"Prestonsburg No 18 1865

Floyd Cty Ky

Dear Father and Mother

I take this sad opportunity of writing a few lines to let you know my family is all well exsept myself my health is very poor I must tell you our sad misfortune of loosing your dear son and my most affectionate husband. he died the 27 day of August last. he had been sick for three years had not been able to cut wood enough to make one fire. his disease was consumption. he was ready and willing to go. all he hated was leaving me and his dear little children. we had five children one boy. there names Angie, Gus, Nell, and Lew Thomas, Caroline my baby. We cald her Carry from when she was young because mr worsham was in the armany. he served one year in the reble servis. he stayed in virginia the most of the time. he caught so much colds he never was well any more. tell Joseph i would be so glad if he would come and stay with us. i am so lonesome. we have been living in prestonsburgh ever since Jo was here. i expect to move to country tomorrow. it was mr worsham request for me to do so. he thoght it would be the best for us. i would be glad if we were in missouri with you all. we have not herd one word from any of you during the war. i would be so glad to here from you. all my sister in law to write to me. tell Jo to write to me if he cant come. i must bring my letter to a close. you must excuse my bad writing and spelling for i feel so distress. cant think of any thing of importance to write you

but remain your afection daugter in law

E. J. Worsham

write soon"

Letter to the Worshams living in Missouri

"Prestonsburg July 8 1866

Floyd Cty Ky

Dear father and Mother

we are all well this sabbath morning. hoping these few lines may find you enjoying the same like blessing. i am very lonesome this morning be cause it makes me think of my dear husband so much. it was on a sabbath morning that he departed this Life. it grieved me so much when i herd that Jo was kild for i loved him as a brother. i feel some times like we never will see each other. i would be so glad if you would come and see us. it looks to me as though we never can get to see any of our worsham connection any more. We get letters from Johns family every few weeks. the children often say thay wish thay could see granfather and granmother worsham. we have a very good crop of corn a fine garden of all kinds of vegetabls. we have laid by abot half of our corn since we moved to the country. we have got a very nice start. of hogs two five cows and calves a very good horse. we have not bought us a farm yet but we will as soon as we come across one that suit us. mr worsham never intended to settle on sandy but now i do not know whether it would be the best or not for me. mr worsham told me what he wanted me to buy. how to do just as you would if one of your children was going to leave home on a long journey for one week before he died. he was all the time telling me how to do and how to manage to get along. our oldest child is about grown. she is thinking of teaching school this fall. my youngest is going on five years old. i must bring my letter to close. tell all the girls to write to me for it dos me much good to hear from you all. you must excuse my bad writing and spelling. so no more at present.

dear father write to me and do not fail.

alas alas how lonely E. J. Worsham"

Thomas R. Worsham was apparently a lawyer. In Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 8-B, 1887 Floyd County: "ROBERT S. FRIEND is a native of Prestonburg, Ky., was born March 1, 1840, and is a son of John and Rachel (Brown) Friend was born in 1791, came to Madison County, Ky., in 1820, and in 1821 removed to Prestonburg, where he kept the Washington and Jackson Hotel, which was burned in 1848. He was one of the magistrates under the old Constitution, became sheriff of the county, and was jailer for twenty years. He was a soldier of the war of 1812, and received a land warrant for 160 acres as bounty. His death occurred in 1876, but his wife, who was born in 1800, died in 1862. Robert S. Friend was educated at Prestonburg and at Mount Sterling Academy. In 1861 he volunteered in the Tenth Kentucky Cavalry, Confederate army, served about four years, and on his return to Prestonburg was licensed to practice law in 1866, having read under Thomas R. Worsham. In 1870 he was elected county attorney, and held the office until 1874, when he was elected police judge. He is now Commissioner of the United States Circuit Court and chairman of the board of school directors. In 1865 he married Miss Rhoda Parsons, of Virginia, who died June 1, 1874, leaving three children. His second marriage was September 1, 1878, to Miss Araminta Auxier, of Johnson County, daughter of Nathaniel Auxier (deceased), and to this union has been born one child. Mr. Friend is a Democrat and a Prohibitionist, and as United States Commissioner has an immense amount of work to perform, his jurisdiction extending to the territory of the "moonshiners" in the adjacent hills."

"Captain Thomas R. Worsham Honored by Dr. Robert Perry." "On Saturday, December 9th, 2000, members of the Colonel Jack May Camp #1897 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans gathered at the May Cemetery overlooking the Samuel May House to honor Captain Thomas R. Worsham, Captain of Company E, 5th Kentucky Volunteers, C.S.A. Worsham is buried in the old section of the cemetery, next to Prestonsburg merchant James M. Lackey and U. S. Congressman John Preston Martin. A brief ceremony was held at Worsham's gravesite, where a new government tombstone has been erected.

Captain Worsham served with the 5th Kentucky from October 24th, 1861 to November 14th, 1862, when he resigned from the service. His company, Company E, was the first company of Confederate soldiers raised in Floyd County, and he was one of the men who signed the letter sent from the Confederate camp at Prestonsburg to President Jefferson Davis on October 2nd, 1861, announcing the formation of the regiment and requesting that it be supplied with arms, ammunition, and other equipment.

Worsham's military records file, which is kept on microfilm at the Johnson County Public Library in Paintsville, shows that he was one of Colonel May's most trusted officers. Jack May was commander of the regiment during the Spring, Summer, and Fall of 1862. On November 11th, 1861, for example, following the Battle of Ivy Mountain, Worsham's company was given the job of driving 377 hogs from Pikeville to Abingdon, Virginia. "I was detailed with my company," reported Worsham, "to guard and drive said hogs so as to escape capture from the enemy."

Another document in his file shows that during General Humphrey Marshall's Fall 1862 invasion of Eastern Kentucky, Worsham's company was given the mission of establishing a recruiting post at a steam mill in Pike County. While they were camped at that location, Worsham purchased 1621 pounds of beef from local farmers, which he subsequently issued to the recruits who had gathered at the mill. "The issues were made," said Worsham in his report, "according to the regular allowance of rations per day." Worsham's file contains many interesting records, not the least of which are Special Requisitions, which list clothing and other supplies which his company received during its service in Eastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia. On March 27th, 1862, for example, at Camp Moccasin, Virginia, Worsham's men were issued 70 pairs of socks, 24 pairs of shoes, 29 dress coats, 34 shirts, 16 pairs of drawers, 33 pairs of pants, and 38 caps by W. W. Cox, Assistant Quartermaster of the regiment. Free of grammar errors and written in a fine, flowing hand, Worsham's reports provide ample evidence that he was a well-educated man.

For some unknown reason-perhaps poor health-Worsham resigned from the service following the Confederate defeat at Perryville. Very little is known about his personal life, but the 1850 Floyd County Census shows Thomas R. Worsham, age 24, schoolteacher, born in Virginia, living in the household of John W. Powell, who owned a farm near Mare Creek. Listed along with Worsham is his wife Elizabeth Jane Worsham, age 17, born in Kentucky. The dates on his original tombstone show that he was 37 years old-still relatively young-when he died on August 27th, 1865.

My friend Delmas Saunders has discovered that Worsham owned a farm on Abbott Creek. In his unpublished History of Abbott Creek Saunders lists the family farms that bordered the creek during the 19th Century, beginning with the Herefords, Greenwades, Spurlocks, Osbornes, Millers, and Shorts. "Farther up the creek was the Tom Worsham Farm. Thomas R. Worsham, a native of Virginia and a Floyd County school teacher, married Elizabeth Jane Hatcher, a native of Pike County. They lived in a large, two-story log house, at that time the creek's most pretentious building. During the War Between the States Worsham served as Captain of the Floyd County company of Jack May's 5th Kentucky Infantry."

"Unfortunately, Worsham died young. His widow married Will T. Elliott, who modernized the farm . . . the Elliott Farm was a Floyd County landmark . . . Thomas R. and Elizabeth Jane Worsham's great-grandson Billy Richmond Pruitt and his wife Thelma have repaired and restored the old house. Today the furnishings are in place just as they were when his parents expired. Yes, the old logs and the poplar weatherboarding are still in place, underneath the vinyl siding installed to protect them for years to come."

Elizabeth Worsham Elliott died on July 20th, 1927. Her obituary, which Billy Pruitt was kind enough to give me, reads as follows: "Elizabeth Jane Hatcher Worsham Elliott, eldest daughter of John Greer Hatcher and Thursa Stratton Hatcher, was born January 25th, 1833 on the old Powell farm near Mare Creek of this county. Mrs. Elliott was a member of one of the most prominent and highly respected families in the Big Sandy Valley, where she was familiarly known as "Aunt Jane." She was one of the most lovable, charitable women who have every lived in this county, and has probably fed more people at her table without charge than any woman of her generation. No stranger ever went away hungry from her door. She was first married when but sixteen years old to Thomas R. Worsham, a brilliant man from the State of North Carolina. He served in the Confederate Army and only lived a short time after the close of the Civil War. To this union were born five children, Angie, Gustavus, Mell, Lou and Tommie, only two of her children surviving her, Gustavus Worsham of Helen, West Virginia, and Mrs. Lou Johnson of Cliff, Kentucky."

"Mrs. Elliott also leaves fifteen grandchildren and several great grandchildren. On February 10th, 1871, she was married to Mr. T. W. Elliott, who is left to mourn her loss. She was a faithful, devoted wife and mother, and her home was in deed and truth a virtual orphans' home, for she raised her own five children by her first husband, then two of her second husband's daughters, two of her own daughter's sons, Harry Hatcher of Ashland, Ky., and Walter Hatcher of Pikeville, [and] also the orphaned children of her daughter, Mrs. Lou Johnson . . The deceased was a sister of the late Mrs. Joseph M. Davidson of Prestonsburg [and] Mrs. Roland T. Burns of Louisa."

Pages 775-780