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Descendants of Raleigh Lee Brewer




Generation No. 1


1. RALEIGH LEE5 BREWER (LEEBURN HERBERT WHITEHORSE4, LEWIS3, ISOM2, WILLIS B.1) was born February 03, 1934 in Malaga, Wolfe, Kentucky, USA. He married DORIS JEAN MACABE January 12, 1957 in LAWRENCEBURG, INDIANA, USA.

Notes for RALEIGH LEE BREWER:
I remember as a young child at Malaga, Kentucky, with my Dad and Mom; Dad holding me in his arms and pointing to a MAD DOG (Rabies); we were watching from inside our fence in the yard. I have a picture of Bobby, Jimmy, our dog Trixie in a little red wagon and me. I estimate the year around 1936-37. My next recollection as a young child was at a different house, this house was near the Campground (I'll have more to say about the Campground later) At Swifts Creek, near Campton, Ky., I awoke one morning and our shoes were floating around like little Battleships. I estimate the water was about a foot deep in our house. This was a large two story and I believe it had green shutters, at the time I was about five years old. I remember a little Blue Tricycle for my Birthday and was riding it in the living room when Denzel, who was younger, came down the stairway and claimed it for his own. I can still picture him in my mind carefully coming down those long steps. Another memory of that house is Daddy coming home late, been drinking and him and Mom getting into an argument, Dad picking up one of our Cane bottom chairs and tossing it through the window. The chair just hung there midway through the window, a piece of glass flying through the air, striking me in the forehead and sticking into my head. I remember Mom pulling the little sliver of glass out of my skin.
The next memories of that era was Mom and Dad calling us to the kitchen door to see the deep snow that fallen through the night (my first recollection of snow). It was up to the kitchen door, about three feet deep. This house was a newer one Dad tore down the two stories and moved us higher on the hill to get away from the flooding low land; this could have been around 1939. Dad took the lumber from the two-story house and built one for Dewitt Taylor, who lived near us almost as long as I could remember, He was a School Teacher that taught in the backcountry of Kentucky; a place called "The Calaboose". I remember him taking Bobby, Me and Denzel on horseback ever so often for a day at his School. The School was one large room, rectangular in shape, with a huge heating stove in the forward part of the room, a large Blackboard running the entire width of the front part of the Schoolroom. The Elementary part of the School was in the front with second, third and etc., going to the back of the room. It seems as everyone was talking at the same time, I later looked up information about the early Schools and found these were called "Blab Schools". I remember another flood in the newer house, when we had to leave and go to higher ground. We had to take shelter in the Chicken house, because the rain hardly ceased for days and the water was entering the kitchen door. Mom gathered us kids together and took us to the house further up the hill. After this flood Dad sold the house and we moved to an area on Hiram's Branch, which was a single story house with a front porch with a tin roof. I remember it well because when it rained you could hear the raindrops very loud and we would all play on the porch during wet weather, Our yard didn't have any grass because we played there all the time and kept it wore down to the earth. Behind the house was a Smoke House with a cellar and it was very cold with a small stream of water flowing through the middle, so that kept everything cool. Mom usually kept around 1000 mason jars of vegetables canned from last summer's harvest of the garden. She also kept precious cow's milk, from our wonderful Holstein that we called "Old Hart", and the clinking of her cowbell always made us feel so secure because all of us loved her milk. Most of the time she would come home at milking time unless she found something new and great to eat and her cowbell made it easier for us to locate.
Our neighbor's on Hiram's Branch toward town was Millard Pelfrey and his wife Maude. They had a son named Raymond and a daughter Roseline. Raymond was later shot and killed by his Dad about 1948 or 49 while we lived at the W.V. Saunders place on Richmond road. Ours was the next family and before our house was a little barn that had an upstairs where we kept hay and fodder for Old Hart and sometimes we had an old plug mule or horse. Between our house and the barn was our garden spot and I grew to hate that spot because we had to dig a ditch all across the back because the land was low and water stood in puddles after each rain. Dad worked away in Michigan and left orders for what our duties were in our free time after School each day which we obeyed to the letter because he was a very strict Father and expected the best out of us; and we always gave our best. Each day after School we promptly changed clothes and gathered and cut wood used for cooking and heating along with carrying water from the spring for Mom's washing, drinking and cooking. The little frame house had a living room, one bedroom where us boys shared two double beds. There was a kitchen with a long dinner table with two long benches on each side; Dad and Mom sat at each end, altogether we were eight. During summer months I remember Mom and Dad taking a white sheet and stretching it out, walking through the house to drive out the flies. The walls were papered in Newspaper. Left of the dining room was the kitchen with a huge iron cook stove. Across from our house lived Nannie Taylor and her family, which you accessed using a foot log from one bank of the creek to the other. Our sister Betty said she was setting on the foot log one day and the Taylor girls shoved her into the water, she thinks because of the new coat she was wearing and that they were jealous. We carried all of our water from Taylor's spring and sometimes kept our milk cool by lowering it in a special leak proof can into the cool water, we had no refrigerator and besides this was common practice in those days. Up from the Taylor home was the Lizzie Drake place, a widow woman who lived in a pretty white house. She had a couple of sons who were into Ham Radios and I used the parts they threw away for my little projects. Farther up the road was a large water falls where we would swim when our cousin Jackie come for a visit; we had many great times back in those days. Old route 15 was farther on which today is called "The Mountain Parkway". I remember going to School at Campton and believe I was in the third or fourth grade when Dad decided to move to the Bluegrass area of Kentucky because he couldn't make a living for us on our hillside farm. We grew corn high on the mountain and had a large garden that we would work on during summer months. Brother Bob and I would man the crosscut saw and kept our home in plenty of wood for heating and cooking and my brothers Denzel and Jimmy would carry it into the house. I remember a large black kettle in our chip yard that was used for heating water for boiling our clothes on washday, which my mother used winter and summer. This same kettle was used for many other purposes; such as rendering lard on Hog killing time, then Mom would make Lye soap after everything else was harvested from the hog, nothing was wasted. Mom would hire an old lady named "Martha Spencer" to help her with the washing and pay her two dollars a day. There was another lady called "Lying Martha Spencer" who went around town gossiping and telling lies on lots of folks, to get attention I suppose. She was the mother of Renee Spencer, who was the girlfriend of Dale Campbell, walked and acted like a man and wore men's clothing which we all thought was strange back in those days but probably would be acceptable in today's society. At this time Dad made two dollars a day working at the sawmill. He was a block setter, which meant he set all the sizes for the cuts. It was a dangerous job because you had to ride the platform which the log traveled and the saw blade was about six feet tall; some of the tree trunks were four or five feet thick. The saw was powered by an old steam boiler as used on trains in earlier times, which had one of the original whistles. Mom would send me to take Dads lunch sometimes and once I got lost and didn't get there at lunch time so was chewed out greatly by my Dad, this job like the rest played out and he had to hunt work someplace else. Back in the late 1930's they built a huge School at Campton out of sandstone rock, and the quarry was about a quarter of a mile from our house. Dad got a job there as timekeeper and blaster; he would yell "Fire in the Hole", then we would hear a loud boom, then he would yell "All Clear", that was his job. The drill marks are still visible to this day. This School was called "Wolfe County High" and it consolidated all Wolfe County schools from all over the county. Wolfe County had to buy buses for the first time but we never got to ride them because of our proximity to the School. I remember walking to School, from our house on a dirt road through the Campground, to Cecil Miller's place, a gravel road then farther up it was blacktop on to town, through town and finally up many steps made of slate to School. After the rock quarry job played out, Dad couldn't find work so he sold the farm house and property, moved us to Lexington, Kentucky to the W.T. Congelton farm, about ten miles from town on the Russell Cave pike. This must have been around 1944-45 and I would have been nine years old. We attended Russell Cave School but it was not near as nice or big as the one we left behind. Our principal, "Mrs. Wilson", took a liking to us because all had good manners and she said we were at least two years ahead of anyone in the same grade as far as learning goes. We lived there for about a year or so, I remember Mom coming out in the yard one day crying, called us all together saying, children our President is dead, "President Roosevelt", had died before the end of World War Two, this had to be in 1945. Dad fell out with the owner's Son over something, I think our dog had gotten into the corncrib chasing rats and tore open some sacks of corn. Dad got fired and we moved, I don't know how many times we had to move after that but it was plenty. One place we lived three days and had to move because Dad got on a bender; sent Jim and I to work in the Tomato patch to fill the baskets for market. The owner came by and asked, "Where is your Dad"? And we answered, "He is home sick in bed", the owner went to our house and fired him and we were on the road again. Once we lived in a small Motel Cabin, us kids in a couple of the Cabins and Mom and Dad in another. Once Dad brought a few men from Campton and had mom cook for them and charged each one two dollars a day for the food. They worked in Tobacco on the "Coldstream Farm"; at that time America had Prisoner's of War working on the farms in the US, until the war was over. The Prisoners wore shirts with large print saying "PW" on their uniforms. I remember Dad telling Jim and I go get a job and don't come back until you are gainfully employed. We asked around until this man let us clean out his chicken house at thirty-five cents an hour; that was a bummer. We later got a job pulling suckers from tobacco, but being little we weren't very careful and did some damage to the product and got in some trouble because of the broken Tobacco leaves, was told that he didn't need our services any more. We attended Lin Lee School but don't remember very much about this particular School except it was close to the "Rock Crusher", on Georgetown pike and Hillmeyers nursery. Next we moved to the "Faraway Farms", home of the great racehorse "Man'O'War" and believe this was on the Lemons Mill Pike. Again we attended the "Russell Cave School"; and again Dad couldn't hold his liquor; one night when he was on Night Watchman and fell asleep, the owners found and fired him on the spot, so again as before we were on the road. This time I believe we move back to Campton, Kentucky where we started. Dad couldn't find work so again back to the "Bluegrass" country we traveled to W.V. Saunders Dairy farms, situated between Richmond Road and Athens Road. Bob went to Bryan Station School while the rest of us attended Athens School, and after School Bob would help Dad in the Dairy. Dad had to milk the cows with an electric milker, run the milk through a cream separator, bottle the milk and cream, and Stanley the truck driver and my brother Jim would deliver the milk into Lexington, Kentucky to each customer. I don't remember doing any farm type work while we lived there. This was about 1949 somewhere around the time I described earlier about "Raymond Bush" being killed by his own Father. About that time Uncle Dewitt Taylor who used to come visit us often, died and was buried in "The Taylor Cemetery", at Malaga, Kentucky. Uncle Dewitt always helped us in hard times with money when Dad didn't send any home from his jobs in Michigan, he died in Grandpa Manning's house after dinner one day, just went in to take a nap and quietly passed away in his sleep. Next I remember we moved to the country near Georgetown, Kentucky, just before Bob left home. The house was a shack, had no front door, and Dad hung a quilt up the first night in place of a door. A woodshed blocked the back door and you must turn sideways to enter or leave, naturally when it leaked in the rain. We attended "Great Crossing School", and I was in the fifth grade, so I was about eleven years old, must have been around 1946. I don't remember the reason we next moved but suspect it was because Mom didn't like the rundown place, and was the only time I had ever seen her cry; must have been mighty disgusted with the place. I heard her once say "I'll never get to see my people again as long as we live in this place", but we made it through somehow. After that we move to the "Sharkey Farm" in Jessamine County about seven or eight miles from Lexington, Kentucky, on Harrodsburg pike, our house was on Keene Road parallel to Harrodsburg. We were doing fine there, had a farm to tend on the halves, Bob had gone into the Air Force, February 1950 and Jim, I and Dad did the farming. School started and after two weeks, Dad kept me out of School, He said I didn't need anymore School, needed me for the farm, so I didn't go back at this time of my life. Then he started drinking and beating up on Mom, one time I intervened and he and I got into a scuffle (which I am sorry for to this day), but couldn't let him hurt Mom. After the scuffle he told me to leave and said he hoped to never lay his eyes on me again. Mom was crying when I left but I told her not to worry because I would go to my Grandpa Manning's house for a while; before I forget, Bob came in once on Furlough to visit and brought his girlfriend from Lexington for a visit about the same time or a little before Dad and me had trouble. At Campton, Herbert Profitt was staying the summer with Grandpa & betty, so I had a good time for a couple of weeks, then mom and Dad came to take me back home and he promised to help me get an old car, a 1935 Dodge, that ran pretty good. Jim already claimed the 1936 Plymouth Coupe; he was the only one with permission to drive the Coupe. I remember the headlights were so dim that you had to shine a flashlight to see if they were on. It was left behind when we moved to Campton; I sold it to Mr. Holland who worked for Riley Harris's garage in Campton, Kentucky. After returning to Lexington received our share of the Years crops, ($1,000.00), thousand dollars and the Sharkey lady who was mad at Dad paid him with one big bill because she knew he couldn't find anyplace close by that could change a thousand dollar bill. We were moving back to Campton again, so we hired Dale Campbell and his girlfriend Renee to haul us back, but Dad got drunk and started waving the that big bill around over the blazing fireplace, so Dale and me tackled him and took the big bill away. Dale put the money in his billfold until we could get to a bank but while loading up it started snowing and got so bad we couldn't get the truck to move, had to unload the mattresses and blankets and stay the in the empty house for a couple of days until the roads were open. This was the big snow of 1950-51 when so many people froze to death in their stranded cars. The snow was so deep you could walk over a car and not realize it was there. Finally we got started and I rode with Jim, Denzel, Mom and Dad in the 1936 Plymouth, Dad got higher than a kite on the way back to Campton. Before I forget, while in the empty house we had to cut up most of the doors and anything else that would burn to keep from freezing to death, the Sharkey's who owned the house and lived close by didn't want to sell us any Coal, so Dad told them that if they didn't he would take it anyway, so they sold us a couple buckets. I remember in the 1940's as a young child going to the Pump station which was run by "Hugh Mullins", had children that we used to play with, their names were, Lorene, Gene, Jeanette and Rex. We would play with them lots of days during the summer months, and a little piece from their house was a swinging bridge we crossed to our swimming hole called the "King Hole". This is where my Sister Betty almost drowned; we saw her going under for the third time and grabbed her just in time, the swimming hole had a drop off and she waded out to far and went under. That scared us so bad that we never took her with us to the King's Hole ever again. After moving back to Campton, Grandpa manning got me a job at "Steve Rose's" store, delivering groceries, fertilizer, feed and etc., which took me all over the county and I liked the job very much. Denzel was working at "Junior Allen's" Pool hall after school at that time, I worked until I got drafted in the U.S. Army, and so I left for basic training in summer of 1953. I took my training at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, near Evansville, Indiana, at that time it was home to the "101st Airborne Division", Inactive Paratrooper School at this time. We had infantry training, and while in training the Korean war ended, so we were shipped to various Camps and Forts, me landing at Fort Knox, Kentucky, close to home, but I wanted to go Overseas. I volunteered and in March 1954 went on a ten-day delay in route and then on to Europe, my station was "Heidelberg, Germany". I love it there with all its beautiful Castles, fantastic bridges and medieval towns. I traveled a lot seeing the Country, also going to Norway, Sweden, France, Belgium and many, many more places I can hardly remember at this time. Once I was on maneuvers in France, near Metz, and was driving a Jeep on the way to a Village bakery for some bread and came upon a lot of Servicemen in the Signal Corps laying cable. I thought one of the men looked familiar and sure enough I stopped the Jeep and there stood Herbert Whisman, from Campton, Kentucky, when I left he was working in the Bus Station. I thought that was lucky to run into someone from Campton, way over there in France. In basic training the weather was very hot that summer, temperatures bordered around one hundred degrees every day, so it was hard on them city boys, they fell out on those long hikes and had to be carted back to camp. After the way my brothers and I had been raised in the hills and cliffs, basic training was a piece of cake; I used to laugh at them city boys. On my way overseas after my ten days delay-in-route on board a large troop Ship called 'The Private Buckner", took eleven days to cross. I was put on guard all the way over, on four hours and off four, was also in charge of the mess, would be surprised at the people that tried to seal food at night. There were a large number of Air Force men aboard, but they didn't get any details, just us grunts got all the work. After serving twenty-seven months and eleven days, headed home on the "General William O. Darby" Ship. I was a first three grader (SSGT), so I was in charge of something, so the Army was sending home a whole bunch of Section Eights (Misfits), and who do you think got to be in charge of them, Yes me, had to post guards at every exit twenty fours hours around the clock. We had to guard them to and from mess and talk about a mess this was a large one. While in Germany my primary mission was Supply Sgt., but once a week "VIP" from America would come over and we would Stand Parade for them, we really put on a big show. Also under "NATO" the Russians would cause us to go on Alert about twice a month, usually by bringing up a Tank battalion within eyesight acting like they were coming across into US controlled territory. We were always on Alert with our 7th Army Supreme Headquarters in Paris, Second in Command USARER, Headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany. This is where I put in my tour, which took place from March 1954 until May 1956, and then I rotated back to the States, landing at Fort Dix, New Jersey. After being discharged, walked out the gate, bought me some civvies, boarded a plane and flew to Lexington, Kentucky, riding the Greyhound home. At this time Mom lived over from the Jail at Campton, next to marsh Campbell's house. I bought me a new Chevrolet and stayed there about two weeks, decided to go to Michigan and look for a job. Dad said he wanted to come along, so we left out on Monday morning, when we got to Ohio, Dad wanted to stop in Middletown and see relatives. We stopped and while there he got drunk and sick, decided he wanted to go back home so I bought him a ticket and put him on the Bus, meanwhile the people we were staying with suggested I look for work here, so I filled out an application at several places, one in particular, 'The Barkelew Electric Company", needed someone in supply, so they looked at my application and was hired. I stayed there twelve years and three months, after six months there had been dating a girl named Doris Mockabee; liked each other a lot and was married in January 1957. In September 1958 our Son Michael was born, then on November 1959 our daughter Kimberly was born, and on December 31st, 1964 Keith our last child was born. In 1960, we lived outside the city limits of Middletown, Ohio, sort of in the country in a rented house, only had two bedrooms, and our family was getting larger, so we bought a small three bedroom house in Franklin, Ohio about eight miles to the north. Franklin is a small River town on the old Erie Canal that we studied in High school Geography. It is mostly a paper mill town and they manufacture all kinds of boxes, Christmas paper, Dixie cups, materials for fast food Restaurants, Roofing Shingles and etc. At one time in the 1930's there was a Radio factory here, Franklin was the first city in the United States to have Water reclaiming or recycling plant, a model for other cities. Jim Mears, our mayor was called to Washington, D.C. by president William Jefferson Clinton, to demonstrate the new system, so the idea could be adopted by other cities. When I settled here in 1960, the population was about ten thousand, now it had doubled, I would like to move to another county and get away from all this rushing around. Nearby we have Wright Patterson Air Force base, also near by is Dayton South Airport, home of the "Wright B" model flyer that flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, by Wilber and Orville Wright. To the west we have Aeronica, in Middletown, where they manufacture Airplanes until 1950. During the cold war, Areonica made honeycomb for wings on B-52 Bombers. To the north a few miles is a small Airport, where in 1920's and 30's the double wing Bi-planes were manufactured. Clark Gable flew his plane out of the field near Dayton, "Walco" to his home in California. In Middletown I worked for "The Barkelew Electric Manufacturing Company", when I was hired we were making Electrical Switches for the Navy through the Westinghouse Corporation. Then bigger switches to Square D Company and lots more that I can't remember, General Electric and General Motors are some of the company's using the switches and we were busy until 1958, then things slowed down. I needed more money to raise my family so I took a two-week vacation, spent one week in Kentucky with mom and Dad, and the other week looking for a new job. I landed an assembly job at Frigidare, a Division of general motors, Corporation, the best move I ever made. We have had five name changes since I hired in and I have survived them all, stayed with them thirty years and retired in July 1998, and love retirement, bought me a Camper to spend time in the woods, also a Computer, through the urging of Bob, Denzel and Betty, and sure am glad. It has opened up a new world; just recently our brother Jim joined the ranks of a new Computer user. I was in the Army three years, worked for Barkelew twelve years, three months, then general motors for thirty years, and that's enough, I have hung up my tools, which totals more than forty-five years. I was sixty-four years and four months old when I retired. In 1972 we thought a bigger house was needed because our children were teens, so we bought a two story Bi-level over on the other side of town, have been here over twenty six years, guess we will stay here forever. My children are all grown now, Michael is forty, Kimberly is thirty-eight and Keith is thirty-four, have six Grandchildren. Michael worked for the Telephone Company for eighteen years, then the company the were contracting their services, Miami Valley Hospital offered him a better deal so he is now in their Employment as an "On Sight Communication Installer" and handler, in charge of all their Communications. The best part about the change is he truly loves his work. Kimberly is a housewife and lives in gratis, Ohio, a small town in a nearby county, which seems like the old west each time I go there. Keith works in Construction and is a group leader at "Concrete technology Corporation". They manufacture different colored Concrete panels, with set in hooks installed inside and are shipped to the job site where they can be set in place, like a puzzle. He doesn't like his job as much because he is away from home from early morning until dark; would like to spend more time with his family, but the pay is good and the benefits are great. I tell him I haven't always liked every place I worked but your family is the most important part of your life and well worth working for. Doris is a homebody and very rarely goes anywhere since she suffered a heart attack some four years ago and rarely gets out in the yard, I plant flowers, and the sun bothers her. She doesn't go Camping because of the bugs and heat and hates fishing, so I travel alone. I like bicycling, Camping, Fishing and Boating, but rarely go hunting, have numerous BB air rifles, that I collect and restore, I have some models that are not stocked in stores, are a limited edition, made for collectors. I used to send all of my air rifles to Rogers of Arkansas to be restored but they have discontinued their business so now send them to Oklahoma for refinishing. Just one of my hobbies, also collect HO Gauge Model Trains, have a large layout in lower level of house, that keeps the Grandchildren busy for hours. I guess if the truth was known, as children we were deprived of a lot of things, however we were happy children, just didn't realize we were poor, everybody in our part of the world was in the same condition; probably why I collect things. I have a couple of ten speed Bikes that I ride often on the Bike tail close to my home, also have a Bike Carrier on my car if I need to transport one to another location. I ride down by the river and listen to my AM and FM equipped Bicycle, with Speedometer and Calorie counter. The Bike path goes for miles, I love to get back to nature. Through the years us children have been separated, left home one by one, four in the Air Force, me in the army, our Sister and me lived fairly close, but during the years raising our families, never visited very often but we kept in touch, even now I go by her place of employment, J.C. Penny's Catalog Store in Middletown, Ohio and see her often. J.B., her husband is a great sportsman who likes to hunt and fish, goes to Canada where there is excellent fishing and to the northwest where hunting is great. I remember once Bob, Dorothy and the kids came by for a visit, they were driving a new "Edsel" automobile and stayed a couple of days on their way to a new military base, and we went bowling, also to the movies. Denzel and Pauline came by for a visit driving a "Volvo" while stationed at Bunker Hill Air Force Base sometime in the 1960's. Jim and Marie have only visited once in all these years but they never were great travelers, but remember Herb and Shirley along with their children visiting in their new Cutlass Oldsmobile back when Herb owned his Station. The kids were small and probably was in the 1970's. I visited Mom and Dad when they were alive at least once a month.


Notes for DORIS JEAN MACABE:
I would stop by and see Jim and Marie in Richmond, Kentucky and on to Lexington to see Herb and Shirley. I remember the night Dad died, I was on second shift working in Dayton, he died in his sleep after listening to the Cincinnati Reds double header, and they won both games, Dad loved the reds better than any other team. I remember in the Bluegrass when the World Series was being played, him and Woodrow McMillan would leave the field to listen to them play, but we had to keep on working. He loved them so much, I believe he got so excited when they won those two games back to back, that overpowered his heart and it just stopped beating, that is my belief even today. I have the little Radio he was listening to when he died, and keep it near my bedroom. I am glad that I got to tell him that "I loved Him" on one of my last trips home; he said, "I Love you also Son". We had our differences, but we have to forgive if expect to make it to "Heaven". I remember the last time I saw Mom alive, I went down to see her in August 1988 on a weekend, took her out to dinner at the "Cracker Barrel" in Richmond, and she seemed to enjoy it so much, said Son I can't eat all of this steak; will take it home and eat later; put it in her big Purse and went back home. The next morning she cooked our breakfast, then I hugged and kissed her bye, not knowing that would be the last time I would see her alive. Brother Jim called on her the next day for dinner and she was alright, checked on her every day, but the next day he called on her; she didn't answer the door, so he went back to work and called the Building Superintendent to check on her and he found her dead. The Corner said she had a massive Heart Attack, around eight O'clock Monday night; I am so glad that I got to see her that last weekend. She was a wonderful lady and the best Mother in the world to us kids, without her we wouldn't have made it. I know she is in "Heaven", one of her favorite says was, "Children everything works together for the good to them that love the Lord", and I believe that, also. I remember one time Dad and Mom coming to visit Betty and J.B., staying one night, then staying on night with us, then walking the floor, wanting to get back home, Dad didn't like being away from home very much. I remember Mom visiting Mom and Dad when they lived on Devonia Avenue, he had left the School system and was working for IBM in the Janitorial Area, and they told me Jackie Brewer (our first cousin) had died, which must have been around 1972. Jackie and his family would visit them often and go see the Kentucky Wildcats play; I get E-mail from his daughter Nancy and Son Lewis. Nancy is coming to Middletown and we are going to have lunch and I will tell her more about the Dad she knew for such a short time. Jackie was a spunky person, always wanting to fight and whip some of the town rascals, won some and lost some. I remember as boy Jackie rode his Grandpa Lewis's Palomino pony down to see us, and once he took me for a ride, the horse broke into a gallop and scared me to death; we were flying, just like in the movies. We were in the Campground and I have fond memories of the Campground, Julia Mae, Jackie's sister baby sat us and we would go down under the cliff's and hunt for coins that had dropped out of people's pockets. My Grandpa manning told me they used to hold Religious Revivals in the Campground, and that is where it got its name. People would sit on the ground and naturally sometimes they lost coins from their pockets, I remember her finding money there. Going up the cliff at the campground was steps cut out by the Indians, am told you could walk right up the cliff in those cut out steps and on top was a deep well or hole, drilled out about six feet across, don't know what was for, never did find out. I heard stories that once a Silver Mine in that part of the country and many people had searched for a long time, but to no avail; we called it "The Devil's Kitchen". Some memories of Grandpa manning and betty, I would stay all night with them and he would say, Raleigh lets go Coon hunting, so we would take an old Hound Dog and go back in the woods and let the Dog run, and later hear the Dog had treed a Coon. We would take our lantern and try and find the tree but sometimes the cliffs were to high to climb, but we had great fun anyway. When we got back home Grandma Betty would have us hot biscuits and Molasses ready. Grandpa loved his molasses, he died in 1958, I was one of the pallbearers, and we carried him upon a high mountain where our Grandmother was buried on Trace Fork, near Stillwater, Kentucky. Other memories of my Grandpa Brewer, I would stay all night with Jackie and he would want to sleep out in the Smokehouse where we could stay up as long as we pleased. Grandpa Brewer would sit and look into the fireplace and tell us scary stories about Rawhide and Bloody Bones, we would get close to the fireplace when the story got to scary. One time we all went to Clint Taylor's house for dinner and Grandpa Brewer was taking a nip out of the bottle, Clint lived in the Calaboose country but it wasn't to far from Grandpa's if you went straight through the woods. Grandpa was in his fifties and was just about wore out and said he wasn't going any further without some Cornbread and Onions, so one of us hurried home and brought him back what he wanted and we finally got him home. Grandpa Brewer was a Horse Trader, every County Court day he would trade a horse, a cow or mule, and sometimes a good knife but he always made the best of the deal. I remember one time Grandpa and Dad rented this huge hillside farm and planted corn, this was on "Hurst Holler", we spent many days thinning corn on those hills, wonder if my brothers remember working there. I remember one time in the creek from the Palfrey's, Denzel cut his heel on a rusty tin can, Bobby carried him home on his back and his heel was hanging by a thread and blood was really flowing until we got him home to Mom. Once when Denzel and I was shooting our 22 pistol, a nine shot long tom and the cylinder didn't line up properly, lead shrapnel came out one side and hit him in the leg. I begged him not tell Mom or she would take our gun away, I bet he still remembers the episode, I sure do. When Bobby went into the Air Force, he left behind a short barrel 22 Winchester, so me and Denzel would act like Cowboys, one day we were shooting up a storm and we heard someone yell "You almost hit me with that bullet, went right over my head", looked and saw an OLE Hobo running down the field, he had been sleeping down by the river, never had any more problems with Hobo's around our house. One time Bobby brought a large car, believe it must have been a La Salle, because it looked like one of those cars that gangsters drove, had twelve cylinders and took a gallon of gas to start. It had plush seats and in its day was a jewel. Next bought a 1929 Model A Ford for fifty dollars, when he left for the Air Force Mom got rid of it I guess, it had to be parked on a hill to start and it also had a hand crank that would jerk your arm off. In cold weather you had to drain out the water every night so it wouldn't freeze up and burst. I remember as a young boy Dad bought us a Radio, this was back in the 1930's; he broke two mason jars and kept the part where the lids fit for insulators, climbed a huge pine tree across the creek and hooked it to the tree. Heating one of Mom's irons till it was red and using it to solder the lead to the main antenna wire, then hung the other end to a big tree behind our house. He then drove a big iron rod into the ground and on Saturday night the Taylor's and other people from around the community would come by horseback and listen to the Grand OLE Opry. When it was over they all lighted their lanterns and would go off into the darkness home. George Taylor was courting our Aunt Oma but was called into the Army and later killed in action overseas. These are just some of the memories I think about from time to time, I'm sure there will be more brought to the surface in the future. One more to recall, The Moore boys, Bob and me was out to do no good and set a farmers hay stack on fire, then went back on the hill and watched it burn, lots of memories I have forgotten, probably for the best. I want to thank my brother Denzel for giving me the opportunity to express these mementos on his web Page. I hope all enjoy these few words of mine. I feel a burning desire to seek out my Ancestry and don't know what I will discover, but it is fascinating for me to find out the past. Our ancestors, although may not have been written about in the History books, were a part of History. They fought in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War 1, World War two and Vietnam, built their homes, plowed their fields, worked their Factories, taught School, paid their taxes and raised their children, we are because they were. RALEIGH LEE BREWER, BORN, FEBRUARY 3, 1934.




      Children of RALEIGH BREWER and DORIS MACABE are:
2. i.   MICHAEL LEE6 BREWER, b. September 16, 1958, Middletown, Ohio, USA.
3. ii.   KIMBERLY LYNN BRANDENBURG BREWER, b. November 13, 1959, Middletown, Ohio, USA.
4. iii.   KEITH EDWARD BREWER, b. December 31, 1964, Middletown, Ohio, USA.

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