Days of Darkness


Book Description

" Among the darkest corners of Kentucky’s past are the grisly feuds that tore apart the hills of Eastern Kentucky from the late nineteenth century until well into the twentieth. Now, from the tangled threads of conflicting testimony, John Ed Pearce, Kentucky’s best known journalist, weaves engrossing accounts of six of the most notorior accounts to uncover what really happened and why. His story of those days of darkness brings to light new evidence, questions commonly held beliefs about the feuds, and us and long-running feuds—those in Breathitt, Clay Harlan, Perry, Pike, and Rowan counties. What caused the feuds that left Kentucky with its lingering reputation for violence? Who were the feudists, and what forces—social, political, financial—hurled them at each other? Did Big Jim Howard really kill Governor William Goebel? Did Joe Eversole die trying to protect small mountain landowners from ruthless Eastern mineral exploiters? Did the Hatfield-McCoy fight start over a hog? For years, Pearce has interviewed descendants of feuding families and examined skimpy court records and often fictional newspapeputs to rest some of the more popular legends.







The Vanderpool Family of Eastern Kentucky


Book Description

Hezekiah Vanderpool, Sr. was the son of Abraham Vanderpool. He married Sophia Sexton in about 1808. Three of their sons, James, John M. and Hezekiah, Jr., migrated from Wise, Virginia to Kentucky. Descendants and relatives lived mainly in Kentucky, North Carolina and Ohio.




The Allen Family of Eastern Kentucky


Book Description

"We are pleased to present to you a collection of Allen family genealogy. We have included primarily the families of William Allen and Caty Gearheart, Richard Allen and Edy Williams, George Allen and Cynthia Patton, James Allen and Nancy Louise Roberts, Samuel Patton Sr. and Elizabeth Allen, Isaac E. Allen and 1st wife Frances E. Pettit and 2nd wife Margaret Poplett ... Settlement of the Big Sandy, Licking and Kentucky River valleys was happening by 1800. By tracing the Allen generation on back before this date, we find that they lived in Virginia or North Carolina. By 1800 many of them began their westward movement into eastern Kentucky ... again we are reminded of the different 'sets' of Allens, such as the Floyd County set, the Breathitt County set, or the Morgan County- White Oak set; however it is believed but not fully proven that all the so-called 'sets' are really just branches of one family tree with a progenitor yet unproven"--Foreword, p. [4] in v. 1