Today I took a good friend, Davis Lee Downs, for a Jeep ride. At 1 PM we left my home and I drove to Beech Creek Rd and down that primitive road, which is the only wagon trail road left in the County in it's original condition, which is rough and rocky. We forded Beech Creek at the bottom of the hill and headed to Mill Rd and then to Little Mount Rd then to Hall Rd. We went down Hall Rd to cross a Creek and then up a hill into a remote farm stead. We drove the Forrest trail to the fence line and then came out again. At the Creek Davis and I shot our pistols a while. He had a M1911 and I had a Ruger P85.
I then drove across Little Mount Rd to Rice lane and then to Little Mount Church Rd. then on Haley Rd. We drove past the ford I will cross to a stone farm home built in the late 1790's. It's built in the Irish stone mason style. I have been there several time and the gate was always locked. This time the gate was open so we drove back to the home which is about a half mile from the road. We took photo's of the outside of the home close up which I have never been able to do. The owner was bush hogging and he came up to the home and we talked. It turned out he was an Army Ranger in Viet Nam and Davis Lee was there at the same time and they discussed their time there. He took us on a tour of the home that he is in the process of restoring it to it's original condition. His family owned it in the distant past. I got some photo's of the inside of the home. The walls are alleged to be 22" thick and it has two fire places, one at each end of the home. It's a two story home with an interesting stairway to the second floor between the two first floor rooms. The upper floor is also two rooms. It used to have slave quarters just outside the home but only the foundation survived.
This turned out to be a great thing because the Spencer County Historical Society, of which my wife is the President, has been trying to get a tour of the home. I asked if we could get a tour and he said he would be pleased to do so and we will get that tour in the spring when the home is in a more finished condition.
When we left there we drove back to the ford at the place where the early settlement of Rivals was. Haley road is on one side of Buck Creek and Normandy Rd on the other. We crossed to Normandy Rd and turned left and a few miles later I turned left at a fork in the road onto Yoder Tipton Rd. When we reached the cross road of John Henry Rd I took a left and went down John Henry Rd. This road was at one time a farm road on John Henry's farm and it leads to the back of his farm. Near the back of his farm is another farm road that goes down to Brashears Creek and fords that Creek. We drove back to a subdivision that is on the back of the farm and then back to the ford.
I think John Henry, an early pioneer settler, at one time owned several thousand acres there and at that time he gave the local settlers permission to drive across his farm and cross Brashears Creek. With the passage of time and continued use the road became what is here called a Public Road giving everyone the right to use it. Lately a person living in Chicago bought a strip of land on the far side of Brashears Creek and has tried to keep people from crossing the creek and driving across their land. Every time they took a trespasser to court the Judge threw it out. Now they have given up blocking the road and serving warrants for trespass. The road is now in fine shape, of course it's still a dirt road, from everyone using it and there is no way it can be legally closed without the Courts permission as long as it is continued to be used.
From there we went back to my home and got there about 4 PM. It was a fine trip on a fine day of about 60+ deg. Davis said he has lived in Spencer County for 67 years, less the time he was in the Military, and while he has traveled much of the County as a youth born here and as a Realtor in the County I took him places he has never been. We crossed four fords which are all I know of that can still be reached by the public legally. The rest are on private land or are no longer able to be crossed due to washouts and land contour changes.
