Under the above caption, though borrowed, we purpose for the benefit of others giving something of our own life. We do not design in the common acceptation an autobiography.
Biographies of noted and worthy men, men that have been properly considered benefactors, when properly written, are among the most interesting and profitable of uninspired books. We do not propose that our sketches shall ever appear in book form, and the conclusion that we write with the idea that we deserve to rank among the class mentioned above does us great injustice. Yet, as we ever write with the motto before our mind, "He who writes for the public eye should write for the public good," we certainly conclude that in some respects these sketches will be beneficial, otherwise they would not appear.
My father, Benjamin Hancock, was born in North Carolina, near the Virginia line, in the year 1778. (As the old family record was lost during the late war we cannot give many dates.) He was the son of Benjamin Hancock, a brother, as we learned from an old uncle on my mother's side, of John Hancock, whose name stands at the head of the list of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. My grandfather was a soldier through the entire war of the revolution. At an early date he moved to what was known as the New Purchase of Kentucky. As land was not valuable convenience was the main item in selecting a location, they settled on Gap Creek, Wayne county. He was the second settler in that part, a family by the name of Stockton having preceded him. Here game, timber, water, and Indians were plentiful, but they had to go one hundred miles to get their grinding. At the age of forty-two years my father was married to Elizabeth Vickrey. To them ten children were born, six sons and four daughters. Three of the daughters died in early childhood. June 7th, 1839, the writer of these lines was born.
In some respects our father was an eccentric man. In naming his sons this appeared. The first son was christened, Jessee Emsly John Vickrey Hancock, the second, William Luther Martin Daniel, the third, Benjamin Francis Henry Tuggle, the fourth James Calvin Delay, the fifth George Berry Dandridge Cruz, and the writer, Leland Golmon Buford Kimbrel. Our oldest brother died when we were but a child. Except the third the others, for the sake of convenience, just kept two of their initials.
At an early date my father erected a water mill on his farm, which did the grinding or most of it for the neighborhood. He was a farmer, a miller, a justice of the peace, and a Baptist preacher. He never attained to notoriety as a preacher, but was a man of considerable influence and after ceased to be a J.P. when a difference would arise in the neighborhood all appeared to be willing to leave it to Uncle Ben, as he was familiarly known. He had no concern so far as the goods of this world were concerned beyond a reasonable supply of food and raiment.
