Quicksand, Kentucky

Quicksand is an unincorporated community located in Breathitt County, Kentucky, United States, alongside Quicksand Creek. Its post office closed in 1996.HistorySince its inception, Quicksand has been known for being "where the Bach's lived," a prolific family whose members also spell their last name as "Back." In the spring of 1791, Joseph Back, his wife Elizabeth Hoffman-Maggard, and their four children (Joseph Jr., John, Mary, and Henry) came from Culpeper County, Virginia and settled there. They were the only settlers, for miles around, in that dense, rugged wilderness. They squatted on some land that was known as "the Round Bottom." This is a section of about 80 acres of very fertile land that is nearly encircled by the curves of Quicksand Creek. The family brought with them an old Family Bible (actually a Catechism). They wrote all sorts of family information onto the pages of that old book. The old Bach Family Bible is now on display at the Breathitt County Library, in Jackson.In 1797, Joseph, his wife, and their two younger children moved down to some land along the Cumberland River, after their two older sons left home and got married. Joseph died in 1819, and his wife died in 1826. She was the first person to be buried in what became the Maggard Cemetery. In 1836, their son John, his wife Catherine Robertson, and their children moved back into the old family cabin at the Round Bottom. John bought all the land on both sides of the creek, from where it emptied into the Kentucky River, going back up the creek, about eight miles. It totaled 2,500 acres, and he bought it for $2,000 in gold. As the years went by, members of the Bach (and Back) family bought more and more land in and around Quicksand, and they passed it down within the family.