Mary Fisher, daughter of George Fisher and Sarah Vaughn, was a young woman when the Civil War broke out and probably knew the young men who enlisted from her western Kentucky neighborhood. That was not the last time she would witness men leaving home to fight in a war. When she was middle-aged, newly-enlisted soldiers left to fight in the Spanish American War and, finally, when she was an old woman, the Great War (World War I) called men to fight in Europe. But what could a woman do? A woman's work was at home.  Her job was to help on the farm, rear the children to be God ..read more

 Being the Jailer in 1875 in Lyon County, Kentucky consisted of more than carrying the keys to the cells. Other duties were required and were spelled out in a document found  among loose county court papers in the courthouse in Eddyville. How do these rules compare to the duties of present-day jailers? Rules for the government of the Jailer "The Jailer is required to Keep the Jail perfectly clean, & suffer no filth of any Kind to accumulate in or about it. He is required to clean out the privy valt [sic], or Sink, under the Jail, immediately and as often as may be necessa ..read more

The first appearance of William N. St. John by name is on the 1850 Livingston County census record when he was living in a household headed by Nancy St. John. William was 19 years old, an engineer and was born in Illinois. Nancy was 60 years old and born in Virginia. Was she his mother - very possibly. Both of them may have been part of the family of an older William St. John, who is found on the 1840 Livingston County census.  Ann Jane St. John, who married G.W. Burton[1], and P.M. St. John, who married Lavenia Wilson[2], were likely siblings of William N. St. John. There should h ..read more

  Copyright Brenda Joyce Jerome, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog. http://wkgenealogy.blogspot.com ..read more

 Merry Christmas from Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog Copyright Brenda Joyce Jerome, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog. http://wkgenealogy.blogspot.com ..read more

 From the Evansville, Indiana Courier, 15 Oct 1875. A special telegram to the Courier, received last night, brings the particulars of a disastrous conflagration that occurred in Smithland, Kentucky, on Monday evening, in which two fine store rooms were burned and a complete stock of goods destroyed. The fire originated in an old, unoccupied dwelling adjoining the store of Mr. Tom Leech.  The flames communicated to the store and from thence to T.T. Cochran’s establishment, both of which were destroyed. Leech’s entire stock was destroyed before the flames could be extinguished, and the ..read more

Jim Bowie, who is often associated with the Bowie knife and who was killed at the Alamo in 1836, spent part of the fourth year of his life with his family in Livingston County, Kentucky. Rezin Bowie, Jim's father, can be found on the 1800 Livingston County tax list and was appointed appraiser of the estate of John Clark deceased that same year.[1] The Bowie family came to Livingston County from Logan County, Kentucky, where Jim was born. After staying in Livingston County a short time, the family moved on to District of New Madrid (Missouri) and  about 1802 moved on to Louisiana.&n ..read more

Those of you who follow this blog know that I have spent a lot of time researching Smithland, Kentucky and its residents. One of the town residents I enjoy most is Ben F. Egan, more commonly known as Buz. I've written about him several times. This article was originally published 27 Mar 2014. Buz was a steamboat captain on the Ohio and Cumberland rivers for many years and knew just about everyone in the business or connected to the business.  He also knew the men who reported the news of steamboats. So, when he was in a town, he visited the reporter who wrote the river new ..read more

The following document was found among the loose county court papers in the Livingston County Clerk’s Office a number of years ago.  Eddyville was located in Livingston County at that time and remained  there until 1809 when it was located in the new county of Caldwell.  By 1854, Lyon County  had been created from Caldwell County and Eddyville was then located in Lyon County. Many times information of this sort was recorded in the county court order books (court minutes), but this document was not recorded there. As far as I can determine, it is found only in the loose coun ..read more

 Happy Thanksgiving from the Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog Copyright Brenda Joyce Jerome, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog. http://wkgenealogy.blogspot.com ..read more