PRICY SCOTT
Yahoo News had a recent article about the death of the last living person who was born in the 19th century. That makes me feel really OLD!
I grew up on Blackberry Creek among dozens of people who were born in the 19th century A few were born before 1870.
Pricy Farley Scott was born in 1869. she lived until 1965. Her father, Aly Farley, was born in 1843. Two of Aly Farley’s children, Pricy and R.T. lived until I was a grown man. The Farleys lived three farms above Ran’l McCoy on Blackberry Fork.
This is the home of Roland T. Farley, which sat at the foot of Blackberry Mountain on the Pond Creek side. I had several Sunday dinners here back in the 1950’s. R.T. Farley was on the Pike County Board of Education when I attended Belfry High back in the 1950’s.
RT loved to sing, and he especially liked to lead groups in singing. His favorite, which I heard him lead dozens of times was “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder, I’ll Be There.”
When I was growing up in the 1940’s and ’50’s, Blackberry Mountain was called “Aly Mountain,” in honor of RT and Pricy’s father, Aly Farley.
This is the home of Aly Farley, shortly after the turn of the century. It sat just down the creek from the house seen above. Aly Farley, born in 1843, is seen leaning against a porch post. Aly was one of the witnesses against Johnse Hatfield in his 1899 trial for the murder of Alifair McCoy.
A few months after the home of her neighbors, the Ran’l McCoy family, was burned in January, 1888, Pricy Farley married Crittenden (Crit) Scott from Johns Creek. In 1902, they bought the old McCoy homeplace and lived there all their lives. Crit died about 1932, and Pricy about 1965.
Pricy was a young teen, selling baked goods at the 1882 election, when Ellison Hatfield was killed. Her best friends were the daughters of Ran’l McCoy.
Pricy saw her friend, Alifair McCoy, and her brother, Calvin, prepared for burial on the morning of January 2, 1888. Pricy’s father, Aly, and her brother, John B. were the first to go to the scene of the tragedy on January 2, 1888. The feud books say that the McCoys spent remainder of the fateful night outdoors in the cold. Of course anyone who knows anything about those people knows that the neighbors would never have allowed that. Ran’l McCoy swore in Johnse Hatfield’s 1899 trial that they spent the night in the home of the next door neighbor, John Scott.
in the 1950’s, my sister, Wanda, and her husband, Frank Hatfield, rented a small home from Pricy, which sat about a hundred yards behind Pricy’s house. My sisters place was about 15 feet from the McCoy well. There was some of the rotting wooden well superstructure still there in 1955, as well as remnants of both chimneys. The stone that sits atop the well now was added since then.
Pricy was still sharp as tack in her 80’s. After I read my first “Feud book,” in 1952, I had many talks with her about the 1880’s.
Pricy said that Alifair was shot just under the left breast, and the bullet exited at the point of her shoulder blade. She said Calvin was shot behind the left ear, with the bullet exiting at the right temple. She described both exit wounds as “Big as an orange.”
Pricy and Crit were living on Joe’s Creek branch of Johns Creek in 1890, when Ellison Mounts was hanged. They were actually in Pikeville on that day. Pricy said she had no desire to see a man hanged, but that Crit wanted to see it. She said that he was not allowed to, because it was restricted to a small crowd, chosen by the Sheriff. This grainy photo shows the Crit Scott home on Joe’s Creek.
The feud books say that 5,000 people attended that hanging, but that is a patent lie. Public hangings were outlawed in 1880, and the maximum number of witnesses was set—BY LAW—at fifty.
Here is a copy of the Governor’s order to the Pike Sheriff, wherein he specifically ORDERS the sheriff to comply with that law. The order says “In the presence of not exceeding fifty persons.” Anyone who has studied Kentucky history knows that no county sheriff would contermand and order from “The Old Warhorse,” General/Governor Simon Bolivar Buckner.
The feud industry has a marker at the University of Pikeville, saying that Mounts was hanged there, before a vast throng of thousands. A person who was in town that day told me that Mounts was hanged in Powderhouse Hollow, before a small gathering of less than fifty people. Here is Powderhouse Hollow, about a mile northeast of Pikeville.
The feud books also say that Mounts was the last man hanged in Pike County, but that, too, is a lie. Henry Hall was hanged by that same sheriff in 1892. I talked to Hall’s granddaughter, who also told me that the hanging took place in Powderhouse Hollow.
Henry Hall was hanged for killing his own brother in an argument over a card game. That seems like voluntary manslaughter at worst, but Henry was obviously out of favor with the folks in charge at the time, paying the ultimate price for a drunken fight over cards. Here’s Handsome Henry Hall.
Crit Scott bought a new Buick Roadster convertible in 1928. He died a few years later, and the old Buick sat in a shed near the creek on the upper end of the property until 1950, when my brother, Walker, bought it for $40. He had it towed across the mountain to our place on Blackberry, and, in about a month, had it running fine. A dozen of more of us boys from Columbia Bottom would tool up and down Blackberry in that old Buick, with the top down.
Here is Pricy’s daughter, Alice, with that wonderful 1928 Buick.
How old am I? Well, Aly Farley was born in 1843, and I was 25 years old when his daughter died. Whewwwww!!!