Most of us learn about life in a small river town through the stories of Mark Twain, but I’ve also learned through my own family history.  Focusing on my family’s stories from Uniontown, Kentucky, I’ve absorbed so much information that brings it all home to my heart.  Founded in 1840 by an act that merged two existing communities into one, Uniontown flourished along the Ohio River due to the surrounding rich agricultural lands and the mining industry.  Here’s a picture taken by one of my relatives of one side of Main Street back when there were still horses and buggies with new fangled cars being introduced to the dirt streets.imageThanks to Mike Guillerman, author of “Face Boss:  The Memoir of a Western Kentucky Coal Miner,” who was nice enough to send me a copy of the June 12, 1903 special edition of The Telegram, Uniontown’s newspaper, I’ve learned that this little town at one time or another had three hotels, a bank, a distillery, granaries, confectionery, millinery, dry goods, and furniture stores, along with a saloon and a wagon works.  There was a livery stable, a saddle store, and a tobacco and cigar store, along with a grocery story, a meat market and a fish market.  This little town of 2,000 had a fire department and a fairgrounds with a paddock (Kentucky does have horses, you know), an amphitheater and floral halls.  There was a Cooper Shop, which I surmise was a brewery for local beer.

My great-great-grandfather arrived in Uniontown as a doctor.  There were doctors, a dentist, and lawyers.  My great-grandfather, who bought and sold grain with an office on the river, also sold insurance for Aetna.  What didn’t they have?

Uniontown had lovely wide streets lined with lovely homes with tall trees and schools for both white and “colored” children (The Telegram reported a scholastic population of 820 with 520 whites and 250 blacks in 1903).  There were at least 6 churches, including Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and Christian.  Ferries crossed the river for those on the Indiana side and riverboats arrived to pick up grain and coal and bring visitors to town. Riverboats also brought entertainment with special shows that everyone would await with excitement.  There was a town band, whose members met twice a week to practice and learn the latest tunes.

And there were the Kentucky “burgoos,”  which I learned about from my great aunt in her book, “My Sun Shines Bright.”  My Uniontown friend, Treva Robards told me more about burgoos, which are a Kentucky tradition, a get together where everyone brings something to contribute to the burgoo, a kind of stew.  There were all kinds of vegetables and meats, everything from Kentucky hams to wild game, all thrown together into a wonderful meal for all.  Each time had to be different since you never knew what people would bring.  Treva shared this older photo of a burgoo.  She said it is always good!Scan 268This was as good as it gets anywhere, I would imagine.  I’ve read the stories of my grandfather being sent on errands when he was only three, watched over by the whole town along the way.  I’ve read of my grandfather and his siblings playing with the black children who lived across the street, riding their horses together, at a time when the town was growing away from the days of slaves and slaveowners in the post-Civil War years.  Children played along and in the river, went hunting in the lush forests nearby, and feasted on Kentucky hams, fried chicken, biscuits and peach pies.

On the other side of town, my grandmother’s family were farmers, working hard in their tobacco fields, the children picking the worms off the tobacco plants. The town had its other side as all towns do, all part of the Uniontown story.   And the town has changed through the years, victim of nature and the times.

My family wrote of the floods, when the Ohio spread across the town and people moved their furniture to upper stories and stayed in the homes of family and friends on higher ground.  Here’s my family’s home with high water.imageIt was fun for the kids to walk on stilts to school or ride in a boat to the store.  I’ve cleaned up after flood waters and it must not have been as much fun for the adults.  Here’s a stereoscope photo I found of one of the floods.ajaxhelper

But, the river was a part of the town, a huge part.  Treva shared some photos with me of a day’s catch…

Scan 267…and the river when it was frozen.  Her father and brother walked across the ice.  Scan 269There were huge floods in 1884, when the entire Ohio River flooded, devastating towns all along its banks.  Clara Barton and the American Red Cross used their new network of helping others to bring relief to the flooded areas.  I found a later newspaper clipping of my great-grandmother attending a Red Cross meeting in nearby Morgansfield.  The 1937 flood did much damage to my family’s home and my great-grandmother’s insistence on staying in the dampness led to the pneumonia that caused her death.

I wondered why they didn’t build levees and finally realized how much work and money it costs to build such a structure for a town.  Uniontown continued on with a flood about every year, finally building a levee in the 1960s, I believe.  Here’s a later flood photo.Dorothy Deboe - town streetwalker in Uniontown after floodBy then, the riverboats were gone, leaving only barges to transport goods, and life was changing.  The town continued to be a great place to live into the 70s.  Now the town is down to a population of just over 1,250.DSC_0292The prosperous Main Street is virtually non-existent, with only this former movie theatre…DSC_0295…and this building left from the past glory days.

DSC_0296This building still stands by the levee…DSC_0199There’s still a granary…DSC_0303…and the miners keep mining coal to transport to the river…DSC_0291

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DSC_0306Men still hunt and gather at the Uniontown Coon ClubDSC_0293to eat, drink and tell their stories.DSC_0294Druggies inhabited Toon Town on the outskirts of Uniontown during a past time but now it’s a family camp and young people are trying to bring the town back.  There’s a new market, a restaurant, and people who love this river community.  The landing is busy with fishermen loading boats onto the river.DSC_0236And there are people like my friend, Treva, who treasure the memories of what life on the river used to be.  Here we are by the levee.DSC_0305I feel connected to the town and the river through my family who lived there when it was the best of all places to be for the times.  At least that’s how it feels.  I dipped my feet in the Ohio, linking me to the river and my people who settled in Kentucky so many years ago.  DSC_0307I came from people who settled in many places through the years as this country grew.  There are quite a few who link me to Kentucky, especially Uniontown.  As long as I can, I’ll help preserve the stories because they help me understand them, this country and who I am.