Watts Reunion, Inc.

This Christmas, as we sit in our warm, well-lit homes and enjoy time with our families, let us pause to remember the experiences of our forefathers and mothers who first blazed the path of settlement into Eastern Kentucky. Let us remember experiences they endured on their first Christmas in the wilderness of Breathitt County.

George Washington Watts was a head-strong man and a mountain rambler. His enormous physical strength was hidden by his slight frame. Along with several members of a settling party, they traveled to find a new home in Eastern Kentucky.

Included in this party of first settlers were the members of the Noble, Neace, Allen, and Watts families and evidence also indicates that the Millers joined this “first” settling trip into Kentucky.
Washington Watts joined the group of would-be settlers in North Carolina and some oral tradition indicates that he was the leader of the group. Well into his twenty-second year, Washington Watts was an experienced mountain traveler.
The much-debated settling party left Virginia in late September 1799 and headed over the mountains toward the rugged slopes of Eastern Kentucky. Making their way through what is now Magoffin County, the small band encountered a raging forest fire that nearly stopped their quest for a new home. They stood by and watched as the flames burned over the hill and onto Quicksand Creek.

The group had planned to spend the winter in a rock shelter on Quicksand Creek but the flames of the huge fire had driven away most of the game they relied on for food, so the group chose to find an alternative place to spend the rapidly approaching winter months.

A suitable winter home for the band was located at the mouth of Buckhorn Creek. Nathan Noble and his wife Virginia Neace Noble and a small group continued on down the stream and in late November with the snow flying, then traveled up Caney Creek and crossed to the mouth of Cockrell’s Fork where they passed the first winter in a rock shelter. Included in this portion of the band was Nathan’s older sister Emaline (Millie) Noble and her “new found” friend Washington Watts.

It was here in a roomy rock cliff near the mouth of Cockrell’s Fork that the Watts generations began and it was here that George Washington Watts and Emaline “Millie” Noble spent their first Christmas.

Their first Christmas Day was celebrated on January 6, 1800 in that little rock shelter. The exact details of what was done to celebrate the birth of Christ has not been passed down, but we are able to visualize what that first Christmas in Kentucky must have been like.

According to atmospheric records, much of the country was covered in a thick layer of snow. Reports from Louisville indicate that as much as 8 inches of snow blanketed the ground across most of Kentucky. The high temperature for that Christmas Day was probably around 34 degrees and the sky was clear and bright.

All in all the first Christmas was rather bleak for those first settlers. Virginia Noble, who had slowed the group on their trip, gave birth to a healthy baby boy in late December. During the following weeks the child had taken a cough and died after only a few weeks.

The sorrow and pain of a loss in the small cliff community must have weighed heavily on the small band as they huddled together for that first Christmas.

There were no grand turkey dinners. No doubt, a little fresh game and a few soft potatoes served as the fare for our grandparents’ first celebration.

Despite the hardships they faced, a great tradition grew out of that first Christmas in the mountains. The Watts and Noble families always pass the holidays by huddling together and making family the most important aspect of our holidays. No matter how much has changed for.a Watts Christmas, family still remains the center of the annual celebration.

May you all have a wonderful holiday season and remember Christ and his sacrifice. Merry Christmas.