For many many years there has been a Lee County, Va reunion based in Noblesville.Dunno if true or not but sounds legit. Lots of folks in Marion just South of Wabash have relatives from Maysville, KY. Story dad always told (he was from Maysville) was that during WWII a factory here was short on workers. Now, women took up a lot of the slack but ya still needed big strong guys for some jobs. One of the guys working there was from Maysville and he knew a lot of guys there were unemployed. So one Friday night he grabs a bus and heads down there along with one of the management guys. They stop at a bar and buy everybody drinks on the company dime until they are falling down drunk and then offer them a ride home. Next morning they wake up in beautiful Marion, Indiana with a choice: Go to work for the plant or find their own way home with the $3.27 they have in their pocket. Extra perk, your first month's rent would be paid by the plant so you would have someplace to live until your first few paychecks. Most stayed.
With the large amount of transplanted Kentuckians in the Wabash area I would bet a lot of them came there for jobs during WWII. Hopefully of their own free will, but ya know how quickly a new "management technique" will spread once it becomes known how successful it can be!
Lots of people right up 421 to escape the coal mines, my father in laws father included. Many came to Firestone.
Let’s hear it for the Pennington Gap/Pucketts Creek crowd!