News from Sept. 15, 2005 issue

Copperhead bites man on porch
Billy Wayne Baird has an evening routine. He feeds corn to the resident squirrels that live in his yard.
Just before dark, he always goes out front to pick up any leftover corn because deer will devour anything left in his silver pie plate.

That's what he was doing Friday afternoon when his routine was interrupted by a copperhead snake bite and an overnight stay at Western Baptist Hospital.

"I reached down to get my gloves and I thought I was stung by a wasp," said Baird, 74. "I went on out front and got that pan of corn and set it in the bed of my truck and came in the house and ran cool water over my hand.

"I saw it was bleeding and knew what it was ­ I knew it was a snake."

Only when Baird returned to his carport to the location where he was bitten did he see the 14-inch copperhead, still coiled up where it had struck him.

He went next door to the Mexico Baptist Church parsonage where a group of kids were playing and adults were gathered.

Within minutes, nurse Brenda Hopkins put a tourniquet on Baird's arm, and he was en route to Livingston Hospital.

"I have been outside all my life and hunted all my life, and have seen copperheads all over ­ killed a lot of them ­ but I wouldn't have ever dreamed I would get bit on my porch," Baird said.

Livingston Hospital didn't have anti-venom, so he was taken by ambulance to Western Baptist in Paducah. There, doctors would not administer antivenom because of Baird's heart condition.

Instead, he was given intervenors medication and a prescription to help fight the poisonous venom in Baird's body.

"The doctor said he hadn't seen a snake bite in three years, and a nurse said she hadn't in about eight years," he said.

Baird explains the pain is at times unbearable but is minimal when he keeps his arm slightly elevated. Still, several days after the incident, his arm is bruised and severely swollen from his fingertips to his upper arm.
"There's no telling how many copperheads I've killed ­ I've even killed one in my driveway ­ but I've never been bitten," he said, speculating the young snake came from the rocky hillside behind his home on Mexico Church Road.

He heard somewhere that this time of year snakes are starting to shed and don't see very well so they strike at anything they hear, which in his case might have simply been the rustling of a pair of gloves.

Piney Form Church gets history marker
The Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky Department of Transportation are teaming up to see that a part of Crittenden County history is not forgotten. Saturday an official historic marker will be dedicated as a reminder that Piney Fork Cumberland Presbyterian Church is considered the first Presbyterian Church in Kentucky.

According to Marion's Sarah Ford, the marker was requested and is being sponsored by the church congregation with help from the Braxton McDonald Foundation.

"We felt the rich history of the church made it worthwhile to apply for the marker," Ford said. "There have been continuous worship services at this site for 193 years."

Ford is a member of the committee that applied for the marker. The text documents the organization of the Piney Fork congregation in 1812 by the Reverend Finis Ewing, a founder of the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination.

"This was the site of great annual camp meetings from 1812 until 1955. The first structure built on this site was a log building that was also used as a public school," Ford said. "It was replaced in 1843. Another structure was built in 1867 with bricks fired on the site. That structure was then replaced by the present brick building in 1957."

Heavy snow in 1955 caused major damage to two large wooden sheds or open air tabernacles that had been used for the camp meetings, so they were torn down and the camp meetings evolved into annual revival meetings in the present building.

Ford estimates that Piney Fork had a population of about 50 families at one time. As the church grew to a peak of 300 members, it helped establish other nearby churches, including the Sugar Grove church in 1844 and a church at Crayne in 1892.

Brenda Underdown, a local historian and Crittenden County Chairperson for the Kentucky Historical Markers Program, attributes the prosperity of the church and the Piney Fork community to its strategic point along one of the region's oldest roads.

"The Saline Trail or Flynn's Ferry Road was an early wagon route taking settlers to the Illinois Territory and points west," Underdown said. "It was a well-traveled road for the time and helped make the Piney Fork community a vital and vibrant part of Crittenden County."

The church was added to the Historical Site Registry of the American Presbyterian Churches in 2003. That helped inspire the church leadership to step up its efforts to obtain an official historic marker.
Church members chipped in to cover the $1,700 cost of the marker with help from the Braxton McDonald Foundation. The foundation is named for a former Crittenden County school superintendent who set up a fund to help preserve the county's history.

"I think this is something our grandchildren and great grandchildren will appreciate. It will be a visible way of reminding people of the history here," Ford said.

The historic marker dedication will be at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Piney Fork Cumberland Presbyterian Church is seven miles east of Marion on Ky. 506.

The Kentucky Historical Highway Markers is a program of the Kentucky Historical Society in cooperation with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.