Notes on the Sewell Family

Breathitt County Journal - 1988

[Editor's Note: One of Breathitt County's oldest families is the Sewell Family. In 1939, Margaret Bishop gathered the following material concerning the Sewells. She did many family histories here. Much of her work was included in the centennial history of Breathitt County, In The Land Of The Feuds. However, family interviews were, for some reason, left out of the book. These interviews, of course, are priceless today and deserve to be published. Thus, we feature at least one of Miss Bishop's essays in every issue of The Breathitt County Journal.]

Thomas Sewell came to Breathitt County about 1829 from Harlan County. It is possible he came to Harlan from Tazewell, Tenn., for his uncle, John Sewell came from there with his sons about 1839 or 1841. Previous to the opening of the road to the mouth of War Creek, the year Breathitt was organized into a county, all freight for this country had been brought in boats from Clay's Ferry about 85 miles below Jackson. The merchants and businessmen of the county had much trouble in getting their freight by the river during the summer season when the water was very low. They had to employ ox teams to pull the boats through the shoals when the water was low.

Thomas Sewell, being one of the leading merchants and one of the wealthiest men of the county, determined to have a good wagon road into Jackson so that he could receive goods at all seasons of the year without having to rely upon the uncertain navigation of the river. So in 1883 (Green Trimble's Recollections of Breathitt may have made a mistake in dates.), principally at his own expense and with a small appropriation from the county court, he made a good wagon road over the Panbowl Mountain, striking the river at War Shoal four miles below Jackson, thence across the mountain to Frozen Creek. The citizens living along the line of Frozen and Gilmore Creeks completed the road to intersect with the state road two miles above Hazel Green. This road was used for transportation of all freight taken to Breathitt until the completion of the Lexington and Eastern Railroad, about 20 years ago (Green Trimble wrote this when he 91 years old.).

(Editor's Note: The remaining part of this article is a direct quotation of an interview given by H. Price Sewell, Sr., a former mayor of Jackson. Mr. Sewell gave this information during an talk with Margaret Bishop in the late 1930s in Jackson.)

Thomas Sewell was the first merchant to settle in Jackson. He purchased two lots west of the courthouse, and in 1840 erected thereon a dwelling and storehouse of hewed logs, he conducted a hotel. This building was on the site of the present Jefferson Hotel, Main St. George Sewell, my father, married Elizabeth Spencer, daughter of William Spencer, Sr. Together these men were engaged in logging and shipping logs, made into rafts, down the North Fork of the Kentucky River to Frankfort. Thus they were engaged for many years. The headquarters of the operation was here in Jackson. Father died about September 1930. He lived here in the residence where I now live. George W. Sewell and his wife had four sons and eight daughters. George W. Sewell was a soldier in the Confederate Army and saw services at Chickamauga, Ga. He served through most of the war.

On Christmas Day in 1840 his family arrived on horseback from Harlan Co.--his wife and daughter, Fanny, two sons, William and Benjamin, and two young laboring men, Bill Wright and Jordon Gross. Mr. Sewell was a successful merchant and continued to live here until the beginning of the Civil War, when he moved to Irvine, Estill Co. He lived at Irvine a few years when his wife died, after which he married a widow and located at Clay's Ferry where he died, leaving much valuable real estate for his grandchildren, for his children had all married and died at an early age. I commenced selling goods for him at Jackson about March 1,1841. About the time I was living at Jackson and within a year or two thereafter, many nice families located there, among them John Sewell an uncle of Thomas Sewell

Thomas Sewell bought up much timberland and operated several stores. He sold the timber and made much money for that day and time. There is a Sewell's Point off either the coast of Virginia or Maryland. We consider the Sewell's English. Thomas Sewell died about 1879 at Clay's Ferry and is buried in the Lexington Cemetery. Lord Baltimore, Governor of Maryland in earlier days, had a secretary by the name of Sewell, the first Sewell in America.

John Sewell, my grandfather and uncle of the Thomas Sewell already mentioned, had two sons--Joseph and Geo. Washington Sewell (my father). They formerly lived at Tazewell, Tenn. They came here, probably about 1841. John Sewell had married Margaret Harmon of Sulphur Springs, W.Va. They were married in W. Va. He probably came from there to Tennessee. John Sewell settled across the N. Fork of the Ky. River opposite Jackson on what is known now as the J.R. Blake farm. He later moved to the mouth of Panbowl Creek, near where G.C. Allen now lives. George W. Sewell was about 10 years old when his father died: that was about 1850. I have heard it said that my uncle Joseph bought Panbowl Creek and lands for a rifle gun. Ben Sewell, son of great-uncle Joseph Sewell, married a Miss Scott of Louisiana. My father, Geo. W. Sewell married Miss Elizabeth Spencer. They had four sons and eight daughters. My brother, Chas. Sewell was City Police Judge from 1933 to 1935 when he died. Ben Sewell, another brother, has been cashier of the First National Bank since April 1910. His wife, Miss Anna Hardwick, clerked in the same bank for many years. They have two grown children.

I was just out of high school when I commenced working for the firm of Hargis Bros. in their store on Main St. Then I clerked for Floyd Day & Co. and Day Lumber & Coal Co. I moved my family to the farm my father had purchased from Wm. Spencer, formerly owned by Simon Cockrell, known as the the "Si Bend" farm during the time I worked for Floyd Day. We remained there 15 years. We returned to Jackson and I bought out the interest of my brothers in this general merchandise store about 15 years ago. I owned the building. I was elected to the city council and served as clerk of the city for several years. I was appointed mayor of Jackson to succeed Mayor A.W. Brown when he resigned in 1933. I served out his term and was elected, serving altogether from 1933-37. I married Miss Margaret Kash, daughter of Dr. John Mason Kash, physician of Jackson and Wolfe County. They have two sons, Dr. Frank K. Sewell, Director of the local public health unit, but formerly he had a private practice besides operating the Bach Memorial Hospital for one year following the death of the late Dr. Wilgus Bach. He was associated with Dr. Bach for about one year previous to Dr. Bach's death. H. Price Sewell Jr.. M.D., another son, is in the State Public Health Dept. too. He has recently finished his internship in the Baptist Hospital. Louisville. Both of these Doctor Sewells are graduates of Vanderbilt Medical College, Nashville, Tenn.

John Sewell and wife, my grandparents, and a John Sewell, Jr. and his wife were buried on the Blake farm, where Thos. Sewell formerly lived. My father, Geo. W. Sewell, obtained an order from the county court and had their remains exhumed, moved to the Sewell cemetery on Marcum Heights, and re-interred in our cemetery (Sewell Cemetery). William Sewell, son of Thomas Sewell first referred to, married Evelyn Britain. One of their daughters, Sarah Jane Sewell married Hiram Jett and is the mother of H. June Jett, merchant on Main St., Jackson. Evelyn (Britain) Sewell later married John S. Hargis and became the mother of A.H. Hargis and the late Judge James Hargis. Sarah Jane Sewell, mother of H. June Jett, was the woman who married, for her second husband, former sheriff John Linville Hagins who arrested her first husband and the Littles when they stopped the feud between these families. There was another Joseph Sewell he was a surveyor for Breathitt Co. I do not know where they came from.