| Most of my childhood was spent in the home of my great-grandmother, Aletha Martin of Mousie, Kentucky, Knott County. She was a very unique individual whose lifestyle remained constant throughout her life, regardless of the changes going on around her. Great grandmother Aletha never allowed her grandchildren nor great-grandchildren to call her grandmother. They were all to call her "Gran". The name caught on with the neighborhood kids who also referred to her as Gran. Older folks in the community addressed her as Aunt Leath. One of Gran's favorite past-times was telling "tales" to kids. On summer evenings, neighborhood children would gather around her on the front porch to listen to her spin a yarn about times gone by or tell a favorite fairy tale. Grandchildren were privileged because they were able to hear bedtime stories without sharing Gran with the neighborhood kids. I remember bits and pieces of many of Gran's "tales" and a few I remember in their entirety. There is one particular tale that I want to share because it is a part of oral history that is a legacy to a family somewhere. I can't remember the family name, but maybe the story has been heard by others and they'll remember it. The story is as follows: During the period of time when farms and homesteads were springing up in our Eastern Kentucky mountains, a young couple began housekeeping in a small log cabin, remotely located away from their nearest neighbor. The remoteness and the size of their dwelling became a problem when the couple began having children. The arrival of a boy and then a girl made for cramped quarters and the necessity for a larger home. This problem was shared when neighboring families came together for a "house raising" to build a new larger home for the family in a clearing, much closer to friends and neighbors. The distance between the small log cabin and the new one required several trips back and forth to move belongings and livestock. Late one evening, the husband decided to make one last trip to get their hogs, he was accompanied by the wife and children. Meanwhile a small band of marauding renegade Indians were traveling the area, and they came upon the family's vacated cabin. The Indians decided to remain there for a while, and were still inside the cabin when the famliy returned. Hearing the family approaching the cabin, they quickly concealed themselves by hiding in the loft. When the husband, wife and two children entered the cabin the Indians pounced on them. They proceeded to beat up the husband, scalp the wife, and throw the baby girl out the window into a briar thicket. The boy, who was by now six years of age, was taken captive. After the Indians left, the husband took off his shirt, wrapping it around his wife's head to serve as a bandage. He retrieved the baby girl from the briar thicket and found that she had not been seriously injured. They hurried on their sad, painful journey back to their new home, for fear the Indians might return. Years passed without any clue or word as to the fate of the captive boy. The family grieved, fearing that they would never see him again. Neighbors pondered and wondered if he were still alive and if any one would ever know what happened to him. One cold winter evening, the captive boy becme the subject of conversation as his family and their neighbors were settled around a big open fire reminiscing about the horrible event of his capture. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, startling the group. The door was answered, to find a tall, bearded young man with long hair standing there - a total stranger to all present. He identified himself as the young captive from years before and told them of his escape and journey back to his family. Everyone rejoiced, and word spread far and near of his return. In relating this story to us, Gran said that the scalped wife could never put her hands in cold water, and that her mother or grandmother always did her washing for her. Therefore, the famiy must have been a close neighbor of my great-great-grandmother Winnie Sizemore Martin or my great-great-great-grandmother Aletha Richardson Goodman. I don't know the residence of Aletha Goodman proior to 1850, nor the residence of her daughter, Winnie prior to 1860. In 1850 Aletha Goodman and her son George Sizemore appear in the Floyd County Census in the household with Sarah Patton. George later married Sarah Patton's daughter, Francis. By 1860, Winnie Sizemore has married Richard Martin and is in the Floyd County Census, and her mother, Aletha is living with her. The scalped neighbor could have lived near Winnie or Aletha prior to 1850 or could have been one of their Floyd County neighbors. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who can enlighten me on their whereabouts, prior to the afore mentioned dates. Aletha Goodman was the common-law wife of George "Golden Hawk" Sizemore, and they had numerous children. I know the names of several of their children, but I don't know all of them, nor where any of them were born. At the same time that George and Aletha were having children, George was also having children with his wife, Sarah Anderson of Magoffin County. George appears in the 1860 census of Magoffin County, the only member of the household. He died in the early 1860's and is buried at Royalton, Kentucky. |
| One of "Gran's Tales" as told by my aunt Rosemary Clifton. |