This post is part of a series that I’m writing to explore topics that were covered in Generations: An American Family. Some posts will tie up loose ends like the one I wrote about our connections to Henry and Marcellus Clay and some will take a deeper dive into subjects that only got a superficial treatment in the book.
Any mentions of John, will reference John Egerton, the author of the book. Everyone who remembers being around at the time that the book was being written knows that John became a member of the family and, as such, we always refer to him by his first name.
If you’re wondering why I bother, there are a few reasons. First, I love to solve a good mystery! Second, we have access to online records today that John could have only dreamed about in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. I can access files from my laptop that John could have only seen by visiting a county courthouse. Third, I am constantly fascinated by how often the records that I find serve to reinforce rather than refute the recollections of C.B. and Addie. I often find myself wishing that I could sit with them and show them the proof of the narrative histories that they carried with them. Finally, this is my family and I am passionate about uncovering as many stories as I can about them.
This post turns our attention to Ewell Vanderbilt King, Addie King Ledford’s father. According to Addie:
“Most of my father's people, the Kings and Hensleys, lived in the upper end of Harlan County, across Little Black Mountain on Clover Fork. My father was Ewell Van King-signed his name E.V. King. His name might have been Ewell Vanderbilt-I know there was some people in Harlan County before him who had that name-but but I don't know how they came to have it or whether he was kin to them. My father was born on Britton Creek in 1858. Britton is a branch of Yocum Creek, and Yocum runs into Clover Fork there at Evans. His parents were Alva Byrd King and Rhoda Hensley, and both of their families lived on Britton, farmed there.”
John Egerton. Generations: An American Family (Kindle Locations 496-499). Kindle Edition.
In the 1860, 1870, and 1880 census records, Addie’s father was listed as Ewell. After that, his name always appears in the public record as E.V. King, so that’s what we’re going to call him. Addie described E.V. as educated and well-read and said that he attended a boarding school across the mountain in Rose Hill, Virginia. Once finished, he returned to Harlan and taught school “for a little while.” Addie went on to say that around 1879, E.V. went to Washington state and worked in the lumber industry.
This memory is backed up by two different sources. The February 18, 1881 edition of The Mountain Echo declared that “three men in Harlan county are headed west.” It said that Harvey Bailey, Ewell King, and Thomas Hensley were contemplating “making their homes in the West.” It went on to say that Ewell wanted to go as far as the Washington Territory.
I don’t know what happened to Harvey Bailey and Thomas Hensley, but E.V. next shows up in the 1883 Snohomish, Washington census. He made it! Based on the Snohomish census alone, it seems as though the territory was teeming with immigrants. The birthplaces of its residents truly run the gamut; Dakota, China, Kentucky, England, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Denmark, Chile, Cuba, and Ireland.
I often get sidetracked, stopped in my tracks, and off the rails in my research. There are hundreds of little snippets that catch my attention for one reason or another. Ancestry.com pointed me to E.V. in the 1883 census. Once I saw his name, I then began to search for Bailey and Hensley. While I didn’t find them, I did stumble across this guy.
It broke my heart a little bit to know that this man had crossed an ocean bearing a name given to him by his parents and wound up in Washington Territory labeled as China Joe from China. Wanting to know more about Chinese immigrants at this time led me to read up about Anti-Chinese Violence in Washington. I’m glad that I know more about it now but it was pretty difficult to read especially given the current anti-immigrant rhetoric in our country.
And now back to E.V. Addie said that E.V. returned to Harlan in the winter of 1883 to visit with family because he got homesick. The next public document bearing his name is a marriage certificate. That must have been a mean case of homesickness! E.V. and Polly Skidmore were married on March 2, 1884 at the home of Abraham Skidmore, Polly’s father. E.V.’s brothers William and Garrett served as witnesses. At the time of their wedding, E.V. was 26 and Polly was 18. Addie was born the following January. Her three brothers were born over the next eight years; George Washington (1886), Logan Wood (1891), and Willie (1894).
Addie recalled that her father had been elected sheriff of Harlan County around the time that she was born in 1885. John called E.V.’s record as sheriff “elusive” which always gave me cause for doubt. I recently came upon an article researched by Otto Coldiron where he listed the sheriffs of Harlan County from the first one in 1819 until 1994 using court records. Sure, enough, there was E.V. He was elected to two terms, just like Addie said, in 1885 and 1889.
Once I had confirmation that E.V. actually had served as the Sheriff of Harlan County, I started scouring newspapers from that time to see if he was mentioned. The April 17, 1885 edition of The Mountain Echo mentioned that E.V. had recently “summoned a strong posse" to bring in some men who had likely been involved in a recent murder. My maternal grandfather was a huge fan of westerns and I used to joke that every time I walked into his house, someone on the television was about to round up a posse. It turns out that my great-great grandfather did that very thing!
E.V.'s second term began in 1889 but he didn’t finish it. Addie recalled that, “after he had been sheriff, my father was appointed by President Harrison to be a U.S. marshal and that meant we had to move to Harlan Town…his job was to be the revenue man. He had to go around and get after people for making whiskey, tear up their still. It was dangerous work, but he never got hurt.”
I’ve had many conversations with my immediate family over the years about this claim. Was E.V. really a marshal? Shouldn’t there have been more tangible evidence of this somewhere along the way? My grandmother, Addie’s daughter, has also viewed the story with a touch of skepticism. After lots of research, I can confirm that E.V. was, indeed, a marshal and the story is so big that it needs a post of its own.
Stay tuned.
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