THIS OLD HOUSE

HOUSES: Robert Parmley House in Parmleysville, Ky
John, Giles, Hiel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, John, John

From Ray Blevins, who lived in the house with his grandmother in the 1930s:

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'Before 1825, Robert Parmley [at left] built this house. The original brick chimneys were torn down and replaced by shaped stone by master mason Mash Burgess.

"The oak shingle roof was replaced by metal and the rough lumber exterior was covered by weatherboard and painted. The pine and poplar lumber used in the construction of the house had been cut by ripsaw using manpower. The rafters in the back section were round straight poles pegged together at the top and square headed homemade nails were used in the construction of the house.

'The four rooms in the front were 20 feet square and the back room was 18 feed wide and 36 feet long. The house was heated by a fireplace in each room downstairs. The kitchen was in the very rear of the picture. The pine floor in the front room had been scrubbed so much with sand and water using a shuck mop that the nail heads and the pine knots stuck up above the rest of the floor.

"The Hurts, Burnetts and Parmleys were all slave owners and [at] the back of the yard [there] was a row of cedar log cabins for the slaves to live in. Robert Parmley sold the house to the Hurts about 1853 and moved to a location in Russell County on the Cumberland River.

"Alvis Hurt is the man standing in front of the third porch post from the left." 

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About a quarter mile from the house, Robert built a dam in conjuction with a grist mill he operated.