Wisdom

what they call Lick Branch. When we were kids, my daddy was a schoolteacher . He taught at Browns Fork, Breedings Creek, in Breathitt County, and at Beattyville. After he stopped teaching school, he worked as a barber. He bartered, mined coal, and farmed until we were grown. But over to Lick Branch, he sold hogs and cattle and rented land to people. Since people by then were getting away from log houses, my grandfather (Jack), Uncle Bob, and Uncle Britt sawed lumber and sold it to people for houses. They owned the sawmill. Uncle Britt was a doctor in Hazard for about 30 or 40 years." Another descendant of Jack Combs, Will Lunce, was born and raised and still lives on Town Mountain. Born in 1907, he shares more insight into the early years atop the mountain. "This hollow when I was little used to be called Curly Fork. Then they named it Browns Fork. The corporation [city line of Hazard] comes up to where the old trestle used to sit. Now I think it's moved up and runs that ridge. The only thing that has been changed is the name from Curly Fork to Browns Fork and now to Town Mountain . "I operated a mine. We sold coal to different families and used it ourselves. Me and Willie Combs run that coal out ourselves. Started out with a wheel barrow . After a year or two, I made a little car. I bought me a set of wheels and made me a car, about half a ton, and run the coal out. I had a farm over in Lick Branch. I had corn, garden vegetables, chickens, hogs, and a big red mule." Will Lunce exemplifies the courage, the strength, and the pioneering spirit of his ancestors. The first settlers on Browns Fork had to be self-sufficient, courageous, and ingenious in order to survive and leave the legacy that today is perched atop the peak known as Town Mountain. Wisdom I used to think that if I kissed a boy real hard I'd get a baby. So, I spent all my time kissing easy. —Willie Hardison Eckles 26 ...