A FEW FACTS
Luke Kelley’s Reminiscences #5
Submitted by Bob Davisson
Ironton Register August 24, 1854
Since our last issue, we have seen Mr. Kelley. He says his mistake as to the place of the last lynching hereabouts was from wrong information from one of the participators in the affair. The exact spot, however, is a matter of no great consequence.
Some of the older parts of our readers may be interested to know how long Luke Kelley has been dead, as their recollections may fail them. We copied from his tombstone in the burying ground below Union Landing:–“Luke Kelley died November 25, 1821, age 64 years, seven months and 22 days.” Also, his wife: Mary Kelley, died August 10, 1824, at age 64 years and five days.
David Brainerd, the lame man known to many of our readers, now living in Haverhill, kept the first singing school in Lawrence County, [Ohio]–probably 35 or 40 years ago.
Mr. Kelley has been “celebrated” in his days for gigging. It is still his delight, although the fish are small compared with those in times gone by. He showed us his gig; it is sometimes called a spear. The iron part has three heavy bearded prongs, and the pole, we should judge, is about 15 feet long.
In early times, fish were plenty in Ohio, buffalo, perch, pike, etc. Some of these fish were very large, and when they whirled in the water, their tails would make a noise that could be heard for a long distance, sounding, as Mr. Kelley says, “like the falling of a dead tree in open ground, a good way off.” This noise made by fish Mr. Kelley says he has not heard for many years. He tells us that he once gigged a pike six feet and two inches in length, and from its entrails, he “tried out” three pints of oil. This was about 50 years ago.
“Hood’s Creek,” on the other side of the river, took its name from Major Andrew Hood, one of the first settlers in Greenup County. It was during the time of Indian wars that Major Hood was moving down the river with his family, and ice closing the river, he took harbor in the mouth of the creek, which now bears his name, for 16 days.
The family’s position in the creek was dangerous, as Indians were about, and the reports of their guns were heard daily as they were hunting in the “Flat Woods.” The Indians, however, did not discover Major Hood’s boat and the ice opening. He went on to “Limestone,” now Maysville. After peace with the Indians, Major Hood settled just above Greensburg. He was the grandfather of Wm. Hood, now in the Kentucky penitentiary for participating in the murder of Brewer, a year or two since. Mr. Kelley says that the Hoods were clever, good people, but this young Bill Hood was ruined by going into bad company.
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