Town Mountain: Pioneer Families

Town Mountain: Pioneer Families Emily J. Hudson The name implies a town atop a mountain . However, Town Mountain is a small rural community sprawled on the top of Brown's Fork Mountain just beyond the Hazard, Kentucky, city line. Most of the people who live here are related in some way or another. Town Mountain holds many pleasant childhood memories for me. We made many expeditions there on Sundays to visit my grandpa, who had a garden, and a big house surrounded by apple trees, and hogs and an old mule. It was a paradise for kids looking for adventure, a treasure house of lore and history for the writer in search of the past. When I think of Grandpa now, I feel his strength, determination , and independence—the characteristics that drive most of the inhabitants on Town Mountain. Their roots are entwined deep in a rich history of Town Mountain that stretches back for at least 125 years. The settling of Town Mountain is not recorded in history books. But if you were able to thumb through the pages of black history, two family names would continually surface—Olinger and Combs. As one story goes, brothers Jack and Bill Combs first settled the mountain shortly after the Civil War. Jack Combs was twenty years old when the war began and was a slave belonging to a Nicholas Combs in Virginia. Jack and Bill, the story continues, were awarded a piece of land on what is called Town Mountain today. This land was on a section called Lick Branch. Another account places Jack and Bill Combs as slaves on Lotts Creek when Jack was twenty-one years old. They were given a piece of land when they won their freedom. Regardless of which story is correct, Jack and Bill Combs were enterprising individuals and soon had saved enough money to purchase more land that was rich in coal and timber . The second pioneer who ventured on to Town Mountain was Daniel Boone Olinger, a teacher from Virginia, who was coaxed into leaving his home to settle on the mountain in Eastern Kentucky . He purchased land and soon brought his entire family to live on the mountain, which was already occupied by the Combs clan. Thus began the growth of a mountain community built with the spirit of independence, determination , and hard work. Making a living in the early 1900s was not easy. Opportunities did not abound and people did what they could to survive . Sadie Walker describes what the early years were like. "My mother washed and cleaned five and six days a week (for other people) from morning to night almost. My daddy hauled coal in a sled with a little mule in the wintertime and in the summertime he plowed the fields for a dollar a day for him and a dollar a day for the mule. The mine—it was the Olinger mine. It was rough. Hard to make a living." Bertus Combs was the grandson of Jack Combs. He once reminisced about what it was like for his family to make a living on Town Mountain. I was born June 16, 1922. My parents were John S. and Dalie Combs. We were raised on 25 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...