. The Big Sandy Valley. A history of the people and country from the earliest settlement to the present time. Auxiers were always respected, and were qual- 108 THE BIG SANDY VALLEY. ified to fill any public trust; but their modesty hasalways been equal to their bravery, and seldom hasany of them stood for office. John B. has beensurveyor of his county, and was a major in thenion army. Nathaniel, the father of A. J. Aux- jier, now of Pike,was by many re-garded as themost brainy manof his day. Hed i e d i n 18 6 son, A. J.,is a lawyer andfilled for oneterm the office ofDistrict Attorneywit
. The Big Sandy Valley. A history of the people and country from the earliest settlement to the present time. Auxiers were always respected, and were qual- 108 THE BIG SANDY VALLEY. ified to fill any public trust; but their modesty hasalways been equal to their bravery, and seldom hasany of them stood for office. John B. has beensurveyor of his county, and was a major in thenion army. Nathaniel, the father of A. J. Aux- jier, now of Pike,was by many re-garded as themost brainy manof his day. Hed i e d i n 18 6 son, A. J.,is a lawyer andfilled for oneterm the office ofDistrict Attorneywith great has also beenUnited StatesMarshal for theDistrict of Ken-tucky. Other members of the house have filled of-ficial stations. Of the sixteen children of SamuelAuxier, thirteen still survive. In politics the Aux-iers are divided. In religion they are Methodists,and mostly belong to the Southern branch. When Major Auxier was born, not a church wasfound in the valley; coffee was unheard of; a calicodress was a curiosity. Mortars to pound the corninto meal, and the slow grinding hand-mill, were. THE AUXIERS. 109 generally in use, with only here and there a horse-mill. Bears-grease was used for shortening, anddeer-skins to make breeches for the men and moc-casins for the women. School-houses wxre mereshanties, and school-teachers generally took theirgrog to school. Yet faithful preachers went up anddown the valley, preaching a better life for thepeople. Many heard them gladly, and opened theirhouses for the preaching of the Word. On theLavisa Fork the people were mostly Methodists;on Tug, they were generally Baptists. Slaves were numerous, Tom May, of Shelby,owning seventy-one; yet no one was stuck up^that held them. The people were all on an equality. The living was just splendid. Plenty of bear-meat, venison, pheasant, and wild turkey, accom-panied with maple molasses, wild honey in thecomb, and spice-wood or other native teas, formed ahome-fare good enough to tempt
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