The Sacred Fire of Kentucky.

In the first generation of Missouri statehood the Duckworth family moved from Kentucky to what became Livingston County, Missouri.

Like all newcomers they brought their "lares and penates" with them. But there was this extraordinary distinction about the Duckworths.
To the rear of the covered wagon hung an iron kettle and in the kettle were live coals taken from the Kentucky fireplace of the father of the mover.

According to the tradition of the family, given to a writer in the Globe-Democrat eighty years afterward, Duckworth had said:
"I'll take one thing with me from old Kentucky, and as long as I live I'll keep it. That's this fire."
The young man was sitting in front of the fireplace when he made his vow.

The next morning, when the caravan started, "the kettle and the coals were in place. It proved to be a great convenience when cramping time came,
for that was in the days before lucifers. From time to time wood was added and the little pillar of smoke behind marked the trail of the Duckworths to Missouri.

When the cabin home was built of logs in Missouri the fire was transferred to the great fireplace and there it burned year after year until almost the
end of Missouri's first century.

Fourteen children of the family grew to maturity, thirteen of them married and moved away. One son remained at home with the mother who lived to be ninety-three.
The fire burned until after her death.

Then Mett Duckworth, the bachelor son, left the cabin with the fireplace and moved to a house with a stove and the Kentucky reminiscence became dead ashes.

Centennial History of Missouri, "Pioneer Ways" 1921
Transcribed and Contributed by: Frances Cooley -09

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