There is an old family story that George W. Faulkner was actually an adopted Cherokee Indian who came to live with the Daniel Faulkner family when he was approximately 14 years old. This story is somewhat questionable because census records prior to that time list a male child of the correct age to be George.

George married Margaret Perkins, daughter of Riley and Pheby Perkins, in 1860. Margaret was said to be three-fourths Cherokee.

They had six children. One of the younger children, William, died as a baby. The story is that the older children were jumping on the bed, and he fell off and broke his neck. It was around this time that George deserted the family, not to be heard from again.

George and Margaret had run a gristmill at the 1-mile marker in Whitley County. Late one night, Margaret went out to check the mill after a rainstorm. There she was attached and murdered. Margaret is buried at Fairview, Kentucky, on the riverbank where the gristmill stood. A sandstone rock with no inscription is the only headstone for her grave. Baby William is buried next to her. The children were all sent to live with different relatives. The old millstone still marks the location of the Faulkner home.

According to family legend, a man named Atkins was convicted and sent to jail for the murder. However, according to the story told to me by a descendant of Margaret's sister, Lucinda, the story has a different twist. The story passed down in their family is that Lucinda was married to George's brother, Daniel, and they lived just across the river. Lucinda heard Margaret's screams for help, jumped in the river, and swam to her aid. Unfortunately she was too late to save Margaret. She chased after the murderer and killed him. The family said that she was never quite right after that.