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The Kentucky Explorer, June 1990, p. 42
Meet the Vanderpools: A typical Kentucky Family in 1905
Marion and Cynthia Vanderpool of Whitley co., Reared 21 Children
Courier-Journal - 1905
The divine injunction to be “fruited, multiply, and replenish the earth” has not been more faithfully observed and obeyed since the days of old than by Marion Kennard Vanderpool and his good wife, a typical Kentucky mountain couple, who make their home in the hills of Whitley county. This twain ar e the parents of 26 children, 21 of whom they reared to the estate of man and womanhood. The remaining five died in infancy.
Mr. and Mrs. Vanderpool, through both far down on the shady side of life, and despite the hardships of poverty and the cares of rearing their large family of sons and daughters, are still hale and hearty. Their home is one of comfort and convenience, and it is still the roof-tree of several sons and daughters, while to those of the family who have drifted away, the latch string still hangs on the outside. The family ties, welded by parental love and reciprocal affection, are still unbroken, and though the family is scattered to the four winds it is spirited united still. Each year there is a family reunion, when most of them gather about the old Whitley county home and partake of the parental hospitality and spend time beneath the roof that sheltered them from cradle to manhood and womanhood.
A few days since the occassion of what is known among the mountain folk as a “working” in which relatives and neighbors gather to lend a helping hand in rearing a barn, clearing a mountain, or to have a “hog killing” time, the sons and daughters of the Vanderpool household, who dwell still in the mountains of their native county, gathered at teh old home, bringing with them their own families, to enjoy again the atmosphere of their childhood days and to donate to their aged father a day of toil that the task of the year in the tilling the soil of his mountain farm might be lighter for him in his waning years. The writer, with notebook and camera, had the good fortune to be a guest at the Vanderpool home on this occasion, and the facts, figures, views, and groups are a valued record, from which this story is compiled.
The date of the “working” had been heralded among the sons and daughters several days before, that they might gather in from the mountain vales where they make their respective homes, and before the sun peeped above teh mountaintops on the gala day, more than a score of the stalwart men, armed with axes, saws, brair hooks, and other farm implements, set off to a mountain hard by to clear away the obstructions to cultivation. These men, all of rugged constitution and fine specimens of rugged manhood, all bearing the name of Vanderpool, were sons of the aged couple, one of whom they left at home, busy with the personal supervision of the household, the other at the head of the procession to the woods.
The gray-haired father, though approaching the allotted three score and ten, weilded the ax throughout the day, setting the pace for the stalwart sons, and before him tree and sapling fell, thickets of bramble and briar were swept from the face of the mountain, ad when at night, came the old-fashioned mountain dance, none were more eager to “swing corners” or “balance all” than was the old man. His partner was his good wife, who though 26 little ones had been nurtured at her breast, thought the wight of maternal care and the wight of 59 years is upon her shoulders, keenly enjoyed the pastime, and until the “wee small” hours participated in the dance to the twanging of the banjo.
Marion Kennard Vanderpool, though now past 62 years of age, is as hale and hearty as a man of middle age and is still dissatisfied with a day’s toll unless he has a ccomplished as great a task as the most industrious of his sons. His habits are as regular as the movement of a clock. He retires while the day is still fading in the west and is up doing before the first streak of dawn. He is of massive figure, as straight as a shingle, and stands six feet one inch in his stockings. His frame is muscular and devoid of sperfluous flesh. He is proud of his faultless health, powerful frame, and herculean strength. Despite his advanced age he is agile and alert. He suffers from no physical defects. His eyes are as keen as those of a lad, his hearing is unimpaired and acute. He can detect the rustle in the leaves made by a squirrel as it slips through the mountain thickets and can speed a bullet from his old fashioned rifle straight to the head of the little animal and bring it down from among the foliage.
His goood wife, the mother of his phenomenal family, is small of stature, wighing only 98 pounds. She, too, boasts of wonderful health and strength. She personally superintends her household and is not satisfied unless busy at some selfimposed task. She begins her routine with the daybreak and rests from her toil only after the day is done and her household sleeps.
Mr. Vanderpool was born and reared in Whitley county, within ten miles of where his present home now nestles in a mountain valley. When 16 years of age he was married to Cynthia Louisa Miles. A year later a child was born to them and each year thereafter for 26 years, until the family became one of the largest known in the history of modern times.
Mr. and Mrs. Vanderpool are now the proud grandparents of 26 grandchildren, most of whom reside in Whitley county and are often at their home. On the occasion of the “working” a large group of them, ranging in ages from six months to 20 years, were at the old home and partook of the festivities of the occasion.
The family record is interesting. All the children were born in Whitley county, the native county of their father. Their names and dates of birh are as follows, in the order they were born, with the exception of the five infants, never named, who filled in the vacant years in the list: Starling born August 5 1862, Peter born November 1 1863, John born 1 November 1864, Daniel born 24 December 1866, James born 22 February 1868, Nancy born 11 February 1869, Mary born 27 Dec 1869, Julia born 20 November 1870, George born 12 May 1871, Hariam born 18 March 1872, Lenville born April 27 1873, Lucinda born January 9 1874, Joseph born December 9 1876, Sarah born April 14 1878, Sampson born June 3 1879, Benjamin born June 28 1880, Chesley born October 23 1881, Jerry born November 20 1882, Susie born December 26 1885, Lila born March 20 1887 and Francis born December 18 1889.
The married sons and daughters who have their own families are: Starling Vanderpool, seven children; Peter Vanderpool, two children; Daniel Vanderpool, nine children; James M. Vanderpool, six children; Nancy Siler, six children; Mary Britton, three children; Julia Woods, five children; George Vanderpool, three children; Joseph Vanderpool, three children; and Benjamin Vanderpool, two children.
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