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I do Know very little of the Heltons from Harlan other than what my Dad used to talk about and he did not go into detail about them . Dad was not a lot for telling stores of his childhood because I think me did not like things that happened to him then. So I would like to see if anyone still living knows anything about the older Heltons , such as my great Papaw Tom and thoses Before Him . I do know that my grand mother Bates told me that my Papaw Tom Bates was a Wheelwright - which is a fellow that made wagon wheels for the big coal wagons . He was sort of a unique individual , a carpenter and blacksmith combined . Mamaw Rosie told me that he could make almost any thing out of metal in the forge and anvil and hammer it out , Must have been something to sat and watch him do that.
My dad worked in the factories in Ohio , But my Papaws both worked in the coal mines . Pa Helton was a rock duster , his job was to throw a white lime based powder around in the work areas so the lights on the miners hats would better illuminate the work areas . My Papaw Lucian I never met until I was a teenager he owned a business in Indiana where they make street curbs and such . But my Papaw who rasied me up , was a coal miner , his name was Leonard Cole and he was a jack of all trades and a master of few he used to say . I loved him very much , you see I'm the oldest grand son in the family and he came and got me from BeaverValley hospital in Martin , Kentucky in hie old Pickup truck and took me home to his house on Abner mountain above Melvin , Kentucky and that is where I grew up until I was almost a teenager before I came to Ohio to live with my Mom & Dad.
I do remember sitting and talking to Ma Helton and even her mother my great grandmother Ma Perry , she dipped snuff I remember . I do also remember talking to my Papaw Helton in his trailer up on Buckingham mountain , he and Ma Helton had been divorced for years at this time and I was only about 8 or so then. He lived in wide curve about 3/4 's the way up on that mountain and ther was a partial dug out coal mines on the left side of the trailer wher there was a spring that had water that was cold as ice even in the middle of summer and he would keep his pop and beer in there and it stayed cold all year but never froze .
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