Pikeville History Moments

Pikeville History Moments. visitpikeville.com. , John Paul Riddle , Riddle was born May of 1901 to two teachers, Tandy and Bessie Riddle. His mother passed in 1903, and he spent at least some time living with his paternal grandmother on Shelby Creek. It's said that he dreamed of flying even as a child. He araduated from Pikeville Colleaiate Academy in 1920 and was awarded a prestigious appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. But he left after only three months because he wanted to fly. To that end, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps to be trained as ar airplane mechanic and a pilot allowing him to fulfill his boyhood dream of becoming a barnstormer, flying cross country giving rides to people at fairs, having girls write messages on the wings of his Jenny, the plane he loved best., President James A. Garfield , In early January 1862, Colonel James A. Garfield led Union troops to victory at the Battle of Middle Creek in Floyd County which forced Confederates out of southeast Kentucky and secured the Big Sandy Valley for the Union. It was the victory that prompted Garfield to receive the commission of brigadier general in January 1862. Already headquartered in Pikeville when his commission arrived. there was no senior military brass to swear-in Garfield so the task was left to a justice of the peace, Squire John Charles. Garfield was sworn in at the Ratliff Tavern where was also headquartered. The Ratliff Tavern was town down in the 1930s to make room for the Pikeville City Park., Daniel Boone on the Big Sandy Daniel Boone was many things. An explorer. A hero of early-American pioneer history. An enduring leaend for our nation's westward march across its first frontier. And last but not least, a founding father of Kentucky. The legendary frontiersman first marked an early trail for others to follow west into America's heartland during the spring of 1775, through a vast expanse of wilderness that eventually became Kentucky. Daniel had been hearing tales about the fertile bluegrass region of Kentucky for years. In the autumn of 1767, he set out to see it for himself. He followed a route that's more or less the same as today's Virginia Highway 80 until they came upon the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River., The Hatfield McCoy Feud , The root of the feud between the Hatfield's and McCoy's involved two families of the Kentucky and West Virginia Appalachian mountains along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River. The bad blood stemmed from many causes, but the origins have been traced to divided loyalties during the Civil War and even a Romeo and Juliet style romance when two rival clan members fell in love. The McCoy's, who lived in Pike County, Ky., mostly sided with the Union during the Civil War, while the Hatfield's, from neighboring Mingo County, W.Va., were aligned with the Confederates. The first real violence in the feud occurred when Union soldier Asa Harmon McCoy was killed in 1865, a murder generally believed to have been committed by members of the Hatfield family. Between 1880 and 1891, the feud claimed more than a dozen members of the two families, and the drama became headline news around the country and compelling the governors of both Kentucky and West Virginia to call up their state militias to restore order. The governor of West Virginia once even threatened to have his militia invade Kentucky. Kentucky's governor responded by sending his chief military aide to Pike County to investigate the situation., Additional Videos: Raid on McCoy Cabin . Ellison "Cotton Top" Mounts . Johnse Hatfield and Rosanna McCoy . York House, The Pikeville Cut-Through Project, The Pikeville Cut-Through Project has long been called Hambley's Dream, especially in the years before it became a reality. Dr. William C. Hambley served as Pikeville's mayor from 1960 through 1989, and while he had many accomplishments, the Cut-through was his hiqhest priority in office. Once completed, the Cut-through would move nearly 18 million cubic yards of soil and rock at a total cost of about 77.6 million dollars. Today, the C&O Railroad, the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River, and a modern, four-lane highway pass through the channel formed through Peach Orchard Mountain. This highway combines the traffic from four major routes and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet estimates that about twenty-five thousand cars pass through it daily., Historic Pauley Bridge , The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was formed in 1935 as part of the New Deal enacted by the federal government to combat the Great Depression. The WPA was created to be an employment and an infrastructure program and by 1938 it had employed more than 3.3 million Americans. The WPA projects included building roads, public buildings, and even digging for fossils. Reports state that 126 miles of road along with several schools and public buildings work structured by the WPA and Pike County alone at a cost of 50 million in today's dollars. The Pauley Bridge may have been the most ambitious of these WPA projects in Pike county. Before the Pauley Bridge's construction, local residents had to forward the Levisa Fork in order to access the area that is now the Pauley addition, which at the time housed a train station., Effie Waller Smith , Miss Effie, as she was affectionately called, was born on Chloe Creek of Pikeville in 1879, the third child born to two former slaves, Frank and Sibbie Waller. Frank came to Pike County at the end of the Civil War and found success here as a businessman and blacksmith. Sibbie had been purchased and freed with her mother by a local abolitionist prior to the War. The Wallers valued education and Effie and her older siblings went to what's now called Kentucky State University in Frankfort. With her degree in hand, Effie began teaching in Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. While teaching she was also writing and began publishing poems in local papers. With assistance from friends and wealthy patrons, she self-published her first volume of poetry at age twenty-five and its quality attracted national attention. In the years that followed, she had two more volumes of poetry published. And several poems and short stories appeared in prominent national literary magazines such as Harper's Magazine and Putnam's Monthly.