Appalachian Figures Series – The Story of Sizemore Family of Leslie, Kentucky
John “Rockhouse” Sizemore belongs to Leslie County history, but most of the records that may document his life will not say Leslie County at all. That is the first thing to understand about him. Leslie County was not created until 1878, when Kentucky formed the new county from parts of Clay, Harlan, and Perry counties. The Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives lists Leslie County as county number 117, formed in 1878 from Clay, Harlan, and Perry, with Hyden as the county seat. The Newberry Library’s Atlas of Historical County Boundaries gives the creation date as April 15, 1878 and summarizes the act as creating Leslie from Clay and Perry. That difference should not be ignored. It is part of the way county-boundary history has to be handled carefully in eastern Kentucky.
That matters because John Sizemore’s settlement story reaches back before Leslie County existed. In the early nineteenth century, the land now associated with Hyden and Rockhouse Creek sat inside an older county-record world. Depending on the year and exact location, the researcher has to think in terms of Clay, Perry, or Harlan records. Clay County itself was formed in 1807 from parts of Floyd, Knox, and Madison counties, and that county became one of the central record jurisdictions for early families on the upper Kentucky River and its branches.
The Mouth of Rockhouse Creek
The official Leslie County history preserves the clearest local version of the tradition. It states that the Sizemore family were the first settlers to live on the land at the mouth of Rockhouse Creek on the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River, where Hyden is located today. It also states that John Sizemore sold the land to the John Lewis family, that the land was later donated to the county, and that Hyden was founded on the site of John Lewis’s farm. The same county history says Hyden was founded in 1878 and named for State Senator John Hyden of Clay County, one of the commissioners appointed to establish Leslie County.
That short official account is important because it ties three layers of local history together. First, there was the Sizemore settlement at Rockhouse Creek. Second, there was the Lewis family ownership and farm. Third, there was the county-seat founding of Hyden after Leslie County was created. For John “Rockhouse” Sizemore, the historical importance is not that he founded the town of Hyden in the civic sense. Hyden came later. His importance is that local memory and county history place him and the Sizemore family on the land before the town and courthouse gave that place its later public identity.
Finding John Sizemore in the Early Records
The early paper trail is scattered, but it is not empty. A USGenWeb transcription of the 1810 Clay County census lists a John Sizemore in Clay County. That transcription should be treated as a guide until the original census image is checked, but it is still an important lead because it places the name in the correct county setting before Leslie County existed.
The 1811 Clay County tax list is an even stronger local lead. The Three Forks of the Kentucky River Historical Association’s transcription describes the list as males over twenty-one from the Clay County tax list of 1811, compiled and donated by Silas Begley. In that list, Edward Sizemore, John Sizemore, and Henry Sizemore appear together among Clay County taxpayers.
William C. Kozee’s Pioneer Families of Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky also places the Sizemore name inside the early Clay County record world. Kozee’s work is a secondary source, but it is useful because it organizes early county formation, tax, court, and family material for the region. In the Clay County section, the book places Clay County’s creation in 1806 to take effect in 1807, and it includes John Sizemore among early Clay County names.
These records do not, by themselves, prove every detail of the Rockhouse Creek tradition. They do something more modest but still valuable. They show that the Sizemore name, including a John Sizemore, appears in the right region and period. That gives the local tradition a record setting rather than leaving it only as family story.
The 1842 Land Sale Tradition
The most important record still to verify is the reported 1842 deed from John “Rockhouse” Sizemore to James Lewis or to the Lewis family. Later genealogy compilations repeat the claim that George “All” Sizemore and Aggie Shepherd settled in what is now Leslie County, that land near the Hyden town site later belonged to John “Rockhouse” Sizemore and Nancy Bowling, and that John sold the property to James Lewis in 1842. One online compilation quotes this as coming through The Manchester Enterprise and related genealogy sources, but that is not the same thing as having the deed book in hand.
For an Appalachian history article, the safest way to handle this is to say that the official county history preserves the Sizemore-to-Lewis transfer tradition, while the exact 1842 deed should be checked in Clay County deed books or through Kentucky archival holdings. The Kentucky Secretary of State’s Land Office is also important for broader land research because it is the repository for Kentucky patent records, including patents issued within Kentucky’s boundaries and patents issued by Virginia before Kentucky became a state in 1792.
That distinction matters. A land patent would document a grant from government authority to a grantee. A county deed would document a later private sale or transfer. If the 1842 Sizemore-to-Lewis transaction is found in the Clay County deed books, it would be the strongest documentary support for the story of how the Rockhouse Creek settlement site passed into the Lewis family line before it became the county-seat ground for Hyden.
Sizemore Family Memory and the Dickey Diaries
The Sizemore family is surrounded by a large body of genealogy, oral tradition, and Cherokee ancestry claims. Some of those traditions are valuable as memory. Others are difficult to prove. The John J. Dickey Diaries, held by Berea College Special Collections, are especially important because they captured late nineteenth-century oral-history interviews from eastern Kentucky families. Online transcriptions of Dickey material connect the Sizemores to Middle Fork settlement memory and to related families such as the Begleys, Bowlings, Gilberts, and Wilders.
Those materials should be used with care. Dickey’s interviews are not the same as courthouse records, but they are historically important because they show what older residents and descendants were saying about family origins, migration, kinship, and settlement. In the Sizemore case, they help explain why John “Rockhouse” Sizemore is remembered not only as a landholder but as part of a wider family tradition in the Middle Fork country.
The Eastern Cherokee applications and Guion Miller material can also be useful, but only if handled carefully. The National Archives identifies M1104 as the Eastern Cherokee Applications of the U.S. Court of Claims, 1906 to 1909. FamilySearch notes that the Eastern Cherokee application packets were taken from Guion Miller enrollment records and consist of packets of information rather than only the Miller roll itself. These files can preserve descendant testimony, family names, and claimed lines of ancestry, but they do not automatically prove Cherokee citizenship or every family claim made in the applications.
Keeping the John Sizemores Separate
One of the biggest risks in writing about John “Rockhouse” Sizemore is blending him with later men of the same name. The Kentucky Historical Society’s FromThePage material identifies a different John Sizemore, a Clay County farmer, son of Nancy Sizemore, who married Minerva Jane Tredaway in Clay County in 1853 and appears as a Clay County resident in 1850 and 1860. That man belongs to the broader Sizemore record world, but he should not be folded into the life of the earlier John “Rockhouse” Sizemore without proof.
There is also a later John Sizemore in Leslie County’s folk-music record. In 1937, Alan and Elizabeth Lomax recorded in Leslie County, including a productive session at the home of John Sizemore on Marrowbone Creek near Gardner. The Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings project describes that session as including sacred songs, ballads, blues, Great War songs, banjo tunes, and buck-dancing. Individual items identify John Sizemore’s home as the setting, and “The Old Belled Ewe and the Little Speckled Wether” lists John Sizemore as a performer with J. F. “Farmer” Collett on September 26, 1937.
That later John Sizemore is not John “Rockhouse” Sizemore, who belongs to the early settlement era. Still, the Lomax recordings show how the Sizemore name remained woven into Leslie County’s cultural landscape long after Hyden had become the county seat. The Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress for 1938 even thanked “John Sizemore, of the Upper Middle Fork, Leslie County” among the Kentuckians who helped make the Lomax collecting trip valuable.
Why John “Rockhouse” Sizemore Matters
John “Rockhouse” Sizemore matters because his story sits at the edge of three kinds of history. It is a family story, preserved through genealogy and oral tradition. It is a land story, centered on the mouth of Rockhouse Creek and the ground that later became Hyden. It is also a county-formation story, because the man remembered as an early settler of Leslie County lived before Leslie County existed.
That is why the best version of the story is careful but not timid. The official county account gives the broad local tradition: the Sizemores were the first settlers at the mouth of Rockhouse Creek, John Sizemore sold the land to the Lewis family, and Hyden later rose on the Lewis farm. Early Clay County census, tax, and pioneer-family references place the Sizemore name in the right record world. Later oral histories and genealogy sources carry the family memory forward. What remains is the courthouse work: the deed books, land records, and original record images that can separate tradition from proof.
In that way, John “Rockhouse” Sizemore is more than a name in a family tree. He is one of the figures through whom Leslie County remembers the time before the courthouse, before the county seat, and before Hyden had a name on the map.
Sources & Further Reading
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. “Kentucky County Formation Chart.” Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://kdla.ky.gov/Archives-and-Reference/Pages/Kentucky-County-Formation-Chart.aspx
Leslie County, Kentucky. “About Us.” Commonwealth of Kentucky. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://lesliecounty.ky.gov/Pages/About-Us.aspx
Long, John H., ed. “Kentucky: Individual County Chronologies.” Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. Newberry Library. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://publications.newberry.org/ahcb/documents/KY_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm
Newberry Library. “Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.” Accessed April 28, 2026. https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb/
Kentucky Secretary of State. “Non-Military Registers and Land Records.” Kentucky Land Office. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://sos.ky.gov/land/non-military/Pages/default.aspx
Kentucky Secretary of State. “Virginia and Old Kentucky Patent Series.” Kentucky Land Office. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://sos.ky.gov/land/non-military/patent-series/Pages/default.aspx
USGenWeb Archives. “1810 Clay County, Kentucky Census.” Accessed April 28, 2026. https://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/clay/census/1810.txt
Three Forks of the Kentucky River Historical Association. “Clay County Tax List, 1811.” Compiled and donated by Silas Begley. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://tfkrha.org/Clay/TaxListClay1811.php
Kozee, William C. Pioneer Families of Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky. Huntington, WV: Standard Printing and Publishing Company, 1957. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/pioneerfamilieso00koze
Kozee, William C. Pioneer Families of Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky. Full text. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/stream/pioneer-families-of-eastern-and-southeastern-kentucky/Pioneer%20Families%20of%20Eastern%20and%20Southeastern%20Kentucky_djvu.txt
FamilySearch. “Clay County, Kentucky Genealogy.” FamilySearch Research Wiki. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Clay_County,_Kentucky_Genealogy
FamilySearch. “Leslie County, Kentucky Genealogy.” FamilySearch Research Wiki. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Leslie_County,_Kentucky_Genealogy
FamilySearch. “Perry County, Kentucky Genealogy.” FamilySearch Research Wiki. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Perry_County,_Kentucky_Genealogy
FamilySearch. “Harlan County, Kentucky Genealogy.” FamilySearch Research Wiki. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Harlan_County,_Kentucky_Genealogy
FamilySearch. “Eastern Cherokee Applications, August 29, 1906–May 26, 1909.” FamilySearch Catalog. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/209173
National Archives. “Guion Miller Roll.” National Archives. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/rolls/guion-miller-rolls
National Archives. “Eastern Cherokee Applications, 1906–1909.” National Archives Catalog. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://catalog.archives.gov/
Kentucky Historical Society. “John Sizemore.” FromThePage transcription project. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://dev.fromthepage.com/khs/updated-transcriptions/article_version/32207120
Berea College Special Collections and Archives. “John J. Dickey Diary Collection.” Accessed April 28, 2026. https://berea.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/38
Global Graffiti. “George ‘All’ Sizemore and Aggie Shepherd.” Sizemore Family Research. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.globalgraffiti.com/family/sizemore/george.htm
Global Graffiti. “John ‘Rockhouse’ Sizemore and Nancy Bowling.” Sizemore Family Research. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.globalgraffiti.com/family/sizemore/johnrockhouse.htm
Find a Grave. “John ‘Rockhouse’ Sizemore.” Memorial page. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/
Sibley, Linda Roberts. John Sizemore and Nancy Bowling of Leslie County, Kentucky. 2022. Google Books. https://books.google.com/
Clay County Genealogical and Historical Society. “Publications.” Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.clayfamilies.org/
Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings. “Leslie County.” Association for Cultural Equity and Berea College. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://lomaxky.omeka.net/exhibits/show/counties/leslie
Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings. “The Old Belled Ewe and the Little Speckled Wether.” Association for Cultural Equity and Berea College. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/609
Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings. “Rocky Mountaintop (part 2).” Association for Cultural Equity and Berea College. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://lomaxky.omeka.net/
Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings. “I’m Gonna Cross that White Oak Mountain (part 1).” Association for Cultural Equity and Berea College. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/599
Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings. “Marrowbone Itch.” Association for Cultural Equity and Berea College. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/602
Library of Congress. Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1938. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1938. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/annualreportofli1938unse
Library of Congress. “The Little Speckled Wether.” Library of Congress Catalog. Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.loc.gov/
WikiTree. “John ‘Rockhouse’ Sizemore.” Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.wikitree.com/
Geni. “John ‘Rockhouse’ Sizemore.” Accessed April 28, 2026. https://www.geni.com/
Author Note: Stories like John “Rockhouse” Sizemore’s remind us that county history often begins before the county itself existed. I have tried to separate the strongest records from later family tradition while still respecting the local memory that keeps Rockhouse Creek tied to Leslie County’s beginning.