Mighty Small

This past Thanksgiving my youngest asked if I could drive her around Winchester and show her some of the places that I have been writing about in this blog. She wanted to see the land around 4 Mile Creek and where our Jones family had first come into Clark County (Winchester) some 193 years ago. Well of course I said no, just kidding, and we started our drive, just the two of us. Coming down Boonesborough Avenue where the welcome to Winchester sign had been [see post titled "One of 8,000]was our starting point. We came to the junction of Boone and Main and the Catholic Church still stood proudly. Granny Ewen's house stood just past the Catholic school to the south where I first saw the picture of great-granddad Ewen. [see post "50 Years of Genealogy']

We turned north onto Main Street, passing the church district where several still remained. Hickman Street School was no longer, as well as the Presbyterian church that stood by the alley just up from our church on Main Street. Our little Main Street Church of Christ was now owned by the Baptist. What a hoot, as they say in Alabama.

The Court House still stood with its four sided clock telling the time to all who cared to look. [see post "Ringing the Bell"] The steps to the east did not seem so high as I remembered.

We turned east onto Broadway and toward Vine Street. [see "part of my imagination"] Many of the buildings had changed, but the liquor stores still seem to be pretty much the same. The house where dad grew up, the Winchester Stock Yards, and several other landmarks were gone. How sterile I thought.

Turing onto Vine Street we past at least five new houses that had been built on Old Man Elkin's land. All faced Vine Street and made the yards look very, very small. All the fences were gone. [see the post titled "Fences"] We almost past 25 Vine Street before I recognized it. The shaped was the same, but there was a wooden front porch with wooden stairs that just didn't look right. All the shades were pulled and the house seemed sad and lonely. [see post "25 Vine Street", "Welcome to the Neighborhood", and "Our House in the Middle of the Street"] I wondered if the door markings where my brother and I measured our height every now and then still stood...four foot to five foot ten for me!

We then followed my bicycle riding path which Lenny (my best childhood friend) and I frequently navigated. Leaving Washington Street out Irvine Road we flew down the longest hill to what became the headwaters of 4 Mile Creek. Not much to look at today. My daughter commented "mighty small". I had to explain this was just the beginning and as we pressed on the creek grew until we crossed it on Logan Lick Road. Here we climbed to a ridge that divided the two northern most branches of 4 Mile. It was between these two branches that our Jones family first farmed and raised their children. You could not really see for all the brush and trees had grown. Coming down on the other side of the ridge, we followed the Muddy Creek Road branch that brought us back into Winchester. We totaled some 14 miles. Our Jones family travel these miles for some 193 years. I woundered what Nicholas would have thought. [see post titled "4 Mile Creek"]