BIO: John Henry Doyle, b. Fleming Co., Ky********************************************************************** **USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced inany format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons.Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain thewritten consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of thesubmitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of thisconsent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives tostore the file permanently for free access.http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenwebSubmitted by: Charlotte Doyle Smith <bwsmith@garlic.com>Date: Fri, 23 May 1997**********************************************************************John Henry Doyle & Sarah Emmiline HartleyThis story is from Tacoma, Washington. John Henry Doyle was born in Fleming Co., Kentucky on 23Jan 1841. In this article he gives an outline of his life. He is the son of Aquilla Cord Doyleand Fanny Hurst. Sarah Emmiline Hartley was born on 8 Aug 1851 in Fleming Co., she is thedaughter of George Hartley and Elizabeth Hamm.Story by Clark Squire in the Tacoma Times, Friday, June 3, 1932 pgs.1Hard times by any other name are just as tough. Thats the opinion of John Doyle, who lives on a10 acre tract east of Parkland on the Collins road. John Doyle ought to know.  He's 91 yearsold and has gone through plenty of hard times and panics since the day he returned to hisKentucky cabin following Lee's surrender. By experience the sturdy old southerner learnedto rely on a sure remedy during hard times--following the plow.  And when all the plowing wasdone, John Doyle kept right behind his team on construction jobs. Doyle returned to the plowthis spring despite the fact that he had passed the four-score-and-ten mark more than a yearago.  He not only has plowed several acres on his own place and planted spuds, corn andvegtables but he has done work for the neighbors. But Doyle for the first time is worried. "Inthe hard times we used to have I knew how to get along, but this 'depression' seems different"he remarked after completing a job for one of his neighbors the other day. "Possibly it's me. Idon't seem to be able to stand up under the strain like I used to  I'm not as spry as I was 60years ago. I play out quicker now.  But it's always my luck to fight on the loosing side."The 91-year-old Kentuckian's first big losing fight was in the Rebellion. He was the sixth of12 children in the family.  There were three sets of twins.  A brother, William, lived for manyyears at Parkland.  William's twin brother, James, died while serving in the Civil War. "Jimgot miffed at something around home and went off and enlisted with the Union army." Doylesaid, "Later he said to us, "I ain't shot a rebel yet and I never will." He was shot accidentlyand died from blood poisoning at Lexington on March 30, 1863. I went with the other side andserved a year with the Kentucky 2d mounted infantry.  By that time things were pretty tough.Rations were scarce.  We went three days at a stretch without eating. Doyle went into theservice with his own horse, and that was all he had when he came out. He was on the wrong sideto draw a pension. In 1873, he married Emeline Hartley, whose cheery disposition has withstoodall the onslaughts of hard times.  Today she is helping him battle the depression.  Next yearthey will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. Conditions weren't so good in Flemingcounty, Kentucky, so the newlyweds went out to Missouri. The five-year period of hard timesfollowing the Civil war then hit them. For 16 years they struggled in that state.  Part of thetime was spent just below Kansas City and the rest near St. Joseph. They survived the hardtimes of 1884 but finally the grasshoppers got the best of them. Once they started forArkansas, but turned back. In 1891, they drove overland to Idaho. "We were going to get richraising cattle, but we settled 100 miles north of Boise where the snow gets deep in winter andthe winters are very long," Doyle said. "It cost too much for feed to make anything. We werethere during the panic of '93. Finally in 1900 we sold out and came to Fern Hill in a wagon.We arrived in July, and on July 11 I bought this place and built a house. "I had to put a$1,000 loan around my neck to do it, and that's quite a load to take on when you're 60.  But Idid lots of team work and got ahead.  I've worked on roads all around here, and every cent Imade has been spent in this county." Doyle seems to have instilled the quality of longevityinto his horses.  The colts he brought from Idaho lived to be 25 and 26 years old. Asked how heis able to remain vigourous and active at 91, Doyle replied: "It's due to hard work all mylife-Plenty of it- and good whiskey," he added with a laugh. "Why, back in Fleming county folkskept a keg by the bed with a cup handy. And they had whiskey that was right."  Maybe more folkswould be able to beat the depression with a plow nowadays  if they could keep a keg and a cuphandy like the Kentuckians used to.