Wolf Sculps

 WOLF SCULPS 

          In the early days there were bounties paid for killing wolves as the wolf was feared and a dreaded menace to early settlers.  The term “Wolf Sculps” (in my opinion) means wolf scalps. Wolves were such a problem the County Court paid as much as $1.50, or more, per scalp.  The Kentucky General Assembly in 1795 passed an act offering a bounty of three shillings for the head of each wolf under six months old and eight shillings for the head of each wolf over six months old.  The Wolf Bounty Law immediately became very popular and the early settlers devoted much of their time to hunting wolves for the sake of the bounties. On December 21, 1837, an act was passed raising the bounty to six dollars per scalp. An act of March, 1847 lowered the bounty to three dollars per scalp, and placed a bounty of fifty cents per head on wildcats.  By the late 1800s the wolf population has been reduced so much that it was no longer a problem. 

          The following document is found in the library of historical manuscripts at Western Kentucky University. 

I Do hearby Certify that John Fergusson of Ohio County Person appeared Before Me this Six Day of November 1804. and Made Oath that he was Entrusted with Two Certificates the one for John Galloway for two grown wolf Sculps Dated this present Year and Granted by David Glen the Other Certificate for Zachariah Galloway for two grown wolf Sculps Dated 1803 and Granted by David Glen and that as he the Said Fergusson lost the Said Certificate/ on his way to Hartford Given under My hand this Date above. 

Thomas Mosely      

          The following short article discusses this subject regarding Mulenberg County.  “The early pioneer dealt with many wild animals that no longer live in Kentucky. Wolves were animals that were a particular danger to pioneer families. The desire to exterminate wolves resulted in a war on wolves that lasted as long as there were any to be killed. Any one producing the head of a wolf before a justice of the peace, stating under oath when and where he killed the animal, was granted a certificate to that effect. These certificates, upon presentation to the sheriff, were paid for at the rate of two dollar and a half for wolves over six months of age and one dollar for those under that age. [From Otto A Rothert, A History of Muhlenberg County, pp. 115-116, John P. Morton & Company, 1913.] These "wolf sculp" can frequently be found in bundled loose papers in courthouses. This one was reported by Otto Rothert in A History of Muhlenberg County, p. 116.” 

"March 4th, 1800. This day came Jacob Wiley before me, one of the Justices of the Peace of Muhlenberg County and brought a wolfs head, which appears over the age two years and took the oath prescribed by law. Given under my hand.

Isaac Davis" 

Source: Longhunter, Volume 24, Issue 3, Summer 2001 and Issue 1, Winter 2001. A publication of the Southern Kentucky Genealogical Society

 

Navy Fireman 3rd Class Welborn Lee Ashby

 First Ohio County WWII casualty to be reburied Memorial Day

          By Nathan Havenner

          Navy Fireman 3rd Class Welborn Lee Ashby, a casualty of the Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack, will finally be laid to rest among his family in his hometown of Centertown in Ohio County on Memorial Day.

          Ashby was 24 years old and serving aboard the USS West Virginia during the surprise attack. The ship was struck by multiple enemy torpedoes, and 106 crewmen, including Ashby were killed. He was reported to be the first World War II casualty from Ohio County.

          Ashby’s remains were recovered during salvage operations of the ship but were unable to be identified at the time. He was buried as an unknown in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. In 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency exhumed 35 caskets from the cemetery containing the remains of USS West Virginia casualties. DNA samples provided by his family led to Ashby’s identification in 2019.

          Ashby’s niece, Paula Kern of Tennessee, said that while the family members that knew her uncle, his parents and siblings, are all deceased, it is still nice to be able to bring him home.

          “For us it is closure because it is closure for our parents,” Kern said. “It is unfortunate that they aren’t here to experience it. It is kind of a bittersweet closure.”

          Centertown Mayor Terry Kessinger said Ashby has remained on the minds of community members through the many years.

          “It means a lot to us,” Kessinger said Friday. “Our American Legion post was named in his honor and we had a horse show called the ‘Welborn Lee Ashby Horse Show. We’ve had it for 50 years.

          “He was always in everybody’s thoughts,” he said.

          Born Oct. 19, 1917, Ashby was one of six children born to Otis and Inez Ashby. He was a 1936 graduate of Centertown High School and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in September 1940.

          “His nickname was Tiddly,” Kessinger said. “They nicknamed him Tiddly because he liked playing Tiddlywinks with his friends as a boy.”

          It was through DNA provided by Ashby’s sister, Martha Ashby Christian, who died in 2017, and her son Mark Christian, that allowed the DPAA to positively identify Ashby’s remains in October 2019.

          Kern said it is nice to see how the Centertown community has kept the memory of Ashby alive in the decades since World War II was brought to a close in 1945.

          “It is nice that people are keeping up his memory and they named the American Legion after him and part of the highway,” she said. “We are kind of blown away by all that.”

          Services for Ashby will include a visitation at 10 a.m. and funeral service beginning at 1 p.m. at Bevil Brothers Funeral Home, 226 Louisville Road, Beaver Dam, on Memorial Day. Members of the public are invited to line the route from the funeral home to Centertown Cemetery.

          Full military honors will be provided by the U.S. Navy and Smoke On Aviation of Louisville will honor Ashby with a Missing Man fly-over at the conclusion of the sounding of Taps.

Source:  Messenger-Inquirer, May 23, 2021

Rebecca Frances Casebier

 There is some conflicting information about this lady but here is my best guess.  Rebecca Frances Casebier was born May 5, 1873 in Muhlenberg County.  She first married Raney Broffett Kimmel in 1884 and they had nine children: Bula, Mattie, twins Wood & Willie, Olive, Blanche, Daniel Boone, Claude James, and Burman Hayden.  Raney died in 1937 and she next married William L. Rowe.

Soundex explained

 

Source:  The Longhunter, Volume XXVII, Issue 1, Winter 2004, Page 5.  A publication of the Southern Kentucky Genealogical Society. 

For those of you that have access to Ancestry.com here are instructions for using Soundex:

1907 Map of North West Ohio County

 1907 Map of North West Ohio County 

          In 1907 Teddy Roosevelt was President. Music was broadcast over the radio for the first time.  The 33^rd Kentucky Derby was won by Pink Star. Finland, Norway and Sweden first allowed women to vote. The French invade Morocco. The Plaza Hotel in NY opens. Banking crisis in New York.  First helicopter flies.  Oklahoma becomes the 46^th state. A coal mine explosion in West Virginia kills 361 miners; 13 days later a coal mine explosion in Pennsylvania kills 239 miners. 

          This following map was surveyed in 1907 and it shows part of the border between Ohio County and Daviess County to the West and Hancock County to the North.  It also shows the Rough River, Barnett Creek and Panther Creek. The following communities of Adaburg, Aetnaville, Beda, Buford, Deanefield, Dundee, Haynesville, Magan, Reynolds, Sulphur Springs, Sunnydale, Taffy, and Westerfield are located on this map, plus a few others.  The small dots are the location of homes. 

          First is the complete map from 1907.  The second and third images are expanded sections of the map.

Thomas E. Webb

 

Sebastian F. Kissinger

        Sebastian F. Kissinger was born in 1837 in Germany and died 20 Sep 1931, Fordsville, Ohio County.  As a young man he served with the 17^th Regt, Ky Inf. during the Civil War. 

       Sebastian was married to Roseannah (Rosa Ann) Slaughter (1845-1931).  Their marriage was in Indiana in 1859 and they lived in Evansville before moving to Fordsville. They had eight (or perhaps nine) children: James Henry; William Benjamin; Rosa Belle (Campbell); John A.; Andrew M.; Charles Payton; Frances (Shaw); Eliza M. (Gutherie); and Ida (Kevane).

       Roseannah’s obituary appeared in the Owensboro Messenger 1 Feb 1931:

       Note that Charles Payton Kissinger, son of Sebastian F. Kissinger, was the administrator of the estate of Hattie B. Kissinger, who was killed in an automobile accident in 1936.  See my post about Hattie B. Kissinger dated 22 Nov 2017.

Clear Run Store in 1907 (owned by Stewart Family)

 

Source:  Regional Family Research Center, Kentucky Family Records, Volume 38, No. 4, Winter 2014, page 120.  The community of Clear Run is North of Hartford near the Rough River.  There is a Clear Run Church on State Route 1414.