By 1930 my grandfather had moved the Old Sullivan home (about 1 1/2 miles
away) to the present site. Mr. Moorehead was the master mover. It was a
big house and John Wynn said he moved it about 3 or 4 feet a day. Finally
it arrived on the site of the old home and it was relocated. The front
steps were poured and dated "J.W. 1930" I was one year old and Quentin
Wesley was also. We had been depression babies and drunk the harsh milk
of the old depression and took the knocks and jolts of the (1924-1941)
depression. Then there were old tree stumps to be taken away from the old
fire site and General Holt said he could handle it with dynamite. He set
the charge and the new house was blasted in front with a big charge. John
Wynn could always show us where the wood had hit the new house. They filled
the old cistern halfway and it filled with water and frogs each spring.
One morning my grandmother was going to milk- singing a church song -and
he forgot himself and stepped off into the old cistern and called for help.
At one time the house was surrounded by a wrought iron fence and two big
white pillars in front of the driveway. For years the old barn stood close
to the newly located house but in 1936 a new fine barn was built. It had
a fine hay lifter and all the fine things needed. It had 20 stalls
for horses and mules and two sheds for cattle and four corn cribs and a
great cathedral ceiling. Miss Nancy Wynn let her speech students say their
speeched from the hay pulpit in the new barn.
The Sullivan house was built up high and the 1937 flood just came to the
first landing of the yard. In later years there was the fire of No.
9 road of Mr. Alvey Kanipe's home and the big fire of the O'Nan barn over
on Arnold Station Road; then on Thanksgiving night of 1957, the day Morganfield
beat Sturgis in football at old Richardson field, the EMBA Hall burned
-- almost down -- except for the fire fighters, Johnny Brumlow and others.
The fine Victory Theatre was destroyed and the rats all ran to Oakley's
market and devoured the groceries which was closed by a court order.
In 1913, the little town of Sturgis was booming and bustling along, when
a fire broke out and a big wind got up and the whole business section burned.
They were having a children's program at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
and my dad, 11 years old, stood on the church steps and watched it burn.
There was no water to fight it with. There were no fire walls between
the business houses. The old City Ordinance of 1914 and 1915 show
the new ordinance for manditory fire walls pf double brick between buildings.
The only hazards that have not hit Sturgis are tornado and earthquake --
or at least of much magnitude to topple it all. My great grandfather's
old home, George B. Smipson 1 and his wife Sarah Eveyens Young, an old
plantation home, two story white frame, many gardens and trees and out
buildings was destroyed by fire before 1913. My father recalled the
many gardens and the hired help use to care for them. The home was
across the road from the old Eleanor Johnson (Long) house -- now home.
The old Simpson Young home was a part of Sarah Eveyens Young's inheritance.
Her farm of some 250 acres was cut in two by the railroad of 1886 and then
Kentucky 109; and thus the farm was cut up.
Sarah Eveyens Young's father was Philip S. Young and his wife, Jane Ann
Hill; they had moved to Union County in the 1840's. One of his daughter's
married a McIntyre; one a Kimmel -- ancestor of Admiril Kimmil of Pearl
Harbor Fame; one to George B. Simpson, fresh off the boat from Edinburgh
Scotland; and the other's we have lost track. Sarah E. Young joined the
Mt. Ephraim Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1853 -- her kin were the
Bones and Rev. Bone from down in Hopkins County and Rose Creek Cumberland
Presbyterian Church. Sarah E. Young was a tall, dark skin woman --
part Cherokee; her grandfather, Christian Young, was 100% Cherokee or some
tribe. Christian Young had been raised in Pennsylvania and the Quakers
had tolerated him and let him live. He fought in the Revolution on
side of Washington's Army. He later married a white girl -- Hume. Her father
(Hume) had two sons; one was killed by the indians; one died of fever --
small pox; that left two Hume daughters. Old Hume thus willed his
land to his son-in-laws -- Philip S. Young and Sturgeon, since by the laws
of those times a wife could not hold land -- legally -- old Virginia law.
Thus, Philip S. Young, a 100% Indian, became a land holder; he and his
wife sold out and came to Caldwell county -- built a mill and prospered;
he had three daughters who married trwo collins' in Union County and one
a Whitecotton. Thus all the dark skin SImpson's, Whitecotton's, Collins',
Davis, etc., are kin to old Christian Young.
And what does the "S" in Philip S. Young's name stand for -- Sequoia. And
so we close by the great peace fire atop Indian Hill near Dekoven and Caseyville
where the ages of 12,000 years abounds in flotsen and jetsem of Indian
artifacts and etc. And we salute the great signs of Wing Rock and
Anvil Rock to the maker of the universe and to past and living presence.
And Christian Young's ancestors crossed the great land bridge from Asia
125,000 years ago, and lived through the great ice ages and resettled the
river valleys and shores long before Eric the Red sailed out of Norway
to find New Vineland and the Atlantic shores (1000 a.d.). And there has
been little peace in the land since the Celt, Norman, Pict, Saxxon and
Angelos stepped ashore.
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