James Pendleton "Uncle Pen" Vandiver
and Anna Belle Johnson

Pendleton "Uncle Pen" Vandiver

Pendleton "Uncle Pen" Vandiver

Uncle Pen's Cabin

Memorial Headstone of James Pendleton "Uncle Pen" Vandiver in Rosine, Ohio Co KY. Inscription: Pendleton Vandiver 1869 - 1932 Uncle Pen Immortalized in time by his nephew, Bill Monroe, father of blue grass music and member of the country music hall of fame. Late in the evening, about sundown, High on the hill, an' above the town, Uncle Pen played the fiddle, Lord, how it would ring, You could hear it talk, you could hear it sing!

Monument James Pendleton "Uncle Pen" Vandiver, Rosine Kentucky

James Pendleton "Uncle Pen" Vandiver b 1867 KY; s/o Joseph "Dutch" Vandiver and Minerva Jane Pharris. James Pendleton "Uncle Pen" Vandiver was depicted in the lyrics of the song "Uncle Pen" by his nephew, Bill Monroe (s/o Melissa Ann Vandiver m. James Buchanan "Buck" Monroe); m. Anna Belle Johnson b 1886 Hancock Co KY d about 1926 Ohio Co KY. (Bill Monroe Birth and Burial Place Slideshow). Children of James Pendleton "Uncle Pen" Vandiver and Anna Belle Johnson;

1. Ganies Cecil Vandiver b 1903 KY d about 1925 Ohio Co KY

2. Lena Narne Vandiver b 1907 KY d about 1927 Ohio Co KY

Pendleton Vandiver was next to the youngest of ten children. The youngest of the ten was his sister, Malissa, the mother of Bill Monroe.

Not much is known about Vandiver's early years. He was born in 1869 in Butler County, Kentucky. He married Anna Belle Johnson who bore him a son and a daughter. After he and his wife separated, Vandiver moved into a one-room cabin in Ohio County, near Malissa's home, where his nieces and nephews knew him as "Uncle Pen."

It was in the small, rural towns of Ohio County that Vandiver gained renown as an old-time fiddler. He was the first fiddler Monroe ever heard play, and by age eleven, Monroe was accompanying his uncle to old-time square dances, playing back-up on the mandolin.

"He was one of Kentucky's finest old-time fiddlers," wrote Monroe on the cover of his 1972 album, Bill Monroe's Uncle Pen, a compilation of Monroe's renditions of Vandiver's tunes. "And he had the best shuffle with the bow I'd ever seen."

In his book, Can't You Hear Me Callin': The Life of Bill Monroe, Richard D. Smith weaves the narrative of Monroe's life from diverse sources, including accounts from Monroe's manager, Ralph Rinzler, a folklorist and fellow mandolin player.

After his father died, the sixteen-year-old Monroe lived for brief periods with his Uncle William and, then, his Uncle Jack. When Jack's house was placed under a measles quarantine, Vandiver invited Monroe to "batch it" at his cabin, according to Rinzler.

Vandiver was crippled and on crutches, having been thrown from a young mule spooked by a passing train.

"He done the cooking for the two of us," Monroe wrote on the album cover. "We had fat back, sorghum molasses, and hot cakes for breakfast followed by blackeyed peas with fat back and corn bread and sorghum for dinner and supper."

Smith quotes Monroe further: "A man that old, and crippled, that would cook for you and see that you had a bed and a place to stay and something for breakfast and dinner and supper, and you know it come hard for him to get ..."

Vandiver's cabin was on Tuttle Hill overlooking Rosine. Monroe continued to keep his horses in his Uncle Jack's barn near the train depot, and at the end of the day, as he put the horses away, Monroe could hear his Uncle Pen playing outside his cabin on Tuttle Hill.

The song Monroe would later write, memorializing his Uncle Pen, would rise to number one on the Country Music charts:

Late in the evenin' about sundown
High on the hill and above the town
Uncle Pen played the fiddle
Lord, how it'd ring
You could hear it talk
You could hear it sing

Pendleton Vandiver died in 1932, at the age of 63 while Bill was away working for Sinclair Oil in Chicago.

Uncle Pen Lyrics

Oh, the people would come from far away,
To dance all night to the break of day.
When the caller would holler: "Do Si Do",
They knew Uncle Pen was ready to go.

Late in the evening, about sundown,
High on the hill, an' above the town,
Uncle Pen played the fiddle, Lord, how it rang,
You could hear it talk, you could hear it sing!

Well, he played an old tune they called the "Soldier's Joy",
And he played the one they called the "Boston Boy".
Greatest of all was the "Jennie Lynn",
To me, that's where the fiddlin' begins.

Late in the evening, about sundown,
High on the hill, an' above the town,
Uncle Pen played the fiddle, Lord, how it rang,
You could hear it talk, you could hear it sing!

I'll never forget that mournful day
When old Uncle Pen was called away,
He hung up his fiddle and he hung up his bow,
And he knew it was time for him to go.

Late in the evening, about sundown,
High on the hill, an' above the town,
Uncle Pen played the fiddle, Lord, how it rang,
You could hear it talk, you could hear it sing!

Late in the evening, about sundown,
High on the hill, an' above the town,
Uncle Pen played the fiddle, Lord, how it rang,
You could hear it talk, you could hear it sing!
 

Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame as the "Father of Bluegrass Music", Bill Monroe learned to play from his mother's (Melissa Ann Vandiver m. James Buchanan "Buck" Monroe) brother James Pendleton "Uncle Pen" VanDiver. Bill Monroe said that he never wrote a note of music. It was in the air all around him and he just plucked it out and played.

(Source) James Pendleton "Uncle Pen" Vandiver was born about 1867 in Kentucky. He was living in 1901 in Kentucky. Lived at Sulphur Springs, Ky. He resided White Run, Ky between 1910 and 1912 in Ohio Co., Kentucky. He was buried in Ohio Co., Kentucky. @ Rosine Cemetery. James P. Vandiver is the famous "Uncle Pen" immortalized in Bill Monroe's Song "The Ballad of Uncle Pen". This was confirmed in works by both Lola Anderson (ca 1957) and Dean Lacefield (ca 1992). They both identified him as "James Pendleton Vandiver".

According to Earnest Ferguson, Uncle Pen's by words were "See sigh by gum". When telling about a incident when his wife was injured, he said "See sigh by gum, the thing you brake a wagon with came out and hit Annie in the head and almost killed her". Apparently, they were hauling ties for the railroad in a horse drawn wagon when the accident occurred.

On 13 Sep 1973, Bill Monroe unveiled a monument in honor of Uncle Pen at the Rosine Cemetery. Parents: Joseph "Dutch" M. Vandiver and Munerba / Minirva Jane Pharris.

He was married to Anna Belle Johnson on 20 Jul 1904 in Ohio Co., Kentucky.(869) They were married at Joshua P. Nelson's house, by J.P. Nelson M.B.C. The marriage was witnessed by J.D. Nelson and Wm. Vance, the surety for the bond was Tice Baker. Copy of Marriage Bond is in the possession of Henry DeHart of Rosene. He was separated on 28 Mar 1922. He was divorced from Anna Belle Johnson on 30 Oct 1922. Divorce was granted by a Judge Wilson. Anna's Attorney was David A. Royal, Horse Branch. M.B. Crowder, Horse Branch, notarized the depositions. Summons to Pendleton was delivered by G.P. Faris, deputy sheriff. Just before Anna's death, Pen and Anna had separated. They had not divorced. (This may explain why Anna was buried in an unmarked grave.) Apparently Lena went with her mother, and Cecil went with his father. When Anna died Lena then went to stay with her father. Some sources speculated that her resentment for her father continued. When Lena died, she was buried next to her mother in Bethel Cemetery, both in unmarked graves. Cecil was buried next to his father in Rosine Cemetary. Their graves may have been monumented (marked) by the Monroe family.

It appears that neither Cecil or Lena married thus ending the linage for this branch of the Will Vandiver descendants. Children were: Ganies Cecil Vandiver, Lena Narne Vandiver.