Anderson Woodall's Memories

The following article was first published in the Princeton, Kentucky Leader and reprinted in the Crittenden Record-Press, Marion, Kentucky, on Thursday, 28 August 1913, p. 7.

"Mr. Anderson Woodall, of Crittenden county, near Crayneville, who has been here on a visit to his daughter, Mrs. E.N. Crayne, the past several days, paid this office a pleasant and interesting visit yesterday morning.

Mr. Woodall is in  his 87th year, and during his talk with us stated that he walked to Princeton with a younger brother 82 years ago from Pennsylvania county,[1] about 8 [sic] miles from Richmond. Mr. Woodall said the use of an old four-horse Virginia wagon by his parents in moving to Kentucky necessitated he and his little brother walking all the way here except when they came to creeks they could not wade, and it took them seven weeks to make the trip.

Mr. Woodall stated that he had just come in from a drive over Princeton with Mr. J.A. Stegar and that he found a vast difference in the Princeton of now and the Princeton of long ago, that is 82 years ago, which he says was then a mere place in the road, or the size of Crider, perhaps a little larger.

His father was James Woodall and his mother was, before her marriage, Miss Ellen Deboe. His father died shortly after coming to Kentucky in what is now Crittenden county and his mother lived to be 90 and a half years old. He was the oldest of several children, all of whom save one brother, John Woodall, who now resides in Seattle, Wash., as does also several children, of our subject, Anderson Woodall, who was the mainstay of his widowed mother up to her death.

Mr. Woodall was reared a Democrat, but has been a Republican since the Civil war. His youngest brother died during the Civil war at Russellville as a Union soldier from an attack of measles. He stated that a very strange coincidence occurred in which his mother told her brother, a preacher, that her son was dead, and upon being told that she must be mistaken, she said, "no, he's dead. I've seen him." Some days afterward she received the report of his death.

Mr. Woodall is a clever and interesting old gentleman, and while he has been a little inactive since an attack of typhoid fever two years ago, followed by complications, he is still quite skittish. He has over 100 grand and great-grandchildren. [From the Princeton Leader]"

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[1] He was likely referring to Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

Published 11 Apr 2019, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/