637. Kentucky Trip: Miles Bach

1938

Pencil on paper, glued to paper

10 1/2 x 7 1/2 (26.7 x 19.1 cm) Overall: 13 3/4 x 11 1/4 in. (34.9 x 28.6 cm)

Three-quarter frontal bust view of a man wearing a collared shirt, suspenders and a rimmed hat.

Inscription lower right: Miles Bach, Quicksands, KY

Charlotte Petersen; SC, Gift of Charlotte Petersen. CPAC, Transferred from Special Collections, Iowa State Library. UM99.142

n/a

Quicksand is an unincorporated community located in Breathitt County, Kentucky, United States. This small community is along the North Fork of the Kentucky River, directly across the river from where Quicksand Creek flows into the river. For over 200 years, Quicksand has been well-known as "where the Back's live," a very prolific family who were the first settlers to arrive there, in 1791. The family's surname is now spelled, both as "Back" and as "Bach." The family's long, historical association with Quicksand has been documented in many books, including "The Kentucky" by Dr. Thomas D. Clark, and "In the Land of Breathitt" by the Kentucky Writer's Project (and the WPA).

Miles Back (1853-1940), was said to own over 20,000 acres, in and around Quicksand, KY. His big, two-story house was up on the hill, in Quicksand, overlooking the river. Miles was married three times, and he had at least twenty children. In 1908, Miles sold 15,000 acres to Fred Mowbray and Edward Robinson, who operated a lumber company in Cincinnati. They built a massive sawmill along the river, in Quicksand, just down the hill from Miles Back's house; it was called "The Mowbray-Robinson Lumber Company."

Starting in 1933, the Back (Bach) family began holding annual family reunions on Miles Back's farm, which continued for nearly seventy years. Upwards of 1,000 people attended, every year. According to dozens of newspaper articles, the genealogy of the family was discussed at the reunions, including their well-documented ancestral connection to the musical composer Johann Sebastian Bach.