Slave Narrative of Joe Robinson

Interviewer: Anna Pritchett Person Interviewed: Joe Robinson Location: Indiana Place of Birth: Mason County, Kentucky Date of Birth: 1854 Place of Residence: 1132 Cornell Avenue Federal Writers’ Project of the W.P.A. District #6 Marion County Anna Pritchett 1200 Kentucky Avenue FOLKLORE JOE ROBINSON-EX-SLAVE 1132 Cornell Avenue Joe Robinson was born in Mason County, Kentucky in 1854. His master, Gus Hargill, was very kind to him and all his slaves. He owned a large farm and raised every kind of vegetation. He always gave his slaves plenty to eat. They never had to steal food. He said his slaves had worked … Read more

Biography of Capt. John Burgess Davis

When the great West was young the Mississippi River, as the principal gateway to it and almost the sole means of conveying its products to the out-side world was the center of commercial life. Men who followed the river were participants in stirring events and their work was fraught with an importance in the eyes of the public that we of today can little realize. To be a steamboat captain in the fifties and sixties invested the individual with a dignity as great as that accorded to the average railroad magnate nowadays. Captain John Burgess Davis earned his title when … Read more

Mason County, Kentucky Census Records

1790 Mason County, Kentucky Census Records Free 1790 Census Form for your Research Hosted at Ancestry.com – 14 Days Free Hosted at Mason County, Kentucky KYGenWeb Census Substitute from Tax List Hosted at Census Guide 1800 U.S. Census Guide 1800 Mason County, Kentucky Census Records Free 1800 Census Form for your Research Hosted at Ancestry.com – 14 Days Free Hosted at Census Guide 1800 U.S. Census Guide 1810 Mason County, Kentucky Census Records Free 1810 Census Form for your Research Hosted at Ancestry.com – 14 Days Free Hosted at Mason County USGenWeb Archives Project Census Transcription Census Index Hosted at … Read more

The Meeting in 1811 of Tecumseh and Apushamatahah

Peter Perkins Pitchlynn was the Choctaw Principal Chief from 1864-1866

The meeting in 1811, of Tecumseh, the mighty Shawnee, with Apushamatahah, the intrepid Choctaw. I will here give a true narrative of an incident in the life of the great and noble Choctaw chief, Apushamatahah, as related by Colonel John Pitchlynn, a white man of sterling integrity, and who acted for many years as interpreter to the Choctaws for the United States Government, and who was an eye-witness to the thrilling scene, a similar one, never before nor afterwards befell the lot of a white man to witness, except that of Sam Dale, the great scout of General Andrew Jackson, … Read more

Biography of J. B. Thomas

J. B. THOMAS. There is no enterprise of equal importance in Howell County, Missouri, than that of insurance. Among those engaged in this business is our subject, J. B. Thomas, one of the representative men of Willow Springs and abstracter and notary public of that city. Mr. Thomas came from southern Iowa and has made his home in Willow Springs for the past five years. He is a native Kentuckian, born in Mason County August 27, 1859, and his father, James C. Thomas, is farming in that county at the present time. The latter is also a native of that … Read more

Biography of Abraham Snethen

Abraham Snethen and his wife, Elizabeth Stewart, were natives of Germany. They emigrated to America and settled in New Jersey, where they had eleven children, of whom the names of only seven are now remembered. They were William, John, Reuben, Polly, Lydia, Elizabeth, and Margaret. William married and settled in Kentucky in 1792, and in 1810 he removed to Ohio, where he lost his wife. He then started to return to New Jersey, but died of cholera, at Hagerstown, Md. John was born in March, 1789, and when he was eight years old his mother died. He was then bound … Read more

Biography of Daniel H. Lownsdale

Lownsdale, Daniel H., the son of one of the earliest settlers of Kentucky, was born in Mason county, in that State, April 8, 1803. As was the custom in those days, he was married young, at the age of 23, to Ruth, youngest daughter of Paul Overfilled, Esq., the head of one of the most prominent families of northeastern Kentucky. In obedience to the adventuresome spirit inherited from his father, who had abandoned the comforts of civilization in his youth to become one of the conquerors of Kentucky, Lownsdale, with his young wife, “moved on” and settled in Gibson county, … Read more

Biography of E. T. Currens

E. T. Currens, farmer and fruit-grower; P. O. Mattoon; was born in Bracken Co., Ky., in 1816; his father was a farmer and tanner, and for fifty-five years conducted the two interests jointly, at Germantown, Ky.; E. T.’s early life was spent upon his father’s farm and in learning the tanning business; he entered Augusta College, Ky., in 1832, and graduated there from in 1836; he then engaged in mercantile life and farming till 1854, when he moved to Iowa and established the Kentucky settlement in Marshall Co.; in 1861, he returned to Maysville, Ky., and engaged in the hardware … Read more

Mason County, Kentucky Cemetery Records

Mason County Mason County, Kentucky Cemetery Records Hosted at Mason County USGenWeb Archives Project Chiles Cemetery Stonelick Cemetery Coburn Cemetery Downing Cemetery Mason County, Kentucky Cemetery Records Hosted at Mason County, Kentucky KYGenWeb Beasley Church Cemetery Cemetery Junction Cemetery Craig/Worthington Cemetery Enders Cemetery Farrow Family Cemetery Fleming Family Cemetery Gault-Wells Cemetery Goddard Cemetery Haughey Cemetery Hughes Cemetery Kerr Cemetery Lewisburg Church Cemetery McCarthey-Masterson Cemetery Mitchell Cemetery Mt. Gilead Cemetery Norris Family Cemetery Osborne-Lewis Cemetery Owens Family Cemetery Pepper/Thompson Cemetery Plumville Church Cemetery Rust Cemetery Slack Cemetery Stubblefield Cemetery Sub. Downing Cemetery Wilson Cemetery  

Slave Narrative of Arnold Gragston

Interviewer: Martin Richardson Person Interviewed: Arnold Gragston Location: Eatonville, Florida Age: 97 (Verbatim interview with Arnold Gragston, 97-year old ex-slave whose early life was spent helping slaves to freedom across the Ohio River, while he, himself, remained in bondage. As he put it, he guessed he could be called a ‘conductor’ on the underground railway, only we didn’t call it that then. I don’t know as we called it anything – we just knew there was a lot of slaves always a-wantin’ to get free, and I had to help ’em.”) “Most of the slaves didn’t know when they was … Read more

Kentucky Vital Records, 1884-1928

This microfilm is a copy of the original records located at the Kentucky State Historical Society in Frankfort and microfilmed in 1975. It is an incomplete copy of the set of records for each county but can provide the information for the specific counties and years as denoted in the list.

Biographical Sketch of Richard Perry Tolle

Tolle, Richard Perry; merchant; born, Maysville, Ky., Oct. 20, 1883; son of William A. and Sarah Frances Fowler Tolle; educated, public schools, Maysville; married, Indianapolis, Ind., May 19, 1904, Annabel Day; issue, three children; manager the S. S. Kresge Co., Cleveland store; 32nd degree Mason, A. A. 0. N. M. Shrine; member Country Club. Recreations: Baseball and Automobiling.

Biography of Daniel H. Lownsdale

DANIEL H. LOWNSDALE. – Mr. Lownsdale, the son of one of the earliest settlers of Kentucky, was born in Mason county, of that state, April 8, 1803. As was the custom in those days, he was married quite young – at the age of twenty-three – to Miss Ruth, the youngest daughter of Paul Overfield, the head of one of the most prominent families of Northeastern Kentucky. In obedience to the venturesome spirit inherited form his father, who had abandoned the comforts of civilization in his youth to become one of the conquerors of Kentucky, young Lownsdale, with his young … Read more

Through Ohio And Kentucky

Sunday, Oct. 18.–Myself and friend proceeded on our journey. We arrived at Siers, a distance of thirty miles, at dusk, much relieved by the change from our horses to the wagon. The roads were muddy, the weather drizzly and the country hilly. Buildings indifferent. The land very fertile and black. Trees uncommonly tall. Passed the little village of Cadis. In this country a tavern, a store, a smith shop and two or three cabins make a town. Passed ten or fifteen travelers. Great contrast between the quality of the land from Chambersburg to Pittsburg, and that which we have already … Read more