W. B. M. Brooks, Hardin Holsclaw, and Col. Dennis Mitchell

This is one of the recollections written by Wallace A. McKay and published in The Pioneer-News. Follow the "Recollections" link above to find others of his writings.

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The Pioneer-News, May 26, 1933, pages 1-2

Among the splendid men who used to visit our home in Shepherdsville during the life time of my father and grandfather were Hon. W. B. M. Brooks, Mr. Hardin Holsclaw, and Col. Dennis Mitchell. Mr. Brooks had for years been one of the most prominent and active citizens of Bullitt County, living in a beautiful house at Brooks Station, which was noted for its culture and hospitality. Mr. Brooks had been a member of the Legislature and was well versed in affairs of State and current polities. He was a close friend of Hon. J. Proctor Knott and Gen. Simon Boliver Buckner, both of whom served as Governor. Mr. Brooks was an up-to-date farmer and a progressive and high-class citizen and had a host of friends in all that territory extending from the city limits of Louisville to Salt River He was always affable, kind and considerate and courteous, and the kind of man who, once seen, is not easily forgotten. His only son, Dr. Walter Brooks, survives and is now a prominent physician in Alabama.

Mr. Hardin Holsclaw was a man of medium size and height, snowy white hair and very heavy, shaggy eyebrows. He was a man of vigorous physique and had a ruddy, healthy complexion from his out-door life and hard work. He had farms and lands all over the County, and was, during his time, the largest land owner of Bullitt County. He was always on the go and always rode on horseback. He rode a fine iron grey saddle horse which was known far and wide. He had friends and relatives all over the County and in those days when a visitor came late in the afternoon or evening it was the custom to stay all night and "Uncle Hardin" as we all affectionately called him, was always a welcome guest at our home where he talked with my grandfather and grandmother in the sitting room before a big log fire until late at night discussing business, farming and the Government. My grandmother had inherited quite a nice estate from her father which she was accustomed to invest in small loans on lands throughout the County and "Uncle Hardin" frequently acted as her agent in negotiating these loans. Frequently mortgages were taken for $100.00 to $500.00 and never recorded, people in those days having so much confidence in each other. There were no Banks in Bullitt County and and when a man needed money he had to borrow it from some friend or acquaintance, or the neighborhood store. Among the men who acted as Bankers in their respective sections of Bullitt County were Henry Trunnell at Bardstown, Ky; W. B. M. Brooks and William Dawson, Sr, at Pitts Point, and Sam Carrothers at Mt Washington.

Col Dennis Mitchell, of South Park, lived just over the Bullitt County line in Jefferson County and was also a leading citizen of his section, and owned considerable land in the Knobs of Bullitt County, and in those days was a frequent visitor to Shepherdsville. His family had married in Bullitt County and he was related by blood or marriage to the Millers, Houghs, Horines Paulleys, Rayhills, Grahams and Ramseys, and to almost every family in and around Cupio, Barrallton and the Knob section of Bullitt County.

Dennis Mitchell came of one of the Pioneer families of Jefferson and Bullitt Counties and is about the only remaining link between the Antebellum days and the present, yet surviving.

The writer visited Col. Mitchell last Saturday at his home at the Crest of Mitchell Hill in the South end of Jefferson County. Col. Mitchell lives with his daughter, Mrs. Steven Graham, and from the porch of his beautiful home you can see the City of Louisville and the Hills of Southern Indiana for a distance of fifty miles.

Dennis Mitchell is one of the Old Patriarchs of Kentucky, and although in his 96th. year, he is still in fairly good health with memory unimpaired. He served in the Civil War under General Sherman and took part in the battles of Murfreesboro, Stone River and Chickamauga. He, with George Beghtol, are the only Civil War Veterans, who fought on the side of the North during the Civil War, yet surviving.

When Dennis Mitchell was born, ten miles south of Louisville, in the Knobs of Jefferson County, Louisville only had a population of 40,000, Kentucky 695,000 and the United States 15,000,000. He has lived to see his State grow to near 3,000,000 population and the United States to upwards of One Hundred Twenty-five Million.

Several years after the Civil War Dennis Mitchell served for two terms as Magistrate. For years he has taken an active interest in every movement for the uplift and advancement of his section and has especially been active in educational matters, and was one of the founders of the famous Mitchell School in Jefferson County.

He has descendants scattered over Kentucky and other States to the number of several hundred. As he recently said, "I used to keep up with my grandchildren pretty well, and for a while kept track of some of my great-grand- children, but when the crop of great-great-grandchildren began to start, I threw up my hands and quit in despair, and now I have only a general knowledge of the number and whereabouts of my grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, numbering several hundred."

Full of years and honors, Dennis Mitchell is now enjoying the quiet serene of life of a retired farmer and business man, and is surrounded with every competent luxury. He is happy in the thought that he has performed every duty of life faithfully and courageously, and is proud of the part he took in the development of his County, State and Nation; and he is proud also that his descendants throughout the Country are keeping up the Mitchell tradition for hard work, industry and public spirited enterprise.

W. A. M.

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