Sparrel Bevins Leslie First cousin of James Harvey Leslie Both men were probably used to create the fictional Sparrel Pattern in Patterns of Wolfpen by Harlan H. Hatcher Return

Characters in the Book Generations:                                                Book characters 1. William Robert Leslie --------------------- Saul Pattern 2. Robert Leslie ------------------------------Barton Pattern 3. Allen Leslie --------------------------------Tivis Pattern 4. James Harvey Leslie --------------------Sparrel Pattern     3. Pharmer Leslie, brother of Allen     4. Sparrel Bevins Leslie, first cousin of James Harvey 5. Malinda B. Leslie --------------------------Cynthia Pattern     married Robert E. Hatcher                           married Reuben Warren, surveyor       son of Wm. B.G. Hatcher, surveyor in Ohio       6. Harlan H. Hatcher (author) ** Some interesting similarities of Sparrel Bevins Leslie and Sparrel Pattern ** The unusual name of Sparrel [or Sparrell] is the most obvious similarity. Like his first cousin, James Harvey Leslie, he was a prosperous farmer on Lower John Creek. Sparrel Pattern built a house about which the the author wrote: "There was no better house in the Big Sandy Valley, outside of Pikeville or Prestonsburg." A house built by Sparrel Leslie could have been the model for the Pattern home in the book. Sparrell Bevins Leslie photo from the Lesley-Leslie book Graves of Sparrell Lesley/Leslie and his wife Helen in the famiy cemetery on Lower Johns Creek Front view of the home of Sparrell Bevins Leslie on Lower John Creek  ~ 1905. The family referred to it as the "House of Seven Gables." This photo is from the back cover of the reprinted [2003] edition of the 1956 Lesley-Leslie book by Ruth Cleveland Leslie By the 1980s this fine old home was essentially abandoned This photo of the rear of the house was taken in 1985 from the paved road that now runs through the farm once owned by Sparrel's father, Pharmer Lesley/Leslie. It wasn't occupied and was razed soon afterward. I remember the old county road passed in front of the house in the 1940s. It looked much like the house described in the book that had a "two-story porch with the ornamental banisters across the front of the house, all done by hand on the Wolfpen property." Another house with a two-story porch was built about 1914 by Garland Hurt, grandson of Thomas Patton May, on his farm near the homesite of the original Lesley settlers. This architecture was very popular in the region and neighbors passing by the house always knew they were welcome to step up on the front porch to visit with the family and stay for dinner. Home of Garland Hurt, located across Johns Creek from the mouth of Sycamore Creek. This view of Prestonsburg, taken about 1884, shows only a few large homes to compare to the Leslie home on Johns Creek.