so much history surrounding The Big Sandy, "Levisa fork"
I wonder how many know what's special about the Big Sandy River. Only one other river I know of does what the Big Sandy does and that's the Tug in in West Virginia.
Judy Bussey I lived right on the banks of the Tug Fork for several years. Gave my grandson a big lesson in Paintsville last summer. He lives right on the Levisa and needed to know how that river flows.