by Ralph Barnes
Citizen Voice & Times
Jan 9, 1997
The history of Estill County is much richer today by two people who share the
same last name. Both are connected by blood or marriage to Elisha Witt, the
Revolutionary War soldier for whom the local chapter of the D.A.R. is named.
The first of this extraordinary pair is Bob Witt of Cedar Grove. Bob is the son
of James Weeden Witt and Millie King. The retired railroader is about to reach
the century mark in an exceptional life. At ninety-nine years of age, this
remarkable gentlemen still walks the quarter-mile from his house to the Cedar
Grove Methodist Church every Sunday morning as he has done for more than three
thousand five hundred Sundays. The church has been a stabilizing force in Mr.
Witt’s life since Calvin Coolidge was President. Bob joined Cedar Grove
Methodist in 1927 and was baptized in the Kentucky River near the old toll
bridge. The current structure is located within sight of where the storied
Clear Creek Meeting House, one of Estill County’s early houses of worship, is
believed to have stood. The church has comforted Bob during the difficult times
and nurtured him during the good times. In the last decade, the picturesque
chapel has struggled with a declining membership, the scourge of so many small
country churches. If there was an endangered species list for small churches,
the historic little sanctuary would head the list. However, things are looking
up for Bob Witt’s church. Greg McClellan, a gifted young preacher, has been
assigned to the church and attendance is on the upswing. The choir, although
small in number, sings with the fervor of a celestial chorus. The indomitable
spirit of Bob Witt seems to have infected the entire congregation, giving the
little chapel a warmth and a sense of fellowship often lacking in larger
churches. There is renewed resolve by the membership to increase attendance and
thereby remove one of Estill County’s treasures from the endangered status. As
he approaches the century mark, Bob Witt continues a lifetime of support for
his church. Nothing would make him happier than to celebrate his hundredth
birthday this June with the certain knowledge that the Cedar Grove Methodist
Church will be there when he is ready to celebrate his 110th birthday.
The other unforgettable person with the Witt surname is a distinguished lady
named Bess Witt who makes her home in Frankfort these days. Bess came to Estill
County in the late nineteen thirties on her first job as a young public health
nurse. In Irvine she met and married Hugh Witt, a railroader who was the son of
William S. Witt and Eliza Wilcox from Cedar Grove. He was the uncle of William
Boyd Witt of Witt’s Furniture on Main Street and a cousin to Bob Witt. Hugh
died in 1946 leaving a young widow and a small son.
Serving as a public health nurse in the thirties was a challenging job. The
young nurse took on the difficult but rewarding task of bringing medical care
to the indigent people who lived in the remote areas of the county. The
position paid the modest salary of one hundred and twenty-five dollars a month,
not that bad during the Great Depression. The job required her to travel a
great deal and that created a problem for the new nurse. Bess had never owned
an automobile nor for that matter driven one. Her boss, Dr. Snowden,
recognizing the necessity for Bess to have transportation, arranged for her to
finance a now extinct make of automobile known as the Hudson Terraplane. Bess
became intimately acquainted with most of the ditches in the county while
learning to control that infernal machine.
The back roads frequently were impassable and in some cases, the only way for
the health providers to reach patients in the remote areas was by walking.
Medicine was less advanced in those days and people frequently died from
injuries or diseases that require only routine care today. The frustration of
being unable to satisfactorily deal with many illnesses was more than offset by
the large number of healthy babies that Bess and her colleagues brought into
the world.
Bess recalls many humorous stories about her work in Estill County. One
instance was when she was treating an elderly man for congenital syphilis. The
treatment for that hereditary disease required a series of painful shots. The
gentleman in question did not waste money on luxuries such as undergarments.
But the elderly man prudently bought a pair of undershorts to wear for his
physical examinations. He was very careful with his new drawers and only wore
them when he knew that they would be required for modesty’s sake. On a routine
visit to the health clinic for shots, he did not anticipate the need for shorts
and left them home. Because of a reaction to a previous shot it became necessary
to inject him in the hip rather than the arm as he was expecting. The surprised
patient was asked to drop his pants for an injection. The request obviously
caused the old gentleman much distress. He remained mute and failed to respond
to repeated requests to take off his trousers. Bess, thinking the elderly man
to be deaf, kept repeating the request in an ever louder voice. After what
seemed like an eternity to the young nurse, the much embarrassed man blurted
out that he could not take the shot that day because he had not worn his
bloomers.
Bess served as a public health nurse in several Eastern Kentucky counties
before taking an administrative position with the State Health Department in
Frankfort. While working in the central offices of the Health Department, she
spearheaded the team that established home health care units in all of
Kentucky’s counties. Bess remained in Frankfort after retiring from the Health
Department several years ago. However, from the way her eyes light up when
Irvine is the topic of conversation, one instantly realizes that her time in
Estill County is among her favorite memories.
Although the contributions of Bess and Bob Witt to our community have been
significant, that is not what makes them special. Both have suffered the nearly
intolerable pain of having to bury not only their spouses, but their children
as well. The dignity with which they have borne that difficult burden while
maintaining a zest for life and an abiding faith in the institutions of man and
God is what sets them apart. Elisha Witt would be proud for two such worthy
kinsmen to carry his name. They obviously are made of that same sturdy stuff
that empowered the old pioneer to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains two centuries
ago, and help bring civilization to the place now called Estill County.