[Midee1]

I live VERY close to the Breaks and a bunch of us from the area have tried this. It's really wild.

The wife and I have been thinking about heading up to the breaks sometime soon. Can somebody give me a mapquest or directions to the marker.

[thetribe]

I buy all of the Guinness Bookk of World Records books and I read that the tallest married couple was from the United States but it usually doesn't list the location. That is awesome.

[thetribe]

The wife and I have been thinking about heading up to the breaks sometime soon. Can somebody give me a mapquest or directions to the marker.

When you are heading to the Breaks Interstate Park through Elkhorn City, the marker is located halfway up a hill, on the right, next to a small parking lot. I don't know how to tell you any better where it is. You can't really miss it if you are looking for it.

[J. R. VanHoose]

Did they ever have any kids that lived?

I think he married again to an "average" size woman and they had one or two kids.

[phs1986]

Mamie Thurman Story...


http://www.geocities.com/heartland/ridge...urder1.htm
check this one out.... I know it's in WV but.... the hubby works on this road and you should hear some of the stuff he says!!! Kinda like J.R.'s confederate soldier one!!!

[The Fan]

There was an old neighbor woman who died maybe 25 years ago at the age of 99 . She told me many times about the old log barn that was beside her house . Before she was born Her father during the Civil War had cut and hued the logs to build a barn .He had no sons or help to build it 7 confederate soldiers came by one day hungry he fed them and he told him if they would help him get his barn up he would give them a hog to butcher and take with them. The old barn stood until a couple years ago always regretted not taking a picture of it .

[The Fan]

Does anyone know that Magoffin County has a battleship named after it The USS Magoffin ( nicknamed Old Maggie )which was active during WW2 . The people that served on it come to Magoffin every year for a reunion and give a scholarship to a Senior at MCHS .

[J. R. VanHoose]

Does anyone know that Magoffin County has a battleship named after it The USS Magoffin ( nicknamed Old Maggie )which was active during WW2 . The people that served on it come to Magoffin every year for a reunion and give a scholarship to a Senior at MCHS .

I had heard of it, but after you mentioned it, I found this:

http://www.ussmagoffin.org/shphist.html

[Old school Dawg]

JR how about the Van Lear baseball team beating the Cincinnati REDlegs.I got a book about Van Lear and it was great.My wife also got me a book that followed your recruitment by Kentucky and Indiana and Notre Dame and your friendship with boys from Lex Catholic.I love all the history surrounding the coal wars in West Virginia.Largest insurrection since the civil war and the goverment sent 5000 troups to Charleston and only then would the miners lay down there guns because they were mostly veterans and could raise their guns towards our own troops.When they were fighting a small army from Logan County the local sheriff had put together the miners has accidently shot at each other.They tied red bandana,s around their necks and thats were the term rednecks came from.

[Old school Dawg]

Did anyone know that in the book Flags of our fathers I just finished ,,one of the boys who helped raise the flag on Iwo JIma,,was from Hilltop Kentucky.That is the most famous picture ever taken in a US war.Of the 6 only 3 survived the war.

[Old school Dawg]

Adolph Rupp didnt come up with the fast break,, Cam Henderson at Marshall did.Thats what I was always told.

[thetribe]

I heard heard about the boy on Iwo Jima. That was REALLLLY interesting and just amazing.

[J. R. VanHoose]

My wife also got me a book that followed your recruitment by Kentucky and Indiana and Notre Dame and your friendship with boys from Lex Catholic.

I am glad that you have that book, it was great doing it!!! I knew about the Van Lear team, I would like to do more research on this and find out more!!!!

[J. R. VanHoose]

Did anyone know that in the book Flags of our fathers I just finished ,,one of the boys who helped raise the flag on Iwo JIma,,was from Hilltop Kentucky.That is the most famous picture ever taken in a US war.Of the 6 only 3 survived the war.

The man's name was Frank Sousley. He was born in 1925 and was killed on Iwo Jima shortly after waving the flag on March 21, 1945. I really thought that many people from Eastern Kentucky knew this one!!!!!

[mcfan1]

This thread is great; I am really enjoying reading this, keep the history coming.

[J. R. VanHoose]

Some other famous people from Eastern Kentucky:

Francis Gary Powers - Born in 1929 in Jenkins, KY and raised in Pound, VA. He joined the Air Force in 1950 and was apparently "recruited" by the CIA to join the new U-2 Program. While flying a Top Secret U-2 mission over Russian soil, he was shot down on May 1, 1960 - causing the famous U-2 Crisis of 1960. He died in LA in a tragic TV helicopter crash while working for KNBC on August 1, 1977. He is bureid in Arlington National Cemetery!!!

A man that I do not know much about, but have heard a great deal about, is Homer Robinson of Pike County. He was, according to the sources I have, on the USS Oklahoma during the engagement at Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941).

Also, from Johnson County was a man named Heber Ward. He won the Congressional Medal of Honor during World War I for singlehandedly capturing 23 German soldiers, after being wounded in both hips!!!!!

[J. R. VanHoose]

Did-You-Know that according to Veteran Administration statistics - the people of Appalachia experienced the highest casualty rates per capita in the entire United States during World War I, World War II, and Vietnam!!!! Probably because during those wars some counties in Appalachia didn't need to have a draft, its people volunteered in mass!!!!!!!

[J. R. VanHoose]

Adolph Rupp didnt come up with the fast break,, Cam Henderson at Marshall did.Thats what I was always told.

Being a Marshall guy, and playing in the Cam Henderson Center at MU, I had always heard that too. Who knows who came up with it, I am sure that many schools were running something similar to it, but it just wasn't called a fast break!!!!

[J. R. VanHoose]

Anyone interested in genealogy? I have some interesting facts about some of my family:

My 9th Great-Grandfather was the first in the VanHoose line to come to America. His name was Jan Fransse Van Husum. His name means the following: Jan was his first name, Fransse means "son of Francis", Van means "of" or "from", and Husum is the town now presently in northern Germany where he was from - so Jan "son of Francis" "from" Husum!! Anyway, he was born in 1608 and came to New Amsterdam (now the state of New York) in 1639. What is also geat about this man is that his descendants include:

President Martin Van Buren (3rd Great-Grandson of Jan Fransse Van Husum)

AND

President Theodore Roosevelt (6th Great-Grandson of Jan Fransse Van Husum)

Through my mother's genealogical lines I can claim descent to the grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. to the following U.S. Presidents:

George Washington, Herbert Hoover, and Richard Nixon!!!!

Thought this was cool to mention!!!!!

[thetribe]

That is awesome J.R. I would love to research my geneology far back enough to see if I had any relatives to the sort. Any tips on how or where to start?

[J. R. VanHoose]

That is awesome J.R. I would love to research my geneology far back enough to see if I had any relatives to the sort. Any tips on how or where to start?

If you want me to I could try to see what I could find for you. As soon as basketball is over PM me and I will help out as much as I can. To start I would need you to go as far back as you could in all of you lines. I could then get to some of the hardcore research and see what I could find for you!!!!

[thetribe]

That would be AWESOME! My cousin did some research so I have a little background but that was just on my mom's side. I HIGHLY doubt that we will find anyone interesting but that would be really fun. YOU can PM whenever you are free. I really appreciate it.

[The Guru]

That would be AWESOME! My cousin did some research so I have a little background but that was just on my mom's side. I HIGHLY doubt that we will find anyone interesting but that would be really fun. YOU can PM whenever you are free. I really appreciate it.

Be careful....I was doing some research on my family and had to quit....by the time I got to the Revolutionary war, I was getting too embarassed!!!LOL
Talk about a bunch of thugs!!!LOL

[thetribe]

Hahaha, I'm not expecting to be related to 5 presidents like ol' VanHoose here but any information would be interesting. The only relative that has any kind of historically interesting story to them is Frank Phillips and I'm happy with that.

[Old school Dawg]

During the gunfight at Matewan between hired thugs and Sid Hatfield, sheriff of Matewan, the mayor of Matewan was shot and killed.A short time later, Sid Hatfield and the mayor,s wife were found in a motel in Huntington.I dont remember what they were trying to charge Sid Hatefield with but when he produced a marriage certificate the law left him alone.I saw that on PBS on The History Of West Virginia.

[Old school Dawg]

JR ever read the Coalwood book series about the rocketboys from Coalwood a coal mining camp.Homer Hickam was the author and one of the Rocket boys.They all went to Big Creek high school.Homer and his friends won the national title with their rockets in the national science fair.Homer went on to Virginia Tech and a career with Nasa.He has a great website.Homer Hickam!!!They even have a Coalwood festival every year down there.

[Old school Dawg]

Dien Bien Phu was a battle in the 50,s that the Vietnamese really put a whipping on the french.We supported the french.The French were dug in and surrounded by mountains they d thought the vietnamese couldnt get their weapons up onto to.They vietnamese took their big artillery guns apart piece by piece and carried them on their backs sometimes to the tops of these mountains, put them back together and very quickly almost wiped them out until the French surrendered.Khe Sahn "sp" almost became our Dien Bien Phu.Of course after many Americans were killed the Americans drove them back and shortly after bulldozed the camp and moved on.Vietnam war is what I was always the most interested in.My dad used to make me watch the news with him just so I could see how many boys from West Virginia got killed in Vietnam every day.He used this to try to motivate me to keep my grades up so I could go to college instead of war.It made me want to go to Vietnam but I was lucky it ended when I was 13.Over 58,000 young men died in that war.A war where alot of its men were drafted.Could you imagine not wanting to go and winding up like the Charlie daniels songs ,,,,where your senior trip was Saigon?

[Old school Dawg]

58,000 killed in Vietnam is not a big number when comparing it to the Civil War.The Battle of Getttsburg left 51,112,, dead The battle of Chickamauga 34,624 The battle of Chancellorsville 30,099,,,,The battle of Spotsylvania 27,399,,,the battle of Antietam 26,134.I have read in the operating rooms during the civil war doctors would saw off limbs until they couldnt stay awake,,fall asleep for a short time and when they woke continue sawing.We are so lucky here in eastern kentucky.May I say we have been ,,,but who knows what lies in the future.

[VHSL-helper]

Some other famous people from Eastern Kentucky:

Francis Gary Powers - Born in 1929 in Jenkins, KY and raised in Pound, VA. He joined the Air Force in 1950 and was apparently "recruited" by the CIA to join the new U-2 Program. While flying a Top Secret U-2 mission over Russian soil, he was shot down on May 1, 1960 - causing the famous U-2 Crisis of 1960. He died in LA in a tragic TV helicopter crash while working for KNBC on August 1, 1977. He is bureid in Arlington National Cemetery!!!.

Raised in Pound, but didn't graduate there.
He lettered in football playing for Grundy (I used to work with the son of his coach).

And, in the movie, he's played by Middlesboro native Lee Majors.

[VHSL-helper]

The wife and I have been thinking about heading up to the breaks sometime soon. Can somebody give me a mapquest or directions to the marker.

Take 460/23 past Pikeville about 5 miles. 460/80 turns off at the new Food City.
Go about 10-15 minutes and swerve right at the traffic island. Go about 4 miles to "downtown" EC. Rt. 80 will make a 90 degree left turn just up from the RR tressell.

Stay on 80 about another 5 minutes. The road gets narrow & curvy. You'll pass a wide spot on the right with a road that goes down to the river (called the Ratliff Hole). The marker will be about 1/4 mile on up on the right.