(From a Hickman County newspaper circa 1925)
Sixty years ago, October 12 last of the Vivrette
family, came to Kentucky. In this family at that time were James, Thomas, Dee, Rufus,
Robert, and Cage. These were brother of Julia Vivrette, Who is now Mrs. James
Russell.
In 1860 Lansing Vivrette and Family migrated from Wilson County, Tennessee. Their home was five miles from Lebanon, Tenn. At Lebanon is located the Cumberland University. There the older members of the Vivrette and Links Families finished their college courses. Mary Link was the wife of Lansing Vivrette.
Seventy-three years ago, with her husband and another couple, they migrated from Tennessee into Illinois, in Saline County Illinois. They settled for a while at Raleigh in Saline County, Illinois
The Family was transported from Lebanon, Tenn. In two covered wagons drawn by oxen after crossing the Cumberland River, the family passed through Hopkinsville, Cadiz and Princeton, Kentucky. They then crossed the Ohio River at Shawneetown, ill. They crossed Galantine County into Saline County. It took the family four weeds to make this trip from Tenn. Into Illinois stopping each night to camp where sufficient water and wood could be found.
At Raegh, Ill., they settled for five years. In 1865 the Vivrette family traded land near Lebanon for one hundred and sixty acres of unclear land in the Spicer neighborhood. They came to this land October 12,1865. Here they built a log, house ten logs high twenty feet square. While at one end was erected a clay chimney.
Early in 1806 Lansing Vivrette gave Newton Russell a seven-year clearing lease on the one hundred and sixty acres. Of course, the land was in the wildest stage. Their cheapest meat was venison and wild turkey. Most of the homes were small log cabins. These were surrounded by dense forests.
In those early days Clinton was a small trading center. There was a small brick courthouse. The town jail was a tiny structure of logs the houses were all made of logs and logs were hauled in for their construction by oxen. The shipping was done via Columbus on the river.
Their Vivrette and Russell Families of the Shiloh neighborhood are pioneers of this part of Kentucky. On October 24, 1874, T. J. Vivrette was united in marriage wit Miss. Sally Russell while a little later Tom’s younger sister, Julia, married James Russell.
There are many children and great grandchildren still living in these families S. J. Vivrette, newly appointed deputy sheriff and Miss Rosalind Roberts, on of Clinton’s adult teachers are members of these families