Little Clifty United Methodist Church: Its History Through Its People

By Bonita Miller

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 9, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456867812

Bonita Miller

Bonita Miller has been a member of Little Clifty United Methodist Church since she was eleven years old, and four generations of her family attend Little Clifty. She has been the church historian and recording secretary since 1984. Her long-time membership was her inspiration to write the church’s history, which is told through many priceless photographs and stories of the faith, courage, and resilience of the many exemplary Christians who have passed through Little Clifty’s doors.

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Copyright © 2011 by Bonita Miller.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011902221

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4568-6780-5

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4568-6779-9

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4568-6781-2

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This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Early Area Settlers

Methodism Sees Its Beginning in Kentucky

The Church Sees Its Beginning

Land Donations

New Church Building in 1959

The Bell Family

Virgil and Ardis Fulkerson

Hard Times

In Service of Their Country

Membership Records

Cemetery Records

The Isham Nichols Family

The Jeptha Nichols Family

The Golladay Family

The Robert Patton Gragson Sr. Family

The Skaggs Family

Family Marriages

The Fulkerson Family

The Holland Fulkerson Family

The Earl Richardson Family

Baptisms

Geneva and Buren Boone

The Williams Family

The Hardin Williams Family

Lee and Delia Hornback Family

Mabel Williams Hall

John and Hazel Williams Family

Delmar and Leda Williams

Roger and Brenda Williams

Rex and Phyllis Williams

Belva Huntley

Paul and Eva Williams

Rhea Hodges

Harvey and Bethel Williams

Hiawatha Williams

Uncle Lewis and Aunt Lola Fulkerson

Clovus and Ethel Williams

Wilson and Elsie Downs

HAROLD AND CAROLINE DOWNS

The Oscar and Leva Ann Hatfield Family

Denim and Clara Oldham

Frank and Callie Dixon

Clifton and Inez Dorsey

The Thurman and Flossie Logsdon Family

The Harlin and Betty Hayes Family

The Leon and Sharon Hayes Family

Bonita and Quentin Miller

Vicki Hayes Basham

Valeria Hayes-Hicks and Larry Hicks

Melinda Hayes O’Donnell

The Beryl and Katherine Franklin Family

Edward and Mary K. Franklin

50 Years at Little Clifty

Rowan and Dixie Franklin and Michael and Stephanie Franklin

Marcus Franklin

Lillian Franklin Bratcher

Jack and Sarepta Phillippi

The Denny and Geneva Miller Family

Shirley Miller Oldham

Mike and Ruby Cain

Pat and Bethany Barnett and Harleigh, Elizabeth, and Elijah Barnett

Dan and Karen Sue Cain and Emmily and A. J. Napper

Virginia Barnett and Beverly Casey

Dale Highberger

The Charlie and Addie Fulkerson Family

Thank God for My Mother

Harlie, Ina, and Dr. Gay Fulkerson

Alvis Fulkerson, Cal and Rita Carol Fulkerson Miller and Robbie Fletcher

Herbert, Eulis, Oris, and Velma Fulkerson

Blanche Pickerill

The Herchel and Lizzie Horn Family

Ernest and Dorotha Horn

Opie and Fonnie Horn

The Jack Webb Family

Annie and Esthel Hatfield

Mabel Horn Watkins

Leo and Geneva Horn

Jimmy Horn

Jethro and Sarah Mae Franklin Horn

Hezekiah Horn

Ernest and Dessie Williams and Louvene Weatherholt

Claude and Pauline Cain

Ed and Rosa Cain

Walter and Martha Pearl

Harvey and Myrtle Hawkins

The Floretta Joyce Family

The Mitchell and Elizabeth Miller Family

The Betty Watkins Family

Other Families

Other Cemetery Records

The Old Time Church

Pastors

Little Clifty School

Picture Day in a One-Room School

Recent Years

Decoration Day

Special Times

Bible Study Classes

Honeyfest Parade

Vacation Bible School

Christmas and Other Activities

Conclusion

Sources

Little Clifty Cemetery Records

GENEALOGY CHART TABLE OF CONTENTS

Bell, Fulkerson, Williams

Isaac and Margaret Carby Bell

William Fulkerson

James Harvey and Barbara Gusler Reed

Ransom and Kessiah Nichols

Isham and Margaret Nichols

Jeptha and Margaret Nichols

Golladay

Henry Skaggs and Aaron Skaggs, Jr.

Robert Patton Gragson, Sr. and Margaret Sutton Gragson

Gragson-Nichols-Skaggs Connection

Hale-Gragson-Skaggs Connection

Robert P. and Martha S. Gragson

Aaron and Henry Skaggs

James Lindsey Skaggs, Sr. and Kessiah Witten Skaggs

James L. Skaggs, Jr. and Nancy Jane Gragson

Witten-Skaggs

Dunn Family

Martha Watkins Married Perry Brunk in 1856

Martha E. Watkins married James H. Nichols

Malinda Gragson and George Taylor Nichols

Marriage of children of Isham and Margaret Sutton Nichols and Robert and Martha Sutton Gragson–

Marriage of Harvey K. Nichols and Serena Horn

Sam and Maudie Gragson Horn

William Fulkerson

Descendants of Andrew Johnson Fulkerson

Harlie and Jessie Allen

James L. Skaggs, Jr. and Nancy Jane Gragson

John Gannaway and Correnor Skaggs Richardson

Thomas and Elizabeth Williams

David and Virena Williams

Hardin and Effie Williams

Jacob Williams, Sr. and James Hollis Williams

Martin Buren Skaggs, Sr. and James Hollis Williams

Aaron Skaggs, Sr.

Herschell and Lizzie Pucell Horn

Benjamin Boyd and Sarah Martha Horn Franklin

James R. and Fannie Elizabeth Horn Franklin

Hezekiah and Sarah G. Gragson Horn

Gragson-Horn Connection

Fannie Gragson and Joel Watkins

Tarasa Nichols Horn and David Horn, Jr.

Hezekiah and Martha Gragson Horn

Hezekiah and Emily Watkins Horn

David and Virena Watkins Williams

Claudie and Pauline Downs Cain

This Is My Church

It is composed of people like me,

We make it what it is.

It will be friendly if I am;

Its pews will be filled,

If I help to fill them.

It will do great work, if I work.

It will make generous gifts to its many causes,

If I am a generous giver.

It will bring people into its worship and fellowship,

If I bring them.

It will be a church of loyalty and love,

Of fearlessness and faith,

A church with a noble spirit,

If I, who make it what it is,

Am filled with these.

Therefore, with the help of God,

I shall dedicate myself to the task;

Of being all that I want my church to be.

From the Poetry of Velma Fulkerson

Acknowledgments

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Bonita Miller

Photo by ASV Photography, Anna Sue Vincent

My dad and mom, Harlin and Betty Hayes, started going to church at Little Clifty United Methodist Church when they moved into the community in 1954. I have been a member since I was eleven years old. Since I have been the church secretary and historian since 1984, I decided it was way past time to write down our history before more of it is swallowed up by the hands of time. So many of our members that were so precious to all of us are now gone, and with their passing, we have lost their contributions to our history.

Fortunately, however, many members in the community and our congregation have preserved a lot of photos and have shared enthusiastically the bits and pieces of history that they remember. Piecing them all together has been like working a big jigsaw puzzle. With it all finally put together, it makes a beautiful picture that tells the story of the people of Little Clifty United Methodist Church.

Little did I know when I began to write this story that it would be such a humbling experience and that I would learn so much about the hardships that families were confronted with and the heartaches they endured living in earlier times. I also have learned about their resilience and determination in the face of their adversities.

I have a newfound respect for the pioneers who grabbed hold of their faith and courage and stepped up to the plate to start a house of worship. That it has endured and its doors are still wide open is a testament to how deeply they planted their roots in the community and how strong the community’s commitment has remained throughout the years. Many current congregational members can trace their ancestry all the way back to the church pioneers who originally opened its doors.

In many ways, their common struggles united them, and they worked together to achieve what they could not accomplish alone. Unlike today when life is too busy and too hectic, neighbors had time for each other, and a slower pace in life had its advantages. Dependence upon each other strengthened their commitment within the community and helped to bond them together into a church family.

For all the enthusiasm that everyone has shown for this project, I sincerely thank you. It is clear that the church holds a very dear place in the hearts of many people, and that is what makes its story so unique and so necessary to historically record. There have been many contributions from many sources, and I want you to know your contributions are appreciated and make this book so much richer in its details and depth.

It has not been possible to retrieve a lot of information from the very early years simply because so many people are now gone and many records at the courthouse were burned in the courthouse fires, but I am very proud of what has been preserved. There have been so many special, funny, inspirational, and heartfelt contributions that my journey back through time has been worth all the hours and hours I have spent on this project. Two stories that I have never heard about my mother were relayed to me during the interviews that I conducted. Both are experiences she had in church that I would never have uncovered had I not been working on this project. How I would have loved to have been there both times!

Mrs. Jessie Allen, too, has attended Little Clifty since she was a little girl, and her assistance has been invaluable in sorting out people and families and getting all the details in the right order. She has provided many photos and details about local family relationships and identified church and community members. Her knowledge of the cemetery and its records has been a great help in connecting family members that are buried there.

Mrs. Inez Dorsey is a longtime community member and a very dear friend. As a child and teenager, she attended Little Clifty too, and she has shared her vast collection of newspaper clippings, photos, memories, and knowledge about community people and history. She dug out all the boxes from under the bed and sorted out all her Little Clifty people and helped collect pictures and information. Her community connections helped immensely, and she made many phone calls to her friends and acquaintances to acquire photos and fill in details and connect the dots between family histories.

Mrs. Mary Franklin loves photography and has recorded a lot of history through photographs for the past several years, and she has shared them for this project. Her many pictures show how much she loves the people of Little Clifty and how much she loved recording their stories in pictures. She has also helped me with proofreading and preparing the final print copy.

Ms. Velma Fulkerson and her niece, Rita Carol Miller, have also shared their family’s vast collection of church and family photographs and written historical documents. Many of the photos were taken in the 1940s through late 1960s by Ms. Velma with her black-and-white Brownie camera. Many, many others have family photos that they have shared. The only word to describe all of them and the stories they tell is priceless!

Of particular interest to me have been the records of the cemetery. Thanks to Ms. Sarah Franklin who provided a copy of old cemetery records and wrote lots of helpful notes on them that helped me sort them all out. Along with the old membership rosters and the records of the Grayson County Historical Society, we now have a better picture of the families of years past. Their connections are astounding, and a picture emerges of a family buried in the cemetery.

My father’s farm on Franklin Road near Little Clifty Church has a small cemetery that is the resting place of the family of Jeptha Nichols. We have always wondered about its history, and we now have found that it is linked to the church cemetery’s history. The Nichols family came to Kentucky from North Carolina and settled in the area. Jeptha’s brother Isham Nichols and his sister Tarasa both have many family members buried in Little Clifty’s cemetery. Many descendants of the Nichols family married into the Golladay, Skaggs, Gragson, and Horn families. The genealogies of these families crisscross in many places, and all of these families have many graves in the cemetery.

I have spent a lot of time trying to accurately research all the family relationships so that my findings are historically correct, but as with any project that depends upon researching old records and gathering information from multiple sources, there are bound to be mistakes. The area that provided the greatest challenge was in trying to sort out family relationships. Many avenues are available to find research data; sometimes they provided conflicting information, and I have tried to wade through many, many documents with as much accuracy as possible. For those instances where there are errors, I sincerely apologize in advance, and please know that I have spent a lot of time, energy, and effort in trying to be as accurate as possible. You will see many dates throughout the book, and they were inserted to help define different family members since many of them have the same name or a similar name as a preceding or current generation family member.

Researching the old membership records is another area where I have spent a lot of time. Unfortunately, they too do not date back to the church’s earlier years. Many families with several family members buried in the cemetery, no doubt, had a connection with the church, and many were probably members, but without the earlier records, it is not possible to know just who the earliest members were. There are no dates recorded anywhere on the earlier membership rosters that are available, so the best estimate is that the current records begin from the 1930s forward. A logical explanation for this would be that when the church blew away in 1928, the earlier records were destroyed.

In any case, the record-keeping of earlier years undoubtedly contains unintentional errors. Unintentional from the standpoint that the rosters were not often updated as memberships and deaths occurred, nor were dates of baptisms and other membership changes recorded. The information given herein has been taken from what it has been possible to discern, and I apologize for any errors found. Again, please know that I have tried to be as accurate as possible.

A special acknowledgment and thanks to my office assistant, Ms. Amanda Webb, for helping me with so many different aspects of this project. In so many areas of computer technology, I am sadly lacking; and she has typed and designed all the family genealogy charts, gone to the library to help me with research and note-taking, scanned and copied photos, designed a lot of the layout, and made many other contributions. She made discoveries that made her gasp in astonishment and transcribed stories that made her laugh out loud, so I hope it did not all seem like work. Thanks, Amanda, for all your hard work and dedication.

My love for Little Clifty United Methodist Church is tied to my love for my own family and my church family. God sends us a church family to strengthen our commitment to Him and to each other. I have many lifetime dear friends at Little Clifty. My mom and my brother are buried in the cemetery, so it too holds a special place in my heart. When I look out the window on Sunday morning across the cemetery, I can see their resting place. I miss them, but I feel peace in knowing they are in a physically restful and calm place and an even better spiritual place. There is no feeling more precious than to be in church on Sunday morning and to have my son reach over and put his arm around me and give me a kiss on the cheek, or to reach over and hug my dad. God’s love resonates in those moments.

Galatians 6:2 says, Bear ye one another’s burdens, and in this way fulfill the law of Christ. Many church and community members from the past we did not ever know, but they live on through the legacy they have passed on to us. They bore each other’s burdens in many different ways. Their unique and unselfish gifts to each other, given straight from their hearts, fulfilled the law of Christ. Each one of them had individual gifts, and each has left us the heritage they had to give.

Some gave us the gift of a spiritual heritage like the memory of how they could pray on their knees or the God-given talent of a bass voice that loved to sing the Lord’s music. Some left us the gift of the beautiful building they helped to build with callused, work-worn hands. When bent to their task, they were the hands of precision that gave us the beauty we enjoy in God’s house. Others gave us the memory of their ever-present attendance every time the church doors opened. They even had their own special spots where they always sat that are sadly empty with their passing.

Some were always there with a kind or comforting word. Others quietly stayed in the background doing the necessary work that is needed to keep things going. Mothers are remembered for being great cooks of their own specialties like fried apple pies on Decoration Day, and fathers for faithfully running a taxi-cab service to pick up others who did not have cars or transportation and seeing that they got to church. Some left us their lifetime, hard-earned physical assets, having a deep desire to help keep His house open. All gave us the gift of their love for and devotion to the Lord, Little Clifty, and each other.

I dedicate this book to the memory of my mother, Betty Jo Hayes, and to my father, Harlin Hayes, for raising me in a Christian home and giving me the gift of family that I have always known, as well as to my past and present church family for the many lessons they have taught me through their exemplary Christian lives.

Little Clifty United Methodist Church is a part of my own heritage that I am proud to share with you, and my hope is that its story blesses you as much as it does me.

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Amanda Webb, assistant to the writer

It has been my pleasure to lend a hand to the writer, Ms. Miller, in researching the family heritage of Little Clifty United Methodist Church. Each generation is unique, and I hope that our efforts in this historical project preserve something from each of the preceding generations. Some generations have been able to orally tell us stories of their lives; we have had the joy of putting their thoughts in written format for the generations to come to enjoy. For the generations before us who are already gone, this project has challenged us cognitively in the discovery process of figuring out and connecting families and fitting together all the small pieces of a large puzzle. Even as limited as our research is here, the curious can build upon our work to further discover their family histories. Knowing the long line of relatives that came before them can, hopefully, provide a sense of belonging and a feeling of being connected with their ancestors for the members of Little Clifty Church and other community members.

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Photographer Mary K. Franklin

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Inez Dorey                                                   Jessie Allen

Community and Family Research

Introduction

It sits near a fork of a busy road. In contrast to the traffic buzzing by, it is a quiet, welcoming sight—a beautiful little Bedford-stone country church with a tall slender white steeple. A cross—the ultimate symbol of invitation and forgiveness—sits on the steeple top. Its aging church bell has been rung thousands of times as a sign of welcome or to communicate community needs. Inside its walls have been days of somberness and sorrow and days of celebration and joy. Enduring through lean years and seeing the best of times, it has been a haven—a gathering place—where its people have clung together in tears of sorrow and laughed and hugged with tears of happiness. Many passersby have one memory or another relating its importance to their lives.

The cemetery alongside it is often visited by those who stop a moment to remember a loved one. As they pause, hopefully visitors feel solitude and tranquility that brings comfort, knowing their loved ones physically rest in such a beautiful place. Looking out across it is a reminder of one’s own mortality and that death is not discriminating; it is coming to us all. It also brings the reminder that when our names are written in the Book of Life (Rev. 21:27), the spirit dwells in a place far beyond earthly beauty. From the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15) to the Tree of Life (Rev. 22:14), the Bible is filled with the beauty of nature. No greater feeling of closeness is there, perhaps, to His almighty power than to stand in nature’s midst. The stillness is occasionally pierced by the birds singing, but otherwise it is a place of uninterrupted peace. We mourn the loss of our loved ones from our lives, yet we know the beauty of their eternal home far surpasses the serenity that surrounds us while standing in such a quietly beautiful place.

The big gnarled old white oak tree in its front corner—beaten and battered by tornado winds, drought, and the 2009 ice storm—casts its shadow on the monuments nearby. Amidst the fallen comrades that once stood with it, its towering strength is a miraculous display of survival. Its message seems to be that despite the disasters it has seen, the Lord has sustained it.

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The big oak tree after the ice storm in January 2009

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Ice storm 2009

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Decoration Day or a special meeting day. The big oak tree stands

to the left in the background. Photo from Velma Fulkerson and

Rita Carol Miller. Fulkerson family photos.

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The crosses for Easter sunrise services

As the sun breaks across the horizon, there is beauty and serenity in the dawn that breaks above the three wooden crosses erected in front of the cemetery’s first row of monuments. Characteristically displayed during Easter, they are symbolic of everlasting life given freely to all who are willing to receive it.

To its congregational community, this little country church is a place to feel and know the love of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, find renewed strength to face the burdens of life, find solace and joy in prayer, worship with friends and family, minister to those who are in spiritual and physical pain, and a place to be reminded that what is really important in life is represented within its doors. This little country church is Little Clifty United Methodist Church with a rich history of dedicated servants. Through them, its story is best told.

As the years have gone by, many of the faces of people whose names are handwritten on the membership roster have been forgotten. As older members have passed away, their stories have passed with them. Memories of their love for the church and the contributions they made to it are fading, soon to be lost forever if not recorded. Their steadfast determination and commitment surely deserve acknowledgment, however brief it may now be. Their stories are a wonder to discover and to revisit.

Walking through the cemetery and reading names like Bell, Skaggs, Nichols, Horn, Williams, Richardson, Fulkerson, Gragson, Hale, and Golladay evokes curiosity about their lives and the part they have played in the community and the church’s history. Many graves date to the 1800s. Most of the tombstones themselves are in remarkably good condition considering their age. The names engraved on many of the older gravestones are covered with mold and are barely visible; however, their stories are still there hidden beneath all the decay, waiting to be uncovered. A little elbow grease makes their names shine in the sunlight, seemingly welcoming rediscovery.

Unraveling the mysteries around all the family connections and, not surprisingly, finding that many who are now laid to rest originated from patriarchs Jeptha Nichols, Frederick Augusta Golladay, Robert Patton Gragson Sr., David Horn Jr., William Fulkerson, and James Lindsey Skaggs Sr. tells the story of just how deep the roots of the families, who were early community inhabitants, run. Woven into their collective story are many individual stories about the families that were the early community pioneers.

As early as 1830, their families came to Kentucky from Virginia and North Carolina. Just like the gnarled old tree still standing in the corner of the cemetery, they planted themselves in a wilderness, foreign in every aspect to the life they had previously known. Imagine packing your wife and small children and all your worldly possessions in only one little wagon, leaving all your family behind in Virginia or North Carolina, travelling over the rugged, mountainous terrain of the Cumberland Gap, and setting about making a new life in a one-room cabin amidst a hostile environment called a new frontier. Their faith that God would provide must surely have been strong. Probably by only the conviction put in their hearts by His guidance did they accomplish the almost-impossible task of building a new life in a new land.

Sacrifices were many, not only in terms of the physical comforts they left behind, but also in terms of loved ones injured or lost along the way or even after their journey ended, and they settled in their new homes. The stark realities of the demands of frontier life meant that neighbors depended upon neighbors and families depended upon family to share the back-breaking work of cutting trails to make roads, clearing the land, building crude shelters and barns, finding sources of water like springs or digging wells, planting and harvesting crops, finding and storing food, and fighting disease, sickness, and the uncertainties of the hostiles. From sharing celebrations such as marriages, to seeing each other through illness and childbirth and its accompanying complications, and sharing the sorrows of burying infants and children too frail to survive, they forged unbreakable bonds between community neighbors and families.

Telling just a little part of their life’s story is a great privilege and has been a journey into the past filled with wonderful examples of Christianity and service, bringing to life God’s admonishment in Luke 10:25-37 in the parable of the Good Samaritan, where His commandment to us is to love thy neighbor as thyself. Becoming acquainted with their legacy affords new respect for the hardships they endured and survived. With faith and perseverance, they lived their lives in quiet obedience and dependence upon the Lord, reaching out in service and ministering to their families, neighbors, and the community. The present would not be possible without their past. Their strength and determination serves as our inspiration to carry on in their tradition of service to the Lord. This is the greatest lesson their history teaches us: through love, grace, and hope, they were able to cope and overcome the daily obstacles in life and carry on. Theirs was a hard road, but God walked beside them; and they were undeterred.

Early Area Settlers

Frederick Augusta Golladay and his wife, Elizabeth Pearson Golladay, came from Virginia to Grayson County around 1850 and settled on a farm now owned by the Bentley family. Frederick was a farmer, and the Golladays stayed on their farm for the remainder of their lives. Although Frederick and Elizabeth are buried in the Golladay family cemetery near Big Clifty, many of their descendants are buried in Little Clifty’s cemetery. Two sons, John Pearson and Thomas Benton, were veterans of the Civil War, fighting on the side of the Union. Four generations owned the family farm before it was sold by the widow of William Benton Golladay to J. V. Bentley.

John Anderson was the son of Thomas Benton and Sarah (Mollie) Phillips Golladay. He once owned a farm that is now part of the Harlin Hayes farm. On it was built a log cabin home that was considered one of the finest homes in the area at the time. It stood until the 1960s.

Robert Patton Gragson Sr. and Martha Sutton Gragson originated from Orange County, North Carolina, and moved to Virginia and then Kentucky. Robert’s name appeared in the 1834 Grayson County tax list. Robert’s and Martha’s names also appeared in the 1850 Grayson County census, along with Martha’s father, Campbell Sutton. Martha was a sister to Margaret Sutton Nichols who married Isham Nichols. Robert and Martha raised a large family in the community. They are buried in Little Clifty cemetery, along with many of their children’s family members.

The family of James L. Skaggs Sr. and Kessiah Witten Skaggs is another family that came to the community from North Carolina. In particular, the marriage of their son James Lindsey Skaggs Jr. to Nancy Gragson, the daughter of Robert Patton and Martha Sutton Gragson Sr., was one union between the Skaggs family and the Gragson family that resulted in multiple descendants that are buried in the cemetery.

Ransom and Kessiah Nichols and their children also came to Grayson County from North Carolina. Isham, Jeptha, and Tarasa Nichols all raised families near the church and played a prominent part in its history. Many of their children and their families are buried in the cemetery. Isham’s, Jeptha’s, and Ransom’s names appeared on the 1830 census of Grayson County, making them early residents of the area.

Tarasa Nichols married David Horn Jr. who was from Washington, Virginia. Theirs is a colorful family history that is also filled with a lot of tragedy since the family’s generations suffered the loss of many infants and children. One of their sons Hezekiah Horn also married into the Gragson family. His first marriage was to Sarah Gragson, then her sister Martha, and finally to Sarah’s and Martha’s niece, Emily Jane Watkins, who was the daughter of their sister Fannie. At least twenty-seven children resulted from the three marriages. Many of them died at birth or in early childhood.

The Nichols family’s children married members of the Golladay, Skaggs, Gragson, and Horn families. Similarly, the Gragson family, the Skaggs family, and the Horn family saw many marriages between family members. The Fulkerson family and Williams family also married into the Skaggs and Gragson families. Through the generations, their descendants can usually trace their roots to more than one of these families. In some instances, first, second, and third cousins married. While this may now seem an unusual practice, it was not so uncommon in earlier eras and was often the result of the isolated way of life that people led.

Many children were named after their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other family members. For instance, it is not uncommon to find a name trail such as Robert Patton Gragson Sr., with son Robert Patton Jr., and grandson Robert. Sarah G. Gragson Horn named one of her daughters Tarasa Angeline, presumably after her husband’s mother, Tarasa Nichols Horn; named three of her daughters the same names as her sisters Fannie, Nancy, and Margaret; and two of her other daughters the same name as herself—Sarrah and Sarah. Jacob was the name of three members of the Williams family. Using the designation of Junior and Senior was not common, and when its use came about, it did not necessarily mean that Junior was the son of Senior. He might be a nephew or other family member. While the sentiment can readily be understood and appreciated, tracing a family’s history is confused by the multiple names that are the same or similar.

Methodism Sees Its Beginning in Kentucky

The Methodist movement began in England. Led by John Wesley and his brother Charles at Oxford University, students spent so much time in methodical prayer that they became known as Methodist. Early in his ministry, Wesley established many of the foundations of faith through theologies that are still the cornerstones of Methodism today. Regardless of social standing, Wesley believed in ministering to the poor, the sick, those in prisons, and the downtrodden. He established programs that provided assistance to those heretofore forgotten members of society, establishing homes for orphans, schools for the poor, and clinics for the sick.

In America, the Methodist Episcopal Church came into being in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1784. Circuit riders rode on horseback and preached the gospel and helped establish churches in just about every community. Their circuits covered broad areas, and the burden fell upon individual church’s lay leaders to uphold the church’s commitments. Camp meetings came into being in the early 1800s. They were lively and lasted several days, and several preachers took turns preaching. People travelled long distances to attend and camped in wagons, sleeping in them as well as cooking outdoors over open fires. Hence, the term camp meeting came into existence.

Methodism in Kentucky began when Richard Masterson erected a log structure that became the first Methodist meetinghouse around 1786. By 1810, the emotional hysteria of the Great Revival began sweeping across Kentucky, and churches began to see tremendous increases in membership. It is logical that the church saw its beginning during this era.

By 1844, the dispute over the issue of slavery caused a split in the church. Many northern Methodist were active in the Underground Railroad, helping to free many slaves, while many Southerners supported slavery. In 1845 at a meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, the churches of the South left the Methodist Episcopal Church (known as Methodist E.) and became the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It was not until 1939 that the churches would be reunited into the United Methodist Church. The new United Methodist Church was comprised of the Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal South, and Methodist Protestant churches. In 1968, another union occurred between the Methodist churches and the Evangelical United Brethren.

In 1996, the congregation at Little Clifty redefined its vision statement:

Our vision is to nurture the congregation’s faith and discipleship by creating a more spiritual church. Only when faith is internalized in the church will members possess the confidence, skills, knowledge and desire to reach out into the community in service, witness, and the sharing of God’s love with others.

In 2010, a mission statement was adopted, and the vision statement was revised. Serving as the foundation of our ministry, the mission statement reads,

We are caring people who are making disciples of Jesus Christ to serve the community.

The vision statement was changed to

Through worshipping, studying the Bible, praying and continuing to develop and nurture disciples of Jesus Christ, Little Clifty United Methodist Church seeks to build relationships by empowering those within our church to serve the community and impact the world.

Striving to meet individual needs is a key component to fulfilling the church’s mission. Providing a worship experience that is a personal and meaningful encounter with God can lay the groundwork to minister to the lost. When equipped with a personal relationship with God and a willingness to work toward His vision of becoming fully devoted followers of Christ, responding with enthusiasm and energy to God’s call to reach the unchurched