Growing Up with a Preacher Man
Rev. William "Lester" Howard (1929-2021)
Mary Eulalie McLean Howard (1933-2021)
Scuffletown, KY - Mom's Side of the Story
____________________
by Carolyn Ann Howard
This post was updated Feb. 28, 2024
I have always thought - from the time I could think - that my parents were an odd match. Now that Dad has passed and Mom is in the nursing home, I was right. They were an odd match, which probably made them perfect for each other.
I've talked a lot about Dad's history in this blog and on Facebook, but I have talked very little about my mother's side of the family. Still, I've always been weirdly proud that my Aunt Betty McLean Kroeger (1938-2012) was born in what is now a ghost town. She was proud of it, too. Click on photos to enlarge
 |
| Scuffletown and surrounding area Google Maps with correct attribution |
Scuffletown's problem is that it was on the Ohio River, which was always flooding the town. This is what caused its demise. I always thought it was the building of the twin bridges from Evansville, Indiana over the Ohio River going into Henderson, Kentucky. By building the twin bridges, people in Kentucky no longer needed the Scuffletown ferry to get them to Evansville. You see, people from Kentucky would take John Pfingston's ferry into Cypress Beach, located near the Newburgh Overlook, and from there would take a train into downtown Evansville where they could shop. This, to me, sounds delightful. The flooding, though? Not so much.
 |
| Mom with her mother Downtown Evansville, Shopping Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection |
Scuffletown basically was owned by a man named Will Dempewolf. According to an article in The Warrick Press, 29 Aug 1985, Dempewolf owned 1,284 acres in Scuffletown. Many of the residents worked on his farm as tenants. My grandfather operated the Scuffletown General Store, which was also owned by Dempewolf. The ferry, operated by my 2x great-grandfather, was also owned by Dempewolf.
 |
| Mom with her brother, Rufus Jr. Scuffletown, KY Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection |
My mother talked very little about Scuffletown, where she lived with her parents until the 1937 flood drove them out. After the flood took everything in Scuffletown, the McLean family moved to an area called Vanada Station in rural Warrick County, Indiana, close to Newburgh Indiana. I remember that my mother only really talked about two things in Scuffletown. One was about how much drinking went on; and the second was how all her friends there were of African-American descent.
 |
| According to Wikipedia, this was the founding family of Scuffletown Public Domain via Wikipedia |
Scuffletown was indeed a drinking town, as it was the stomping grounds of so-called "riverboat men." Because there were no locks or dams on the Ohio River at Newburgh, which was then called Sprinklesburgh, the water over the Ohio sometimes got pretty low. Low enough that the riverboat men would have to lay over at Scuffletown, waiting for rain. While waiting, the men drank... a lot of whisky. It feels that Mom told me that her Uncles were all alcoholics. But I was young when she told me this. I know there were alcoholics in the family, but I don't think it was her Pfingston uncles. (It was recently confirmed that many were.) It was just the riverboat men in general, drinking a bunch and probably fighting. I can't imagine being so young and exposed to all this rowdiness. It certainly made an impression, for my mother never touched alcohol that I know of in her whole life. And Dad was polar opposite of what she would have witnessed growing up in Scuffletown. He grew up in a very religious household where drinking was thought of as quite sinful - the devil himself, actually. This may have further attracted her to him.
 |
| From L to R Great-grandmother Flora Vogt Pfingston Grandmother Anna Bell Pfingston McLean My mom, Mary McLean Howard Great-grandfather Arthur Edward Pfingston In front of Anna Bell's house in Warrick Co., IN Carolyn Ann Howard Family Collection |
The second thing I remember her talking about more than anything was how many African-American friends she had growing up and how they would do each other's hair. Growing up in a little town in Northern Indiana that was completely white, I was intrigued by this.
It is striking, though, that her mother, my grandmother, in the Evansville Press dated 29 Sep 1931 named the names of the four white families that lived with them in Scuffletown: Howard Buley, Lon Meredith, John Beach, and Alvin Watkins. Anna Bell then stated that "nine negro families make up the rest." That was the ending sentence of the article.
Today, there is nothing at Scuffletown but bottomlands. According to Wikipedia, in 2001, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service suggested making this area a nature preserve, but that hasn't happened.
I have also read that the Henderson, Kentucky Public Library has recordings of some of those who lived in Scuffletown. I will have to make a trip there to see if my grandparents were counted among those recorded. I'm also wondering if any of the African-American families who lived there were recorded. I would love to hear their side of the story.
