House on Leatherwood Creek

After leaving the house in the woods at Mosby Ridge, we backtracked and returned to route 80 and continued east into Adair County. About 2.5 miles from Mosby Ridge Road, we turned right off route 80 onto Chestnut Grove Road and then immediately left onto Leatherwood Church Road. We continued for about 1 mile on this road, past a residence on the left (which appeared have once been a church) and a cemetery, also on the left (Leatherwood Cemetery.) This cemetery is the location of the burial of Theodosia (Dosie) Walker Hamilton (first wife of John T. Hamilton.), their infant daughter Ora Lee Hamilton (d. 1892), and their son Edward Lee Hamilton (d. 1918.)

Map showing location of Leatherwood Creek sites See the GPS page for more detail

Just before the road makes a sweeping curve to the right (east), about one mile from its junction with Chestnut Grove Road, we took a gravel lane on the left-hand side of the road (indicated on current maps as "Joe Janes Road" or county route 1941) and drove about 0.1 mile up a small hill and stopped in the clearing in front of a tobacco barn. This location was once the site of the home where John T. lived and where many of his children were born, including Mary Lula Hamilton. The house -- now gone -- was located a few yards in front of and downhill from the present-day tobacco barn, on the opposite side of the gravel road.

House on Leatherwood Creek, ca. 1899. Family of John T. Hamilton is standing on the porch. Grandma (Mary Lula) is the baby in her mother's arms.

House on Leatherwood Creek, 1981

1981 - Grandma in front of the house at Leatherwood Creek, her birthplace

House as it looked in 1995

House on Leatherwood, photographed in 1996

House on Leatherwood Creek, 1996

Site where Grandma's birthplace once stood, 2013

Map showing the location of Mary Hamilton's birthplace See the GPS page for more detail

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