Merrileggs of Macon County

A True Life Story of Cecil Hensley In and Around Hazard, Kentucky

Cecil Hensley

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© 2011 Cecil Hensley. All rights reserved.

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First published by AuthorHouse 08/05/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4567-3041-3 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-3042-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-3046-8 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011901063

Printed in the United States of America

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To my wife, Betty Ann, who has stood by me faithfully all these years. She is the inspiration that encouraged me to put these stories in a book to share with you.

This is a true life story of Cecil Hensley and his family that came out of the dark depression days of the 1930’s.

My name is Cecil Hensley. I was born in the eastern part of Kentucky in a place called Leather Wood on August the 24, 1933. My father was William Hensley, who was born July 12,1883, he was a retired coal miner of 33 yrs. His first wife was Nancy smith and they had 6 kids. Rosie who passed away 1951, Sol who passed away in 1991, Fronie who might still be alive, Mattie who passed away in 1979, Brown who was killed 1953; I will explain later, Bill who passed away in 1993. My father’s first wife Nancy passed away when Bill was 3 yrs old.

Nancy had been gone almost a year when daddy met my mother, Hulda Smith. My momma was a deaf mute born in Buckhorn, KY on October 9, 1901.

Momma first went to school in 1908 at a school for the deaf in Danville Ky. Her daddy took her on horseback fifteen miles to Chavis, KY and put her on a train and sent her a hundred miles away to Danville to attend school. She had to stay at a boarding school for nine months before she could go back home. After she completed the 8th grade in 1917, she came home to stay.

When she met dad in 1927 she had 2 kids a boy and a girl. The boy, Peral passed away in 1956. The girl was named Georgie who passed away 1983. My mom and dad were married in or around 1928. There first son, John was born in 1929. John passed away in his sleep when he was 3 months old. Squire was born on September 23, 1930, Caesar was born December 31, 1931, Joe was born June 4th 1937, Lucille was born in 1939, she also passed away at the age of 3 months. Follie was born September 15, 1940. She was kidnapped in October of 1940. I will also explain that later in this story.

As I write this story I am 76 yrs old and I still remember my mother telling me what happened in 1935. She said she got up one morning and went into her kitchen and started a fire in the cook stove. Then she went to the meal barrel to make some cornbread for breakfast. She then noticed the barrel was empty. As she looked around she noticed that everything in the kitchen was gone. She went and woke dad up and told him someone had taken all of their food. Dad got up and the first thing he did was go to the back porch and there were tracks in the snow. So dad follered the footprints in the snow and they led him up to his brothers house. He called his brother out and said, Elbert, I know you took all of my food so give me back enough to feed my kids and I will get some more food.

Elbert said, Willie, I didn’t take your food, and then went back in his house and came out and threw a chopping axe at dad and turned and went inside. Dad stated walking down the hill when Elbert came out on the porch and shot dad with his shotgun. My half brother bill and my mother went and dragged him to the house. He was covered in snow and blood. The next day men came from all directions with their mules and horses to cut and drag wood off them hills all day to help keep us warm.

It was up in the spring when dad finally got able to get out and work again. Dad’s brother came by to see dad while he was still bedfast. He was my Uncle Floyd. Uncle Floyd told dad that he had come to kill Uncle Elbert for what he had done. But when Uncle Floyd went to Uncle Elbert’s house, he knocked on the door and there was no answer. Uncle Floyd shoved the door open and found Uncle Elbert sitting in a chair dead. Someone had already shot and killed him.

Mom and Dad decided to move again and this time they moved to a place called Wabaso. It was about two miles below Hazard on Route 15. Across the river from a town called Walker, KY. We moved into a 3 room house about 5o feet above the railroad tracks. There were, I’d say about 6 maybe 7 more houses sitting on the side of that hill so that we had lots of company.

Just below our house there was a great big coal tipple that stood over the railroad tracks. The coal miners would dump coal in the tipple then the train would drop off some if its coal guns to be loaded from the coal tipple. There in Wabaso was a small coal mine in fact it was just out from our house above the tipple. Dad got a job working at the coal mine and that really helped out.

Then it set in to raining and it rained hard for days and days. When it finally stopped raining, Squire come to the door one morning and said, Cecil hurry come and look.

I run out in the yard to see what happened. It was a dark looking time and the fog was low to the ground and I didn’t know what to think. The river was up over the railroad tracks and the fog was below the tops of the mountains. There were people, lots of them standing on the sides of the mountains watching the river go by taking barns and houses with it. Telephone poles broke in half with the wires still hanging on them. People were just watching not saying a word and I guess they didn’t know what to say or do so they just stood and watch. It took weeks before people got things back to normal again. But the little coal mine that dad worked in never did open up to work again.

I remember one morning I heard my two brothers talking real loud. I walked from behind the house to where they were to see what they were talking about. From where we were you could see across the train bridge a to another coal camp. People lived and worked in this camp. I asked Squire and Caesar what they were watching. Squire said, We are watching them people over across the river. And sure enough there must have been 30 people throwing rocks at something down by the river. I seen a bunch of men running sown to the river and in a few minutes I seen then carrying a big black thing. It looked like a monkey to me but to this day I never did find out what it was.

I remember one morning Squire and Caesar were getting ready to go to school and I asked mom why couldn’t I go with them. She told Squire he might have to bring me back home so Squire said ok I’ll bring him home if I have too. What Squire didn’t know is he didn’t have to bring me back home. When he took me across the river to school we went to the school yard. I didn’t know what to think of all them kids and when the school bell was rung we all went inside. I never had seen as big as rooms as this. The teacher was talking as hard as she could and I didn’t know what she was talking about and I didn’t care either. Finally I heard a bell ring and I knew something was going to take place. I just didn’t know what so I decided I had better keep a close eye on that woman up front. If she does anything different I will leave the scene real quick. Sure enough that woman said it is recess time. All of you kids go play. When all of us kids got outside the rest of the kids were running whoopin and hollerin. I thought to myself this is no place for me to be playing. So before that woman comes out here I will split the scene and head for the house. Home where a boy can play like a boy ought too. The next day Squire talked me into going back to school and as soon as I got my room and sat down that woman asked me, Where did you go yesterday Cecil?

I said, Yesterday when that bell rang you told me to go and play so when we got outside I didn’t like where I was to play so I split the scene and went home to play. That ended the school business for me.

Another time Squire, Caesar, and I were playing in our front yard. Caesar told me and Squire to go around the house and come back and I will play like someone shot and killed me. You boys will find me. So we did and sure enough there he layed. Squire said, Doggone someone had killed our friend!

I said to Squire, Don’t we have to bury people when they are dead?

Squire said, Yes you are right everybody had to be buried. Let’s get a pick and shovel. So we did and we dug a hole right beside of the steps of our front door. Then I asked squire again, Aint we supposed to put him in something before we cover him with dirt?

Squire said, Yes go get us a coffee sack. So I did and we put Caesar in a coffee sack and buried him. When we were patting the dirt on his grave mom came to the door and told us to come and eat our lunch.

Squire said, Let’s go eat.

I said, Well Squire what about Caesar? He will want to eat too.

Squire said, Yea we better get him out of that sack so he can eat too. When we got him out of that he was almost dead. Squire said to Caesar, You need to quit acting like you get killed so much. Your gonna get me an Cecil in trouble. We left Caesar sitting on the steps trying to get his breath. Finally he came to the table.

Caesar said, You boys left me in that grave too long.

Squired replied, Shut up you worry too much, besides that you are the one that wanted to get shot. You looked pretty dead to us. When me and Cecil finds a man shot we bury him, shoes and all. Remember that our mother was a deaf mute so she didn’t know what was going on. If she had known what we were doing she would have dusted the seat of our pants real good.

I don’t guess I will never forget the little coal mine where dad worked. The coal miners would bring the coal out of the mountain and dump it in the tipple. Then they would load the train cars from the coal tipple which stood over the side track. They was always coal in the railroad tracks, so Squire come to me an Caesar and said to us we have got a job that we can make some money is you boys want to help me. Me and Caesar said yea we would help you. What are going to do? Well our Brother Brown told me that is us boys will take his wagon down to the old