Good day fellow-listers, I don't often post to this list, but since we too have found ourselves in the midst of the "American Hollow" issue I must speak up. Although, I didn't watch the HBO presentation(deliberately), I have seen too many of it's type. I find it very sad that anyone would think this kind of trash is in anyway representative of myself and my neighbors. For those of you who have Eastern Kentucky roots, and aren't really sure what that means, I've copied from a Magoffin County site a speech given this past Founder's Day by one of Johnson County's leading and more knowledgeable citizens(speech follows this note). Mr. Wells is an American History professor at Prestonsburg Community College, and a local businessman. He has lived here all his life, and has raised his family here. His roots go to the very depth of Eastern Kentucky, as mine do. And as far as what this has to do with genealogy? Well, if you have roots here read on and you'll see. One last point, which is not to defend Ms. Applegate's use of the term "city suits", but to say that I agree with her. My understanding of this term is to mean "corporate" America, and in NO WAY is meant as a slur toward people who LIVE in bigger cities!!! I wasn't aware that this was a colloquial expression, particular to this area, but if it is -- well IT IS!!! I hope someone will let me know whether or not this expression is used like this in other parts of the country, because I always love to learn new things about my native land. Searching for Ball, Davis, Turner, Waller, Wyatt. Your Gen Friend, Joan Ball Williams MAGOFFIN CO. HISTORICAL SOCIETY SPEECH By John Britton Wells, III The late Harry M. Caudill of Letcher County is credited with writing the best historical overview of our East Kentucky mountains. His book, entitled NIGHT COMES TO THE CUMBERLANDS, stands as the most popular and most widely-read account of our region's settlement, culture, and eventual demise. According to Harry Caudill, our origins are, to say the least, quite modest, and I quote... "In the early days of the American experience, it was to the English orphans and debtor's prisons that labor hungry American planters turned. The English Parliament wanted to get rid of these social outcasts who so proliferated and burdened the respectable classes of England and a series of Parliamentary acts made it possible to transport street orphans, debtors and criminals to the New World, their transportation costs to be paid by the planters. Of course, these wretched outcasts were obliged by law to repay the generous planter with their labor -- usually for seven years. And so for decades there flowed from merry old England a raggle-taggle of humanity -- penniless workmen, pick pockets, thieves, and children of all ages. Not all were brought legally, some had been kidnapped for sale. "It is apparent that much human refuse, dumped on a strange shore was incapable of developing the kind of stable society under construction in the New World. (Most) ran away to the interior, to the rolling Piedmont, and thence to the dark foothills on the fringes of the Blue Ridge. And here we have the people -- few in number, but steadily gaining recruits, living under cliffs or in rude cabins -- who were the first to earn for themselves the title of "Southern Mountaineers." The Southern Mountaineer, his last name marks him indelibly as the son of a penniless laborer whose forebears had been simply serfs." Then, in this book and others, he lists some of the names of this low class HUMAN GARBAGE: Adams, Allen, Arnett, Bailey, Conley, Gullett, Howard, Preston, Shepherd, TO NAME A FEW, and, of course...he included the illustrious family of WELLS!! Caudill goes on to elaborate that our low beginnings explain our modern day lack of ambition, our laziness, our apathy, our violent nature, our ignorance, our isolation, and our poverty. This best selling account of East Kentucky's genesis upsets me greatly ...for two reasons. First, I don't particularly care for anyone calling my family "human refuse". Secondly, ...SECONDLY, with all due respect, Harry M. Caudill's entire thesis is one very large odoriferous pile of EQUINE EXCREMENT (HORSE MANURE). In my humble opinion Caudill's work is a demeaning attempt to explain away the modern social and economic conditions in Appalachia. I do not share his low opinion of us, but the problem he discusses IS very real. We as a people HAVE lost our identity, we HAVE lost our place in history! Somewhere along the line we have become convinced, by people such as Harry Caudill and many, many others, that we have no history, we have LITTLE to be proud of, nothing to recommend us...We have played no significant role in the formation of this wonderful country. And Caudill is not the only one. We hear it from almost every possible source. Any time we venture out of the mountains, the vicious hillbilly stereotype follows us. Sociologists contend that an individual's background is a very important part of his self-image. Who you are, your attitudes, your outlook, are affected deeply by where you've come from and those who came before you. In part, it explains why orphans and adoptees search for their biological roots...to help discover who they are and why they are the way they are. One prominent historian went so far as to speculate that "a people who do not understand their past...have no future". Fellow East Kentuckians, in many respects we are orphaned children. We have lost our past...and we are being told that there is nothing to re-discover. Our past is either very bad...or not there at all. That is why groups like the Magoffin County Historical Society, the Muzzleloaders and the Sons of the Confederate Veterans are so very, very important for the people of Magoffin County. WE ARE JUST AS GOOD...OR BETTER...THAN PEOPLE FROM ANYWHERE ELSE IN THIS COUNTRY. I remember vividly my first, hesitant ventures out of the mountains. I played football for Paintsville High School and eventually our success took us to Mt. Sterling and Covington and points west. The verbal insults we suffered are burned in my memory forever! "Hey, hillbilly, does the sunshine hurt your eyes?" "Got any moonshine with you? "Did you cash your welfare check to buy those shoes?" Just a few years ago, Paintsville won the State High School Basketball Championship. The Lexington crowd shouted insults, asking how things were up in "Mayberry" and "Aintsville." The hillbilly stereotype has been around since before the Civil War and it has been reinforced through embarrassing "hillbilly" jokes, movies like NEXT OF KIN, cartoons such as Snuffy Smith and Little Abner, and television shows MUDDY GUT and the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES. It has become so pervasive that many of us believe it ourselves. Isn't it a tad peculiar that we continue to be the only American minority that it is still politically correct to ridicule? Can you imagine a television show like the Beverly Hillbillies about any other American minority? Can you imagine for one second a show called the "Los Angeles Negroes? About poor, ignorant Blacks named Rufus, Rastus, and Jerome eating chittlins on the billiard table? NOT FOR ONE SECOND! Then, why is it O. K. to do it about us? Heck, we even do it to ourselves! We hold hillbilly festivals that ridicule ourselves! LET'S LOOK AT THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR HISTORY! The most of early settlers of East Kentucky were yeomen farmers who moved into these beautiful mountains after the Revolutionary War. The reason why so many came after the Revolutionary War is that most HAD HELPED WIN OUR AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE BY FIGHTING FOR IT!! They were soldiers and freedom fighters! In lieu of military pay hundreds of veterans accepted warrants for land "in the west", ...in the Kentucky mountains. These men were not thieves. They were not beggars. These men were warriors, ...heroes! They were at Valley Forge with George Washington. They fought at Saratoga, at King's Mountain, and Yorktown. They watched proudly as the British Gen. Cornwallis surrendered and our new nation was born. THEY WERE THERE. THEY MADE THIS COUNTRY! THEY WERE OUR ANCESTORS -- OUR HUMAN REFUSE! The 1840 U. S. Census reveals that the East Kentucky mountains contained one of the highest per capita percentages of Revolutionary veterans in the entire country. I think that bears repeating: In 1840 the population of East Kentucky contained more Revolutionary War veterans per capita than almost any other section of the country. These veterans represented good, honorable families of Europe...No, they were not noblemen (very few of the nobles ever came to America -- they had no reason to come). They were farmers and blacksmiths and artisans and ministers and millers. They were proud Scotsmen such as the Arnetts and Baileys who resisted English domination and were forced to leave their verdant glens and lochs. They were Northern Irish Protestants such as the Connelleys and Patricks who fled the sectarian violence that still plagues Belfast and Londonderry today. They were English and Welsh Quakers such as the Howards and Williams families, unable to worship freely in their mother country. They were German speaking Protestants such as the Wiremans fleeing religious persecution, many of whom Americanized their names to assimilate, such as the BUTCHERS of Butcher Holler, immortalized by Loretta Lynn, who were originally known as "Metzgers" or "butcher" in German. After arriving in East Kentucky they settled on scattered grants of land, often consisting of several hundred acres -- they developed good farms, in river bottoms, at the mouths of hollows, in wide valleys. The topography did not allow for dense population and therefore no large towns developed. But these people were NOT poverty-stricken and they were not ignorant as later writers would have you believe. The 1860 censuses of Magoffin, Johnson, and Floyd counties show that over 75% of the adult males could read and write. And they participated in every aspect of our nation's history. Fully 80% of the eligible voters voted....and when our nation went to war, our people fought for their beliefs in higher numbers than anywhere else in the nation. We sent two full companies of volunteers to fight in the War of 1812. The East Kentucky boys were feared by the British and their Indian allies. The commander of the American forces noted that "the mountaineers shoot quick...and they hit what they aim at. I'm glad to have them by my side in the fight". In the War Between the States, our area provided well over 4,000 soldiers to both sides. There were at least two hundred skirmishes and battles in the region, part of a vicious partisan warfare unequaled anywhere else in our nation! Slavery was not the major issue here. These were proud Americans who had different interpretations of our country's Constitution. DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS!! ...HILLBILLIES?? Wow! We dumb, ignorant mountain folk actually had interpretations!!! The 39th KY U. S. Infantry was formed largely of Big Sandy residents. The 14th KY U. S. Infantry, mountain boys all, served under Gen. Sherman in his "March to the Sea." The 10th KY Confederate Cavalry was in Gen. John Hunt Morgan's famous cavalry command, the unit in which Governor Patton's great-great grandfather served, ...and the 5th Kentucky Confederate Infantry in the famous Orphan Brigade were almost completely composed of Mountain boys, all willing to sacrifice all for their concept of "American freedom!" There were battles fought in Magoffin County. Can you name them? Do you know where they fought...or are they lost to history? In World War I, East Kentucky was the ONLY SECTION of the country where in some counties the military DRAFT was not needed. Why? Because our young men VOLUNTEERED in record numbers. We also experienced the highest casualty rates per capita in THE NATION...in WWI, WWII, and VIETNAM! Why this monument dedication today? Because mountain boys won American freedom for ALL Americans and have continued to protect it for over 200 years. It is high time that these heroes receive the honor they are due. That's why!! And we need to shout it from the hilltops! Our section of the country has produced a disproportionate number of military heroes, business leaders, movie stars, musicians, novelists, and artists. Butch Cassidy of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids" traced his roots to Martin County. Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot downed by the Russians, was born in Jenkins. And Heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey was from the Williamson area. Rosemary Clooney, John Boy (Richard Thomas) of the Waltons, Tommy Kirk of Old Yeller, Patricia Neal of my favorite movie "HUD", Ashley Judd, Johnny Depp are all East Kentuckians. Homer Robinson of Pike County was on the U. S. S. Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor. Heber Ward won the Congressional Medal of Honor after capturing 23 Germans single-handedly -- after being wounded in both hips. Frank Sousley, a marine from the Morehead area raised the American flag over Iwo Jima in World War II! Matthew Sellars of Carter County is documented as having accomplished the manned airplane flight over a year before the Wright Brothers. John Paul Riddle, the founder of American Airlines, was a Pike Countian. And then there's the myriad of music stars: Loretta Lynn, Tom T. Hall, Ricky Skaggs, Billy Ray Cyrus, Dwight Yocum, Crystal Gayle, the Judds, etc., etc., etc. We should be proud...but, the fact is that many are not!!! Primarily because most of our people do not know our own history. Our children know about Fort Harrod, My Old Kentucky Home, the Kentucky Derby, and the Bluegrass Horse Farms. But, folks, those places are NOT OUR Kentucky. The Bluegrass history is NOT our history. And if we wait until outsiders treat us fairly in published histories, we'll be waiting until "you know what" freezes over. How many of you are aware of your county's role in American history? How many of you are aware of your own family's role in our nation's history? How many of you even care? How many of you have passed on a pride of being from Magoffin County to your children? ... or have you told them to get out as fast as they can? It is time to rediscover what it means to be an East Kentuckian and groups like the Magoffin County Historical Society, the Muzzleloaders and the Sons of Confederate Veterans are leading us in the right direction, ...not for outsiders, but for US. With their help you will learn your REAL East Kentucky heritage...and Little Abner isn't here. Jed Clampett isn't here...but, YOUR ancestors and mine ARE here, and their stories are infinitely more interesting. Their military exploits are far more courageous than Hollywood's movies. As you study records, as you interview older residents, as you collect artifacts, books, and tall tales, you will come to know and love these special people ... and be proud ... perhaps for the first time. Let's crush the negative stereotype of our people ONCE AND FOR ALL and replace it with a NEW IMAGE---of a TOUGH, INDEPENDENT, PROUD MOUNTAIN PEOPLE -- GOD'S BEST HANDIWORK, who have continually volunteered to defend our country against all enemies. It is an awesome responsibility folks. You have in your hands the self-esteem of our people. Build it and share it with all of Magoffin County so they, too, can know ... and be proud. We can do no less for our children and our children's children.