Why a Website Devoted to the Williams Creek Basin?

I have always had a reasonable interest in history and geography especially with regard to the region I grew up in. This interest was not something that compelled me to spend a lot of time reading materials already available on this subject, or to expend energy in far away archives researching the subject. In short, I was interested but not compelled. If I just happened on related information I consumed that with pleasure, but I did not actively seek this information.

My late Mother, Frances Tiller Coleman (1921-1999) also had a similar interest and liked to talk about local history, geography, local families, relatives, etc. It is likely that my own interest is rooted in hers.

A few years after my Mother’s death I was going through a small notebook of hers that contained all sorts of things, a true “note” book. There were financial records of her Notary Public work, numerous short poems, and very short personal stories with her observations regarding her family, friends, and community.

There were two areas in this notebook that related specifically to her interest in local history and geography.

One was a two page listing on pages 22 and 23 of “Names to Remember”. Like myself, my Mother realized the fundamental power and grand utility of the list. Lists are powerful. Her list had 22 entries of places in her community, and she was obviously concerned about them being remembered. I don’t think this was a list of places that she was personally concerned about forgetting, but ones she suspected the general community, and possibly even her own children, were in the process of forgetting. Forgetting is a factor of time. Of course she was correct in being concerned. Currently even those living just next door have no idea where Huguenot Hollow might be.

Here is this list of Frances’ “Names to Remember”. (Click on images for a much larger view)

The other listing in Frances’ notebook was a very short 6 entry listing on page 41 of “Old Cemeteries”.

Here is the listing of Frances’ “Old Cemeteries”. (Click on images for a much larger view)

In 2011, I was visiting my younger brother, James “Gordy” Coleman, at the Kings Daughters Hospital.  While at the hospital I decided to also check on an old family friend Trecie Whitley (1940-2012). Trecie was very ill and in intensive care. Due to the very constrained visiting schedule in the intensive care ward, I was unable to see Trecie. But I was able to see her husband, Raymond Whitley (1930-2013), who was in the waiting room with his son Rusty.

Raymond and I first chatted about Trecie’s condition, but then the subject turned to the history of a row of former mining company houses in Rush called “New Row”, that he and his family had lived in for over half a century. Raymond had an amazingly clear and focused recall of the families that had lived in these New Row houses. I found a paper placemat used on a hospital serving tray serendipitously laying in the area and began to record the information that Raymond was recounting on the back of this placemat. This became my starting point of working on local history and geography in a more structured manner.

I still have that placemat, here it is. (Click on images for a much larger view)

This interaction with Raymond Whitley motivated me to noodle around on the web for an easy to consume history on the communities that I grew up in, Princess, Coalton, and Rush, KY. There was not very much to be found. I went to the great resource Wikipedia and surprisingly found a listing for each of these communities. But as a grand summary the individual Wikipedia entries for Princess, Coalton, and Rush just indicated “a small unincorporated community in Boyd Country, KY” with some unfocused information about the larger Huntington-Ashland-Ironton metropolitan area.

I looked harder for related information in libraries, archives, and bureaucratic reports. I also talked to interested area residents like Raymond Whitley and my brother-in-law, Jerry Burton, and discovered much more germane information on these communities. But, the information I gathered was not arranged in a manner that lent itself to easily digest and form a coherent picture of these communities. It was just facts located here and there, with no consolidation or interpretation of those facts.

So this simplistic declaration of just “a small unincorporated community in Boyd Country, KY” got me going, and my initial research indicated a lot more related information was available. This convinced me that even a mechanical engineer, nearing retirement age, with only rudimentary writing skills, and no rigorous formal training in history could do a reasonable job. If the real historians are not interested in these communities possibly a half assed one would suffice.

So this project concept has rattled around in my head for several years as I have slowly gathered information. I have done a lot of additional research and am in the process of doing far more. Initially this research was haphazard in focus as I went from interesting information tidbit to tidbit throughout the region. I was consuming the more interesting and easy to find data here and there relating to Boyd, Carter, Greenup, and Lawrence Counties.

I soon realized that if I was going to get anything accomplished I would need to limit my scope. A one person, inexperienced, and untrained research crew must realize its inherent limitations. Even if that one person crew does have the robust support and focused assistance of their life partner, Linda Newman, a professional academic librarian for over 30 years. Linda also happens to be an expert webmaster and provides the mechanical underpinning and holistic advise required to develop and maintain this website.

The scope has finally congealed in the historically related communities of the Williams Creek Basin. Admittedly I am far more intimate and comfortable with information regarding the communities of my youth, Princess, Coalton, and Rush.

My longtime friend and lifelong newspaperman, Greg Flannery, when ask for guidance for a rookie writer indicated, “write what you know about”. I hope I have not extended the limits of my knowledge too far. But, I found it impossible to decouple Princess, Coalton, and Rush from the neighboring named communities all along Williams Creek and its tributaries which are actuality just one reasonably continuous and larger community.

So here’s to Frances Tiller Coleman, Raymond Whitley, Jerry Burton, and Linda Newman with my deep appreciation.

Next Article – State and County Boundaries Are Not Constant