Visiting the O’Neal Farm
If you exit the interstate near the still-small town of Carrollton, KY and head a bit north and away from the great Ohio, you’ll soon find yourself traversing rolling, wooded KY farmland as pretty as you’re likely to find anywhere. Steep-graded meadows, fresh from the haying, Kelly-green in June morning light. Old wooden fences parceling off sweet pastures where a horse or two watches you pass by. Assorted farmhouses, singlewides, new little subdivisions sprouting like happy weeds, the occasionally abandoned and heavy leaning hay or tobacco barn, and warm-hearted folks who’ve worked and loved this land for centuries. You might even spot a doe stepping lightly along the edge of the deep woods, and you’ll certainly smell baked-bread earth, cedar, maple, and purple clover as soon as you step out of the car. Tiny blue butterflies dance around where the grasses are grown tall, and you’ll hear the soft buzzing of a million tiny living, breathing things.
This week I met a 10th generation farmer, so deeply rooted in this area that it shines from his faded blue eyes and flows right through his handshake, along with his wife, sensible and grandmotherly, welcoming in a stranger with a notepad as they might a new neighbor. Storytelling taking the place of cake and coffee out in an open field.
Finding the old homestead would have been a bit adventurous back in the 1940’s, which is the decade I’m searching after. I imagine that I would have been following dirt and gravel roads, not the smoothly paved ones I’m driving now. Even so, as the main road winds out of town, I find myself on progressively smaller ones, turning from the divided two-lane thoroughfare onto a narrower undivided (barely) two car road, then on to a steep paved path so narrow I hoped I wouldn’t meet anyone trying to come down in the opposite direction. This little track wound through deep foliage, the mid-morning sunlight only faintly dappling the rough ground. I’d seen these hills from the highway, and as I approached the top, the view opened up a bit. I found myself at the end of the pavement with only a gravel drive up ahead, rough but maintained. This was the saddle of a little ridge, and the land fell gently away from either side of the end of the road before curving back up to higher, more level ground.
The farmer’s putting in a pond I see, and I hear the rumble of heavy equipment as he digs. “Every farm has to have a pond”, his wife will chuckle to me when I meet her a few minutes later. I scan around and see her car farther down the gravel track and guide my own gently off the pavement to meet her. Her husband sees us and shuts down the digger to drive over in his dusty pickup.
These are the current owners of the old O'Neal farm property where Joy O'Neal grew up and where she and Larry Mosser made some of their earliest memories together. I’d spoken with them briefly on the phone the day before, so I wasn’t too nervous, but I was really hoping that this meeting wouldn’t be awkward, that they would understand my mission and be willing to help answer my questions. That I wouldn’t feel like a trespasser asking to snoop into their private business. I needn’t have worried a bit! From the first hello and handshake, I knew I was welcome. We began with the usual introductions, and I answered their questions about this project I’m working on, how all this came to be, and what I’d like to know and see. We talked for about an hour, and then my Dad and I (who came along for the fun) took a great walk around the property to see what we could see. I took pages of notes on family members, tidbits about the old house, what the new owners have done since obtaining the property, and more.
Sadly, the old family home was demolished in 2022, after decades of disuse. All the windows were empty of their old panes, parts of the second story roof had collapsed and massive vines ran inside and out as if the house wasn’t even there. Two stories, brick, a stately Federal style (I think?!- need to learn more about architectural styles). No porch (which surprised me, as I’d imagined one), tall windows, two flanking the first story front door, three upstairs. What would have been a transom window above the front door. Around the back were the remnants of an old, wooden root cellar & roof, slumped sleepily into a berm of earth.
Two huge cedar trees stood guard over the front. A pleasing, solid, welcoming house. I’ve heard there was once beautiful woodworking inside, an elegant banister and beautiful fireplace mantle, and that the house was full of old (but rotted) furnishings when re-explored in 2022. During the years the estate was mostly abandoned, there are reports that squatters had taken over the home, and removed or destroyed anything of value that had been left behind.
There was no saving the lovely old house, although it stood as long as it could, very likely well over 100 years, and would have stood longer, to fall on its own one day. But, the bulldozers came. Not unkindly, but the new owners were determined to clean up the overgrown and unused land. They fully demolished the house, several adjacent water cisterns, pulled up the stone foundation, and placed much of the debris into the old root cellar. Much of the original brick was salvaged and resold. The new farmer told me that the bricks may have been made on site, possibly by enslaved people. Many of the overgrown and choked trees were removed from around the house, as well as the meadows re-cleared where they were filling back in. The new owners thankfully left the two tall cedars untouched, although one fell in a storm in 2023. One remains, and now helps to mark the front corner of the old place. The property is now impeccably clean. Haying has recommenced, freshly cut the week before my visit, along with two beehives for honey production.
Poking around the foundation area, I was so hopeful to find some relic, something tangible. Toeing through the grass and dirt, my search was rewarded. Tons of small brick and paving stone remnants still there, just below the surface.
We walked through the hay meadow and all around the home site, and I took lots of pictures and videos. It smelled amazing up there- the air warmly perfumed by the cedar trees, clover, warm grass, and rich dirt. Alive, safe, welcoming, soft. A home. For a long, long time. I truly believe you can feel things like that. I’ve been working so hard to imagine this place, and was afraid I’d never get to see it. Now I can see they ways my imagination had already sensed the truth of it, and the ways in which the real site informs and changes the stories I’ve been weaving.
This visit, plus the research I've been doing, have helped me put together the following timeline of the farm's history. I'm pretty confident that this is all correct- but I'll still be looking for additional records to confirm.
O'Neal Farm History (past 100 years!)
- Pre-1923, a large property was owned by George Washington O’Neal, and a 2-story brick home was constructed (Exact age of home unknown, but looks to be late 1800s or early 1900s.)
- Prentice O’Neal (GW O’Neal’s son, and Joy’s father) lives in Indiana for a number of year and worked as a barber before moving back to Kentucky around 1920 to begin farming again
- 1923 GW O’Neal passes away (age 83)
- Approximately 1923, Prentice O’Neal and a brother inherit and divide a large parcel of farmland
- Prentice likely owned around 200 acres at this time
- 1925 Joy O’Neal is born, the youngest of 6 children
- The land was likely used to produce tobacco and cattle through the 1940’s and beyond
- Early 1950s, Prentice and wife Nellie leave the farm to live with Larry & Joy in Louisville
- 1952 Prentice passes away (age 76)
- 1956 Prentice's wife (Joy's mother) Nellie passes away (age 73)
- 1952 farm passes to Prentice’s son (Joy’s brother) James LeRoy O’Neal
- 1959 James LeRoy O’Neal dies (age 54), farm passes to his only child Mary Nell O’Neal
- At some point, Mary Nell O’Neal moves to New York, marries a Mr. Erickson and has a son- Roy Edward Erickson
- Farm is rented out to tenants for tobacco farming until at least Mary’s death in 2001 (age 66). For an unknown reason, she never cashed any of the checks sent to her with the rental and/or profit sharing funds from the farm. These were found among her things after her death.
- 2001 farm passes to Roy Edward Erickson
- The approx. 200 acres are now bisected by an interstate highway. A portion of the property was sold off to another buyer at some point during the early 2000's
- 2010 Roy Edward Erickson passes away in New York (age unknown). No will is found and the estate enters probate court in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. The court issues public proclamations in newspaper(s)/ magazine(s) trying to locate any living family members/ heirs.
- Estate remains in probate until 2022, at which time a settlement is reached with the estate in New York, and the remaining Kentucky property is put up for public auction.
- Family members/ heirs did attempt to reclaim the property, but were unsuccessful
- 2022 remaining land parcel purchased at auction by current owners (names withheld for privacy). 48 acres remain, and it was on this parcel that the old O’Neal home was located.
The new owners are actually distantly related to the O'Neals' and have very deep roots in the county. They are now caring for this land so lovingly, and I offer them my warmest thanks for allowing me to visit, and sharing so much history with me!
Both of these families have shown me so much kindness and excitement about this project- I'm blown away and SO thankful!
The adventure continues!
Leah
Beautiful writing and interesting story. What a gift to the family to trace and document this piece of history!
Thank you Amy!
Leah
Thank you for your interest loving time & research on our family’s farm Your writing has diffently has my interest to learn more on your journey with my cousins parents
Thank you Connie!
Leah, loved your telling of the trip there & seeing the farm! Thank you for the history / timeline of the property and the home. Very interesting! Looking forward to more stories as you learn about Joy & Larry.
Thank you! It was WONDERFUL to see it! 🙂 Thanks to your family for making it possible!!