CHAPTER I

YOUTH AND EARLY MANHOOD

Kelion Franklin Peddicord was the second son of Wilson Lee Peddicord and Keturah Barnes-Peddicord. He was born October 1, 1833, on a farm near Barnesville, Belmont County, Ohio, the home of his Grandfather Peddicord, where his parents lived when they moved from Maryland in 1830. The family moved to Barnesville, while he was yet unable to walk, to the hotel called the Mansion House, later styled the Mills House.

His father was in charge of the Mansion House, and owned at the time four or five large six-horse teams and wagons, which he kept for hauling to and from the Baltimore, Maryland, market, over the National Turnpike. He was an experienced tobacconist, buying, packing, and sending hundreds of hogsheads of tobacco to the Baltimore market. They hauled tobacco east, and brought dry goods and merchandise of every description west in return.

Young Peddicord’s education was begun at the old brick “free” schoolhouse, then the high school of the town. The first schoolmaster was an old-timer by the name of Ashford. Another was Joseph Harris. When the large academy was built he attended it, while under the charge of that excellent professor, Nathaniel R. Smith, of Smith’s Grammar fame. From Professor Smith Kelion received his first lessons in surveying, having field practice, geology, and geometry. He was often a companion of the Professor in his researches, and thus acquired a great fondness for all that was curious in nature. This knowledge in after years aided him much in his profession of civil engineering in the classification of materials.

He was a good assistant in the tobacco house under his father, and had become an expert assorter and packer when but twelve years old.

In 1846 his father moved with his family from the town of Barnesville to a farm on the Ohio River, in Washington County, Ohio, at the foot of what old river men called Long Reach, from its straight course of eighteen miles. While living here the boy saw pass many Mexican war soldiers en route to their homes from Mexico.

In the spring of 1850 the family moved to the Virginia side of the river on a farm five miles above St. Marys, the county-seat of Pleasants County, Virginia. With his eldest sister he attended the seminary school conducted by Mrs. T. E. Curry, at the town of Grandview, Ohio, during the winter of 1850 and 1851.

In December, 1850, the family moved again, this time to St. Marys, Virginia. They resided there until December 15, 1856, during which time his father was a railroad contractor on the Northwestern Virginia Railroad, then under construction, grading several miles of heavy work.

The young man attended school a short term in St. Marys, then went to his father’s works to act as timekeeper and bookkeeper for the force at work.

Before he was twenty-one he received the appointment of second assistant in a corps of civil engineers, from Chief Engineer Benjamin H. Latrobe, of Baltimore, Maryland, with directions to report for duty to Cornelius Mercer, resident engineer in charge of the First Residency, Second Division of the N. W. V. R. R. He remained on the First Residency until near the completion, acting as first assistant from the first day of joining the corps. This was owing to the fact that the first assistant was unable to take charge of the instruments and keep notes. Thus the second assistant fell heir to the care of the transit and level and other field instruments, and the note-book.

It was a great day to him, when on the second day in the service he was sent to give the contractors, McCune & Gillespie, grade in the heavy summit cut, keeping notes and running the level for nearly a mile from the bench mark. This summit was the highest on the road, and the divide between Middle Island and the Monongahela River. Water which fell on the east side would have to travel nearly seven hundred miles before joining in the Ohio that which fell, a few feet away, on the west side.

At one time the resident engineer, Mr. Mercer, was permitted a short leave of absence, and the junior was left in charge of a tunnel, near completion, where the skill of the engineer is tested—that of bringing opposite lines together with slight variation. This he did satisfactorily. He was promoted and transferred to the Second Residency, Second Division, as first assistant to John Maxwell, resident engineer, and J. C. C. Hoskins, division engineer, assisting in field work in order to make complete his final estimates. Most of the time during his stay at the Second Residency he was on office work.

Young Peddicord was next ordered to report at the office of the Fifth Residency, Second Division, in company with A. C. Hoskins, and remained at the fifth completing the unfinished office work.

Having finished the final estimates and reports he left Schumla, Virginia, on February 7, 1856, for St. Marys, Virginia, where some time was spent in assisting the firm of Logan, Kellar & Co., one of whom was his brother-in-law, in their store, and in making collections of parties in the interior counties.

On December 15, 1856, the family moved to Tennessee, where his father had a number of miles of heavy work on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, under Mr. George McLeod, chief engineer, near Fountain Head, in Sumner County. His sister, Mrs. Logan, accompanied the family.

On March 12, 1857, with Samuel Logan, who was going after his wife and child, young Peddicord left St. Marys for Tennessee. They took the steamer _Stephen Bayard_ for Parkersburg, Virginia, thence by steamer _Silver Star_ to Galliopolis, Ohio, then by steamer _J. B. Ford_ to Cincinnati, Ohio, then on steamer _Gazelle_ to Louisville, Kentucky, and the _South America_ to Smithland at the mouth of the Cumberland River. From there they traveled on the _V. K. Stephenson_ to Nashville, the capital of Tennessee. Here they visited Mrs. James K. Polk’s residence, the Capitol Building, then not completed, and other places of interest. From Nashville they proceeded by stage coach to Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee, north of which the family resided on the works.

Soon after reaching home he was taken sick with measles, caught from a passenger in the stage coach.

Having letters from Chief Engineer Latrobe to Chief Engineer McLeod, he received an appointment from the latter and was ordered to Nashville, Tennessee, on June 11, 1857, where he was stationed up to April 23, 1858, as inspector of cross-ties, superintendent of bridge masonry and superstructure, and receiving chairs and spikes and railroad iron. While in Nashville, as a boyish exploit, he climbed the spire of the State Capitol and hung his hat on the point.

Returning to Fountain Head in April, 1858, he spent a short time attending to his father’s business, then joined him near Glasgow Junction, Barren County, Kentucky, and aided in the completion of his father’s last contract on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in the spring of 1859.

While residing near Glasgow Junction in 1859 and 1860 he discovered and explored a number of caverns, the largest of which was the Hundred Dome Cave, two and a half miles from the station. In connection with and aided by John D. Courts, he fitted up and opened it to the sightseeing public, having carriages to meet the trains for the accommodation of visitors.

Although born and educated in Ohio, a Northern State, young Peddicord believed truly and sincerely in the rights of States, and when war became imminent his sympathy was all with the South, and he enlisted in the Confederate States Army in September, 1861. Before enlisting he was engaged in the service as special agent in re-shipping supplies and all kinds of munitions, etc., from Glasgow Junction, L. & N. R. R., to the State line of Tennessee. Permits would not be granted at Louisville, Kentucky, to ship through, but by re-shipping freight and paying charges with gold its southern destination was reached.

While thus engaged the young man met General, then Colonel, N. B. Forrest, who tendered him a fine position, urging Kelion to go with him in the service. The Colonel was on his way through Kentucky, taking out his first company at the time. With some reluctance he was forced to decline the Colonel’s kind offer, because of his engagement with the shipping and commission merchants of Nashville, whose gold was entrusted to him for a specific purpose.

For a record of young Peddicord’s service after enlistment in the Confederate States Army we can do no better than use his Journal, as completed by him in December, 1865.