Bonnie Strassell - Owen County Historical Society

When I was about 12 years old my father gave me a shotgun. He decided to do so when he discovered that I had been borrowing a gun from an older boy and gone huntin’ on my own. Game was plentiful in those days and within a half hour after school was out I could be scaring up rabbits. I also had a trap line. I used snares and deadfalls, which I made myself and baited with apples.

(Reminisces of Kentuckian William Dorman)
 

When schools closed that bad winter, a young boy spent his days in the stripping room on the farm.
Amid the pungent odor of tobacco, the lad listened to his granddad’s stories.
Those narratives, along with a love of farming, created an intense yearning in the young man; and he followed a life-long dream which included his supportive wife, his family and his beloved Southdown sheep. 
Kentucky has embraced the Forsee family for eight generations.  Owen countian Brian Forsee, who is a seventh generation Forsee, was the special guest speaker at the historical society meeting last week.

Engravings snaking their way around the aged powder horn reflected the soft lights of the room; and their story embraced over 200 years of American history.
The horn belonged to Jacob Hesler of Heslerville, the first county seat in Owen County.
Traveling to the territory of Texas with Jacob’s descendants, it was eventually  purchased by broker of fine Americana, Kentuckian Mel Hankla.

Most Owen countians are familiar with the names of Claxon Ridge, Pink Ridge, Stewart Ridge, Buffalo Ridge, Riddle’s Ridge, Divided Ridge, Fortner Ridge, Ball Ridge, Harris Ridge, Bethel Ridge and Long Ridge. Some of these hilltops took on the names of the families who first settled along their crests, while the origin of the names of others may have been lost over the years.