dizneystories

     The town of Dizney has been in the hills of Harlan County Kentucky since before the civil war. William Shoemaker moved to Harlan County after he was released from a prisoner of war camp in Illinois for Confederate Soldiers. He became a horseback circuit riding preacher and established the current Baptist Church that we have today. Some old family names in Dizney are Middleton, Cloud, Pace, Turner, Wynn, Jones, Madden, Thomas ,Cox, Brewer and Presley. Most of the earlier settlers came to Dizney as word of mouth spread to Tennessee and Virginia
     My parents Junior and Irene Cloud longed for lowland property as they lived on the side of a mountain at the end of the road in Stretchneck Holler. However, from stories my dad told me the old timers all settled on the top of those mountain ranges. They built their log cabins and cleared land for their gardens. The only way to those family homes in the beginning was by foot, horse and wagon or mule. Those old time settlers came down in the spring and fall to trade, barter and swap for the necessities to last them for the entire summer or winter. Summer was too busy to come down off the mountain. They were selfsustaining individuals. They made their own clothes, food, built their own log cabins, animal shelters and whatever else that was necessary to their way of life.
     Junior Cloud (my father) told me of his visits to the top of the mountain in Yocum Creek to visit his greatgrand parents Ben Cloud and Nancy Middleton Cloud. He liked to visit his great aunt Sarah and her brothers. He listened to stories of when they first moved to the hills of Kentucky. The kids would have to take off their shoes as soon as the last snow melted and not replace them until the snows fell again in the fall. This was to save on the wear and tear of their shoes. Everyone ran around barefoot. The only danger was that of being bitten by snakes and maybe stepping on a dead poisonious snake that still had poision in their fangs, which was just as deadly.
     There were four hollers in Dizney. Bill's creek holler, Turner's creek holler, Yocum creek holler and Stretchneck holler. I am not sure why Stretchneck holler did not have the name creek to it like the other hollers.
      There were lots of families that moved to Harlan County in the early 1900s to work in the coal mines. My mother told me that there was a coal mine run by Garfield McLean in a holler on the outskirts of Dizney. There were also mines that were just over the mountain in Virginia at the head of the mountain range in Dizney's eastern corner. The mines had cut a tunnel into the mountain range and would send over a coal car to pick up the Kentucky workers and take them across to the Virginia mine. This area was referred to as Bonnie Blue Virginia
     Dizney was not a township, corporation or any type of formed government. There wasn't a police department, fire department or any organized body of citizens to keep order and peace. The only law was the 10 commandments. There was a small one room school in the early 1900s that also was the community church on Sunday. There was nothing like a good fire and brimstone sermon to make everyone young and old quiver in his boots or shoes and walk the right and narrow path until next Sunday. Most people were honest as the day was long and would never dream of doing anything that Jesus and their mother would be ashamed of.
     Dizney was almost a mirror image of a wild west town. My father (Junior Cloud) had heard stories from his grandma Presley about Jesse James visiting Dizney. This is possible, because my Grandpa Presley had a brother named Jesse James Presley. Guns and shotguns were carried by almost everyone, male and female. Pistols were for protection. You never knew when you would meet some dangerous human or rattlesnake in the woods surrounding Dizney. Shotguns were for hunting rabbits, squirrels, fur pelts from foxes, beaver and minks. Also there were bears, wild cats, panthers and rabied animals to protect yourself against.
     There were feuds, bad blood between families that carried from one generation to the next. One of my Grandpa Ben's (Benjamin Franklin Cloud, Jr.) brothers death certificate reads that he was found floating face down in a stream with a bullet in his head, conclusion murder. Grandpa Ben and a friend were sent to prison for a murder they did not commit. The real murderer confessed on his deathbed and signed a sworn statement to that effect. My grandpa and his friend were released but not before spending 10 years in prison. Grandpa Ben filed divorce papers against his wife Judy Wynn. While in prison his wife had a baby by another man. Grandpa Ben met and married Martha Shoemaker, daughter of Rev. William Henry Shoemaker.
     Tilman Thomas Cloud was the second generation of the family to grow up in Dizney. He was born in 1901 or 1903.    He married Leona Presley in the middle 20s. They lived in Brittans Creek until 1926 when they moved into a cabin at the head of Stretch Neck holler. Tilman Cloud eventually bought a house below this cabin and lived there the rest of their lives.
     Leona Presley Cloud was also borned in Dizney Kentucky. I have school census from the early 1900s on Drucilla and Andrew Jackson Presley children. Drucilla's decendants were established in Harlan County in the early 1800's. My Presley cousins have traced them to George Brennan who was a prominent legislator and to the Chadwell family prominent in the revolution. Chadwell's are also decendant of Benjamin Franklin Cloud's family, three generations back as his great great grandmother. The Clouds, Chadwells, Brennans and Boones came together in the corner of Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky during the revolutionary and war of 1812.