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Lewis was the youngest son of Brice and Louesther Shepherd. He
farmed, but when the coal mines opened in the hollar, Lewis joined the
rest of the Shepherd clansmen and hired on with the Boss Man. He worked
up at the Temple, that was the point where the 'outside men' would
take the cars of coal and unload the coal that had just been mined and
load it up for shipment to other parts of the state. Yep, Dad was a 'Temple
Man' according to his son Mort who was an inside crawler at the coal mines
up on the hill, the left fork, or was it the right, of Rough 'n Tough.
"As I recollect, my Mom and Dad had 10 children. Let me see, there
was Columbus, Nero, Richard, Okie, Gordan, June, Mary, Roseann, Bertha,
and of course me, Mort. They call me 'Mortie' 'round these parts, but my
name is Mort. They named me after my father's brother, Mort, my Grandpa
Flitterfoot's son."
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Here Lewis poses with his son,
Richard on the
left, and
daughter, Bertha on the right.
This photo was taken in Goodlow,
Kentucky, now called David, Ky.
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"Columbus and Nero worked at the coal mines too, but they were
up at Temple with my Dad. Richard and Okie were crawlers inside with me."
Mort went on to say, "Do you know why they called us crawlers?
The coal at its highest inside the hill was only 36" so we had to crawl
everywhere on our bellies to mine the coal and to get it back out. We were
the dirtiest men you'd ever lay eyes on come the end of the day."
"I saw lots of men killed up at that hill. The gas would explode
inside the mine and blow them up. Then slate would fall on men and kill
'em dead. Rock too. I had a rock fall on me and broke a rib. It took two
men to get that rock off of me. It got easier once they got track laid.
I worked up there for 27 years in those mines, and the track they laid
up Middle Creek was an improvement, but not a lot. I've got to take breathin'
treatments all the time now - that coal dust just got my lungs - black
lung disease they call it I think, I'm not sure, I'm not an educated man
- can't spell!"
"My brother Richard was taken off to war...he was only 18, and
they shot him up something terrible in Germany, but he lived. He still
has a bullet that they don't dare go after near his heart. He's still livin'
with that bullet in him."
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~ Richard Shepherd ~
WWII Army Veteran
Purple Heart
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"They sent Columbus off to the war too, but he ended up in Panama
guardin' some island near there or something like that. He was in Panama
during the entire war."
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"Grandpa Flitterfoot and his son Bob lived with us after he split
with Lucinda. Bob seemed more like my brother than Uncle Bob. We grew up
together you know. I'd walk with him every now again, 'bout 4 to 5 miles
to his mom's house so he could visit her, and we would walk home again
in the evening."
"I remember Aunt Martha, she married Charley Howard. Well, it
was a bad winter, and everyone got the flu, the whoopin' cough too and
they had twin girls, they died from the cough that winter, and so did Aunt
Lula Collins' child, I can't remember the child's name. The sickness would
take a lot of lives up on the hollar...we didn't have doctors back then."
"Do you know how Uncle Jack died? He was a farmer you know, raisin'
cattle, hogs, and sheep. He was up on the hill cuttin' trees for a cabin,
and he finished choppin' one tree and took the ax in one hand and with
one more swing as the tree was about to fall, with the other hand he began
pushing it over, and that's when it happened, the base of the tree kicked
back and hit him in the stomach, tearing his stomach from its walls. He
was really bad for 4 or 5 days. They reached a doctor somehow in the day
that followed, but he never saw Uncle Jack, and they learned that he probably
had to have surgery because of how serious it was. But Uncle Jack felt
that he'd handle it, and 4 or 5 days after that tree kicked him in the
stomach, he died."
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George Shepherd, Jack's son, is pictured here
bucking wood in preparation for another Kentucky winter!
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"Uncle David, well he married Evaline Allen ya know. But when
she died he up and married Allifer Johnson. We couldn't believe it, the
Johnson's were a mean bunch. She already had six or eight kids, and her
son Frank Johnson killed at least two men I know of. The Johnson boys were
all mean and I thought for sure they were going to kill Uncle Dave. But
he seemed to get along with them and he wasn't killed like I thought he'd
be."
"Aunt Mary, she married Leck Conley, and they up and moved to
the State o' Ohio, Portsmouth I do believe. I never got to know them much
after that. I wasn't too old when they moved so I don't know them very
well, or much about them."
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This Shepherd Family snapshot was taken in
October 1956 in Kentucky.
Left to right:
Reverend Foster Prater, who was always at church
with Nero. Then Lula Shepherd Collins
(Flitterfoot's
youngest daughter), second man (unidentified),
Laquenna
Shepherd Arnett (Flitterfoot's (oldest)
daughter), third man in back is
Lula's son - David
Collins, Nero Shepherd's daughter is next,
Pauline (now married to Elbert 'Bud' Baldridge).
Nero Shepherd is behind her (he is Lewis's son),
the young boy
is James Richard Shepherd,
the son of Nero, the final man is Lewis
Shepherd (far right). Next to him is another
of Nero's daughter's, Shelba Jean.
(Many thanks to Pauline Baldridge for identifying
the previous unknowns in the photo.)
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"Now Aunt Sally I remember her well. You know she first married
Nero Howard and they had about eight children. He and Seymore tho' were
killed by that Cornit fellow. You know Bill Howard was keepin' them in
the back of the house, if Bill would've let them go, Cornit couldn't have
killed them both, but he shot them from outside and he killed them both,
Nero and Seymore. Drinkin' and teasin' that's what they'd do up on the
hill. Nero and Seymore, they had guns too, but they got killed. Anyhow,
Aunt Sally then married Nath (Nathan) Howard and she had two more kids
with him."
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~ Nora Arnett Allen ~
Laquenna Shepherd
Arnett's daughter.
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"I'm 91 now, I married my wife Lola Allen on January 16, 1933,
I'll never forget that." Accounts of Mort's marriage tell of the law in
Kentucky requiring you to be married in the county where the license was
issued. Him being from Floyd County, that's where he purchased the license.
Lola had different ideas however, and in that she was from Magoffin County
she wanted to get married there. Well, as Shepherd ingenuity would have
it, Mort found a hilltop that saddled both counties and he found a preacher
willing to perform the ceremony there. Lola stood in Magoffin County, Mort
stood in Floyd County, and the preacher stood in the middle and they got
married!
"You know I was one of the only one's to know where my grandpa
was buried. A lady, Connie Wireman from over at Magoffin County came by
asking me so many questions. After she left I told my wife I bet she's
gonna write a book and you know she did. I went over there later and I
bought her book, I think it cost me $15. Well, anyhow, she was asking me
all about "Flitterfoot" and I showed her where he was buried. We usually
just took a rock and used it as a marker where we buried our kin. She went
and bought markers and my brother Columbus and I put 'Flitterfoot's' tombstone
in concrete at the place where he is buried."
"Grandpa Flitterfoot" would put up four or five hogs before winter
and maybe a beef. He had to keep in them in the smoke house, we didn't
have no 'lectricity ya know. With the garden vegetables and the canning,
well that was the food for the winter. And the work stopped, no farmin'
in the winter, just made love ya know. That's when Shepherd's would make
their babies, they'd love in the winter and every nine months there'd be
another Shepherd."
"I'm a Shepherd for sure! I had eight children myself. Irene,
Opal, Madelin, Columbus (I named him after my brother), Lewis (I named
him after my Dad), Bonnie Mae (she lives over in Ohio State now), Edgell
and Ruby - they both live in Kentucky." When asked how to spell Edgell,
Mort said, "I can't tell you, I'm not an educated man like I said, but
I think it starts with an 'E'. You know I've got 19 grandchildren and 27
great grandchildren...isn't that wonderful!"
"If you're ever around these parts I live here in the trailer
next to my son Lewis's place, it's made of brick. I'm here on county farm
road 900, it's easy to find, a little between Silver Lake, and a little
between Claypool, not too far from Warsaw. Be sure to stop in and see me
if you got down around these parts. I love to have company."
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