Bell-Clay-Fayette County KyArchives Biographies.....Family, Asher ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ky/kyfiles.html ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Kelly Courtney-Blizzard http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000022 July 6, 2005, 5:35 pm Author: Dr. John J. Dickey Diary Dr. John J. Dickey Diary, Fleming County, Ky. Recorded in the 1870's and beyond. Reprinted in Kentucky Explorer, Volume 11, No.10, April, 1997, p. 80. By permission. Clay County. THE ASHER FAMILY (BY John W. Culton, of Clay County, KY.) I marked the first sawed log above the Cumberland Falls. This was in 1874. There being no railway crossing the Cumberland River above the falls, rafts could not be taken over the falls hence there was no market for the timber. The Southern Pump Company built a boom below the mouth of Rockcastle River, caught the timber, rafted it, and took it to Nashville. The Indian Lumber Company was interested in the boom as they also bought logs. In 1875 or 1876 an ice tide swept the boom away breaking the companies and crippling me. A boom between Barbourville and Pineville had been built. Here logs were caught and at a certain stages of water, were turned loose. The ice tide swept this away also. The ice piled up to 45 feet high. The breaking away was like the firing of artillery. If the boom had not given away the whole country would have been inundated. The first timber I marketed was walnut. I bought walnut trees 45 inches in diamater for $2.00 apiece. I cut thousands of walnut logs on the banks and islands of the river which did not have to be touched but were floated away by the rising tide. Walnut and poplar were the only kinds of timber taken out at that time. This ended the floating of timber till the L&N was built to Williamsburg about 1892. The Ashers have been great factors in the development of the timber industry in the mountains. Chief among these have been the Asher brothers, sons of Jackson D. Asher, who lived and died on the head of Red Bird. These sons are named as follows: George Mattison, Thomas J., Andrew Jackson, Hugh L., and Abijah B. They were raised barefoot. Their father was a money-maker, by saving. He raised stock, loaned his money, then began the lumber business by putting small lots of logs from the wood into the Cumberland River on contracts. Each year he put in more logs. Matt and Jack went to California. They returned, and they all went in together. Their father helped them, and then other brothers joined them. They soon became the lumber kings of the mountains. When Mr. Huntington built the K.C.R.A. from Paris to Livingstone [sic], with his keen perception he saw that the crossing of the road at Ford on the Kentucky River made the best mill site in the mountains, four of the brothers, (Matt, Tom, Jack and Hugh), formed the Asher Lumber Company there, created mills, put in a boom, bought large tracts of timber on the upper forks of the Kentucky, and began business on a large scale. They made money rapidly. They ran the business for many years, then sold to a Michigan company. Matt, Hugh, and Jack bought fine farms around Lexington where Hugh and Jack still reside. Tom now owns one of the best mills south of the Ohio River at Wasiota, one mile above Pineville. It is of iron; nothing about it can burn. Jack Asher lives at Pineville and is operating a saw mill at that point. The two have $300,000 worth of lumber on their yards at present. Culton Asher Huntington = Nashville-Davidson-TN Barbourville-Knox-KY Pineville-Bell-KY Williamsburg-Mason-KY CA Paris-Bourbon-KY Livingston-Rockcastle-KY MI Lexington-Fayette-KY Additional Comments: File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/bell/bios/family308gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/kyfiles/