Age: Unknown
Occupation: Unknown
Hometown: Allensville
Interviewer: Joanie Fee and Julie Fee
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Melvin
Gene Patterson Age: Unknown Occupation: Unknown Hometown: Allensville Interviewer: Joanie Fee and Julie Fee
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What were the school systems like?
Interview
Joanie: How long have you resided in Allensville?
Melvin: 42 years
Joanie: What were the school systems like?
Melvin: Good school system back 42 years because of consolidation in 1960. It was more a family school now than before because more people participated more. They came to the school functions and such. We had our own local board and you could go talk to them. I feel that when I first moved into the county we had a good school system. You had your sports which was competitive between Allensville, McArthur, Hamden. It really was a …. You had crowds at the ball games then.
Joanie: What was the most outstanding event you can ever remember happening in Allensville?
Melvin: The most outstanding event in Allensville, that’s a hard question cause there hadn’t been that many events happen in Allensville. I guess its not as much an event as thinking back the way it used to be you had Sadie Hawkins’ store there and you had the greyhound bus stopping there, but as far as an event that I can recall in Allensville that sticks to my mind, I really don’t know. Maybe that’s a poor answer but that’s the only answer I can give you (laughing).
Joanie: Has there been many improvements in Allensville since you’ver lived here?
Melvin: No.
Joanie: How much increase have you noticed in the price of groceries and accessories in the past 20 years?
Melvin: Last 20 years, quite a bit. I would say that past 20 years your talking 60% or 70% increase in groceries and gas. Cause you know back 20 years ago you could buy gas for something like $.25 a gallon. Now gas is $1.03 up to $1.10. Things have rose quite a bit in 20 years, but also so has people’s wages. I believe that you know income comparing it back then that I know that everybody says that money went quite a bit further then you bought more. But I believe in this day and age that money wise you can do just as good on the wages that you’re paid right now.
Joanie: Where did your family originate from?
Melvin: You’re speaking of my mother and father or grandfather?
Joanie: The Patterson’s.
Melvin: Well, the Patterson’s back you know years ago we come from Ireland. But all my family was born and raised down here in Jackson. On my mother’s side, the Remy’s, they came from Allensville here.
Joanie: What did you do for fun down here around Allensville?
Melvin: Well back there then you didn’t have television and automobiles and such. We did get together. Kids hung around together a lot more. I don’t mean 1 or 2 where a lot of kids right now have 1 good buddy and they get in their car and go to town. Back there then we had different things that we would get together and do whether it was playing ball or just sitting out in a backyard talking. We didn’t have no way to go hardly then. I believe kids was a lot closer back there then, then what they are now.
Joanie: What about the Indians?
Melvin: You know, we had 2 or 3 tribes of Indians that lives around here 2 of them was peaceful. I can’t give you the names of them right now, 1 of them was Cherokee and of course you had them down here in the rocks down there . You can still see the Indian heads and the hole there where they ground their grain and everything and the story is that Daniel Boone came through here and stayed all night down here at the Indians rocks on his way to Washington Courthouse. He was captured over by Frankfort and held a year. But the Indians used to come to this valley because of the salt. See, this really is a salt flat through here and they would come clear from Columbus, Washington Courthouse, Frankfort which was the biggest Indian settlement around over there. They would come here to get salt with a lot of white settlers lived here like in McArthur there. Our first settlers was 1805 and they started out with a store called Burr Stone. That was the first business in Vinton County. It wasn’t even Vinton County the, Vinton County didn’t get admitted until 1851 and the Indians would come here to do a lot of trading . We had an old tannery down behind the school, big ol' tannery. We used to have buffalo come through here and you can still see the path down here at the cemetery where they came through. Well, they’d kill them and tan their hides and deer hides down here at the tannery at Allensville. Behind the school also had two saloons and two undertaker businesses, a big mill, hardware store, grocery store, and furniture store all in Allensville at one time. You asked me a little bit ago what the improvements were in Allensville, I believe they’ve went downhill. But I do my studying a lot on Vinton County. Between the computers, books, and libraries, but one story that sticks to my mind was the man that started the business out here in Burr Stone making grinding wheels, the old hand grinders you know, then they sent them all over and with them you know and made a lot of money at it. His boy and his daughter came out of Pennsylvania and he met them in Gallipolis and took one day by horse and wagon to get to Jackson.