Saturday, August 5, 2006

COLLINS/MURRAY - Long Fork, Johnson Co.,KY



The oldest picture I have from my family is this one. It was taken about 1930. You can see the schoolhouse in the background. It had clapboard on it at the time of this photo. I believe it was yellow and white when my grandfather (the younger man to the left in the picture shooting the gun) taught there. His name was Powel (one L) Jackson Collins. He was a business man and a school teacher. He married Adela "Murray" . The older man to the right in the picture is Great Granddad William Henry Murray.
I like this picture because of the school house and my grandfather and great grandfather. It is hard for me to call Powel Jackson, Papaw/Grandfather because he died so young. He died February 19, 1935, of what was probably a brain tumor. He died at the old Paintsville, Kentucky, Hospital.
My great grandfather W.H. "Billy" Murray was from Burning Springs, Clay County, Kentucky. He was born February 1, 1867 and died August 17, 1958, in Oxford, Ohio.
Look how parallel their guns are. There were at least two dead squirrel up on that hill across the creek when they lowered those weapons.
Sheila

Long Fork, Johnson Co. KY Schoolhouse - 1950s



Here is the school house in about 1954-55. I am the one holding the bedraggled bunny rabbit. It was purple and the dogs got it and chewed it. My Daddy Bunt Billiter (Mom's dad) had gotten that for me for my birthday and I loved it no matter if the dogs did chew its face up. I am about 6 or 7 years old . My younger brother, Ron, is standing in the doorway in his snowsuit. He wasn't in school yet but visited at recess. He was about 4 or 5 at the time. This is the picture I took to Magoffin County for the Pioneer Village.
Sheila

Friday, August 4, 2006

Long Fork, Johnson Co.,KY Schoolhouse



Here is a picture of the Long Fork, Johnson County, Kentucky, schoolhouse
when it was moved . It is in the Magoffin County Pioneer Village where Todd Preston was kind enough to take it and preserve it. I was so pleased that it didn't just fall down and rot away. They have made a few changes to it. There was never a steeple on it. But it was originally used as a United Baptist Church and a school house.
The porch was never on the school either. It was pretty much a box...but I loved that school more than I could say...it was symbolic of Long Fork for me. I played it in the summer time and I was, of course, the teacher :-) and I went to school there in the fall and winter. When we moved away...I had a terrible time adjusting to larger schools with more kids than the few in the one room school. Whew...I really missed home.
Sheila