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Hopkins County Folk Lore
By Contributing Editor, Carolyn Buntin
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Nancy, today I passed your lovely home on the way to my daughter's home. I was telling my grandson about the old Lick Creek Church that used to stand near your property and it occurred to me that you might like to know this little tidbit about your property.
On the opposite side of the road from where the old church once stood is a clearly marked "parking" area where cars used to park. Down behind that area in what used to be woods (maybe still is) is a spring of water. The water never went dry because it was fed from an underground source of water.
The ladies of the area used this spring as a community "wash hole". My Mother, Glenna Carner Buntin Dunbar, used to take my older sisters and load them in the wagon, along with the weeks worth of dirty clothes, lye soap, washboard, a big tub (for starching) and meet with other ladies to do their weekly washing at the spring. The kids would play in the old cemetery, pick blackberries when in season, etc while the woman did their back breaking job of hand washing the clothes. When the women returned to their homes, the clothes had to be hung on clotheslines to dry. Then came the "sprinkling" of the clothes, forming them into rolls so they wouldn't dry out, then hours of ironing. Before electricity, they heated their irons on the wood or coal stoves. My mother never passes that spot without re-telling that story. It's a fond memory for her believe it or not.
Just wanted you to know about the spring and I really hope that it's still there and the water is still flowing.
Carolyn Buntin Eveland
P.S. Dunbar is not my line and I don't know anything about them. Please don't ask.
Lick Creek Church burned down a number of years ago and was never rebuilt. What is left was pushed into a pile, as seen in the first photo. This area is just west of the sign at the top of the page. The trees in the background are on our place. 
Lick Creek Road. The cemetery is on both sides of the narrow gravel road. The sign is on the south side [right] and just east of where the church stood. The 'wash area' in the story above is on the north side of the road [left]. There has been a lot of problems in the past few years with flooding in the area west of here with the water washing out our drive. The county came in last fall [1999] and cut the ditches deeper on both sides of the road. This did several things. . . it made the road narrower, and it made it impossible to park in the parking area that Carolyn mentioned.
The graphic being used for the Folk Lore pages is Lick Creek Road. The cemetery is just around the bend at the top of the graphic.
Nancy Trice, © 2000
