A project of the Johnson County Historical and Genealogical Society.

Van Lear was a sparsely populated farm community at the dawn of the 20th century. Known originally as Millers Creek, its pastoral nature was soon lost as it transformed into a thriving municipality. John C. C. Mayo, a young schoolmaster, was the force behind this development. With his geologic knowledge and his forward-looking business savvy, he foresaw the economic power of the veins of bituminous coal that lay undisturbed in much of Eastern Kentucky. Mayo and a small nucleus of businessmen acquired vast tracts of land and mineral rights. In the case of Millers Creek, these holdings were sold to a corporate behemoth, the Consolidation Coal Company (Consol). Mayo became one of Kentuckys wealthiest citizens, and Millers Creek became Van Lear.

By: Eunice T. Johnson, Pub. 1953, Reprinted 2016, 286 pages, Index, ISBN #0-89308-919-2. Perry County was created 1820 from Clay and Floyd Counties. It in turn was carved up to create in part and whole the counties of: Breathitt, Harlan, Knott, Letcher, and Leslie. This is the story of one of the most colorful communties in the Appalachian Mountains. Located on the north fork of the Kentucky River, It sits in the southeastern corner of the state bordering Virginia. This book covers the whole story from the time the first hardy pioneers moved across the mountains from Virginia to build cabins, stake out land claims, and subdivide this part of Kentucky into a county. The author has also included a section of the book entitled "Early Perrry County Families" Baker, Begley, Boling, Brashear, Campbell, Combs, Cope, Cornett, Davidson, Duff, Eversole, Francis, Fugate, Grigsby, Gross, Hall, Holliday, Ison, Johnson, Lusk, Morgan, Napier, Noble, Ritchie, Smith, Stamper, Webb and a list of individuals from the counties First Tax Book, 1821-1822.

This puts "in permanent form the leading facts connected with the organization of the county and accounts of the men who first cut down the forests, grubbed the cane brakes and drove out the savages who disputed its possession ..."--Author's preface.

“. . . Retracing the Vanishing Footprints of Our Appalachian Ancestors” represents a genealogical history of thirteen major pioneer families who settled in eastern Kentucky during the 18th and 19th Centuries. The surnames include Adams, Berry, Brooks, Brown, Burton, Castle, Chaffin, Daniel, Large, Thompson, Ward, Wellman, and Young. To fully appreciate their social and economic hardships and challenges requires the reader to visualize what life was like on the early frontier. After the American Revolution and the Civil War, many of these early pioneers traveled from North Carolina and Virginia into the sheltering hills of eastern Kentucky via Cumberland Gap and Pound Gap. Others came from Pennsylvania. They settled in early Floyd and Lawrence Counties, which were later divided into present day Boyd, Elliott, Floyd, Johnson, Lawrence, and Martin Counties. They were mostly of English, Irish, Scotch-Irish or Anglo-Saxon extraction and made their living by farming the hilly terrain or working in the coalmines. Some supplemented their income by trapping and hunting. They may have been poor by economic standards, but they remained a proud and independent people with strong character traits. Many of their descendants have gone on to become physicians, lawyers, teachers, scientists, military leaders and public servants.