Leah Goldman is our great-great-great-great grandmother, born in the hills of North Carolina during the Revolutionary war. In 1781 she was only three or four years old, her mother was dead, possibly dying during the birth of Leah's little sister, Martha. The Revolution was raging all around Leah and her three brothers and five sisters, with Cornwallis chasing Nathaniel Green's Army across the state right past Leah's home on Little Coldwater Creek. Then, as the tides of war turned, Green turned and chased Cornwallis back almost to Leah's door.

Henry Goldman, Leah's father, was already a very sick man and could foresee the end of his time. In January 1781 he sat down and wrote his will, trying to provide some semblance of security for his young family. Whether for the uncertainty of the times or his son's young age, Henry had doubts about his children remaining on his land in the North Carolina hills. He made provision for both who would get the land and what to do with the plows and horses if the "plantation" was sold. Henry was a German Palatine Lutheran and very concerned about his children's spiritual training. He left the sum of Fifteen Pounds Sterling for the religious education of Leah and her young brother and sisters. To his daughter Catherine he left his black silk handkerchief, his bed and bedstead. His black hat went to his daughter Mary.

By April 1781 Henry Goldman was dead and his will was in probate. His older sons and daughters were now struggling to care for their younger siblings. Not long after her father's death, Leah went to live with her sister and brother-in-law, Charles Hart, Sr. Leah stays with this family until she marries many years later. She calls Charles Hart father, he calls her daughter.

In 1790, when Leah is a young teenager, Charles Hart becomes enthralled by the glorious tales of Kentucky. The Hart family and several of their neighbors take to the Wilderness Road for the heart of the Kentucky frontier. Charles Hart settles on land along Doctors Fork of Chaplin River just below present day Perryville, not far from the Charles Powell family.

On Dec. 21, 1797 Leah and Charles Powell, Jr. are married in Mercer County, Kentucky. Over the next 21 years Leah gives birth to twelve children; two girls and ten strong boys.

In 1819, mysteriously to us, Charles Jr. meets an untimely death at the age of 45. Leah, just 43 years old, suddenly finds herself a deeply in debt widow with twelve children to support. Her youngest child, Goldman, is only two years old.

Unlike many widows of her time, Leah will not have her sons bound out to her neighbors for room and board. Stubbornly she holds all her children close. Her sons do work for the neighbors, but at night they come home to Leah's hearth. She and her ten sons keep the family together. In 1824, in hopes of bettering her situation, Leah takes Benjamin Viles as a husband. This marriage did not turn out as Leah had hoped.

By 1827, Leah's eldest daughter and three of her sons have married. She still has six minor children at home, the oldest being Cyrus, age 19 and she is a very sick woman. She is suffering form "dropsey." Today we call this congestive heart failure. She felt a heavy weight was pressing on her chest. She tried to breath deeply but was still starved for air. Her legs swelled. She had trouble walking. By February she had taken to her bed for the last time. Benjamin Viles, fearing he would be held responsible for Leah's debts, had already disappeared never to be heard from again.

Leah wasted away through the spring and summer, rarely if ever leaving that bed. By July it was readily apparent to all the family that she would not live long. Her family began to prevail upon her to move to her father's house where they could make her more comfortable.

She said "I will not leave until Jacob comes to take care of the children." Jacob, her 20 year old son, was working at the ironworks. Someone went to the ironworks and Jacob came to his mother's last call. She told Jacob her instructions for her property and caring for the children. Satisfied that Jacob would be there for her young ones, she went to the home of her father, Charles Hart, to await the end.

Less than two weeks later, on July 19, 1827 she drew her last struggling breath. Within the next day or two her family and friends stood over her grave and heard her father, Charles Hart, say "She was the best child I ever raised."

Leah's Father's Story || Henry Powell, Leah's Son's Story

Copyright © 1996 Fleta Aday

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