The pages of Jackson’s newspaper are filled with tragic events and sad stories. Few are sadder than the tragic losses sustained in terrible accidents involving innocent people. One of those sad tales involves the death of a well-respected and much-beloved resident of the Rousseau community, known simply as “Aunt Rachel.”
Aunt Rachel Calhoun was the “relic” or widow of Jeptha Calhoun. She was born on January 13, 1838, in a section of Perry County that would become Knott County when that county was created in 1884. The daughter of Nathaniel Woolery Cornett and his wife, Lydia (Caudill) Cornett, Rachel was an intelligent and hard-working young girl restrained by the mores of the post-Victorian era in the mountains of Kentucky.
Rachel remained at home and cared for her aged parents. Later in life, a 35-year-old Rachel married 37-year-old Jeptha D. Calhoun of Breathitt County in 1873. The couple settled near his father on ancestral lands downstream from Hunting Creek at the mouth of Calhoun Branch. Together they had three known children. A daughter, Mary, was born on January 13, 1874, and died the next day. Two sons, Jacob Sandusky Calhoun, and Henry Clay Calhoun, would follow in 1876 and 1878 before time and normal biological cycles prevented additional children.
Quicksand Creek and the mouth of Calhoun Branch in 1900. Rachel (Cornett) Calhoun lived in the house marked by a small black dot just under the “n” in Quicksand.
The Calhouns raised their sons on the bank of Quicksand Creek and farmed a large acreage, raising wheat, corn, and livestock. Jeptha Calhoun, a former Confederate soldier, died on November 16, 1890, at the family home on Quicksand. He was buried near his parents and grandparents in the Calhoun Cemetery. Rachel never remarried. She continued to work the land and supported herself and her sons by selling “excess produce and the occasional hog.”
When the tax assessor came to visit Rachel in 1892, two years after Jeptha died, he found a 100-acre farm with 70 acres of cleared fields valued at $500. He reported for taxing purposes one horse, four bulls or cows, ten sheep, and six hogs. Breathitt County Clerk J. Wise Hagins also certified that Rachel owned 30 acres of harvestable timber, two hundred bushels of stored corn, and a ten-acre plot of corn growing in the field. He also found two children at the Calhoun home and a clock valued at $10.
Rachel continued to live in the home she and Jeptha built. By 1920, the census taker reported that Rachel owned her own mortgage-free farm and listed her occupation as a farmer. Her grandson, Herald Calhoun, age 13, lived with his grandmother and helped around the farm. Despite her inability to read or write, Rachel was a shrewd business-woman and was known on Quicksand as a “hard bargained” and was a skilled trader.
A medical “spell” in 1921 “slowed her considerably,” according to a family member, and she stopped farming in 1922. Her age and years of brutish work caught up with her, and by the end of 1923, Rachel was mostly “confined to the house and sitting in the sun in her chair on the porch,” walking only with the assistance of a cane. Her daughter-in-law, Lula Bell (Back) Calhoun, wife of Henry Clay Calhoun, visited Rachel daily and helped prepare most of her meals. Lula had just left when tragedy struck on the morning of January 6, 1924.
SAD DEATH.
One of the saddest deaths that ever happened in this community, occurred January 6th, when Mrs. Rachel Calhoun (better known as Aunt Rachel) was burned to death.
Rachel Calhoun
The news was given out over the telephone about 1 o’clock P. M., stating that she had been found lying on the floor of her home where she lived alone, her body burned to a crisp. She was found by her son, H. C. Calhoun, but how the horrible indent happened or how she caught afire is not known.
Her daughter-in-law, Mrs. H. C. Calhoun had left her about 10 a.m., sitting in a chair by the fire as well as usual.
The news of her death was a great shock to the community.
She was a member of the Baptist Church, was a kind and loving mother and a good neighbor. She was 88 years of age and the widow of Jeptha Calhoun, who preceded her to the grave 34 years ago.
Before her marriage she was Miss Cornett from Knott County where she has a large number of relatives who will be sad to hear of her death.
She is survived by two sons, H. C. and J. S. Calhoun and a large host of friends to mourn her loss.
The Jackson Times, February 1, 1924, page 6
Rachel (Cornett) Calhoun’s 1924 Kentucky Death Certificate listed the cause of death as “Burned.”
She was buried on Monday morning, January 7, 1924, beside her husband, Jeptha D. Calhoun, in the family cemetery opposite the mouth of Calhoun Branch at Rousseau. A marble tombstone was ordered by her sons and placed on her grave. Many years later, a double granite stone was ordered for Jeptha and Rachel and placed on their graves, replacing Rachel’s marble stone and Jeptha’s hand-carved marker.
Nearly forgotten today, Rachel Calhoun remains a symbol of strength and determination. Following the death of her husband, she stared down adversity and thrived. Rachel raised her sons, and they, in turn, raised their children to honor her sacrifices. Rachel rests today on a small hill above Highway 30 East in the curve just before Rousseau School. She lies beneath the soil over which she toiled alone for more than fifty-one years.
Bookie on the Trail 