@ Teresa Martin Klaiber
2016
This article was created for the 2nd Annual Long Branch Road
Reunion located on Garner, Rush, Boyd County, KY
The history of our hollow has been home
to families for over 275 years. Prior to the formation of either Carter County
in 1838 and Boyd County, in 1860, recognizable family surnames begin to appear
on what we now know as Long Branch Road.
Our “long” road still encompasses two counties.
Our well established cemeteries,
alone, whisper of the history of the people who have helped build our
neighborhood. The earliest two known
graves on our road are both children buried in different cemeteries in
1853. The first is John Milton Banfield less
than one month old and buried in Banfield cemetery in July 1853. The Banfield
cemetery is on property owned by the Parker family in 2016. The 2nd grave is James Calvin Clark, two months old
in October of the same year, in Selbee Cemetery, which follows the same ridge
line. Between them stood the first known
location of Greenhill Lodge where yet another child by the surname of Pence was
buried in 1882. Both Greenhill and
Selbee are on property owned by the Leslie Blanton family today. Other cemeteries read like a “who’s who”
along the road as well. Beginning at the mouth and overlooking our road, the
first known burial in Allan Prichard Cemetery is for Mary E. Prichard in 1873
(owned by Childers today). Klaiber
Cemetery aka Sexton Cemetery contains the early graves for the Hood and Howe
wives of pioneer settlers when we were still Greenup County, followed by the
Mayhew and Sexton families. Our newest
cemetery moving up the road is for the Tolliver family. The last cemetery, following our road, is
the burial place of “the McWhorter sisters,” Elizabeth and America, who lived
modestly stringing their own leather britches and lay to rest on a hill on
today’s Stewart property. Many of our pioneers lay in unmarked graves including
those who called our road home at the county poor house (Parker property 2016).
Our portion of the county was
originally part of the Richard Graham survey.
A massive amount of 70,000 acres later sold to our pioneers. Kentucky
Legislature enacted its first road laws in 1797. Surveyors were appointed by
the courts, and learned the task from each other. An early map of Carter County filed at the
state archives shows the mouth of our road at Garner Creek but does not
continue up our hollow. All males,
sixteen years old or more, were required to work the roads (with exceptions of
owners with slaves or those with disabilities approved by court). Males were fined for every day absent from
the work. Mitchell Clark is cited as a
chain carrier prior to the formation of Boyd County (died 1892, Klaiber Cem.). The newly established court in Boyd County
appointed Hiram Gallion to view a road “from the forks of Garner Creek to the
Carter line in December 1865. Hiram,
buried in Klaiber cemetery, was the son of Thomas Gallion aka Sexton. This was the first court order concerning the
development of our road. The 1865 survey would follow the creek into Carter
County. The path to Denton by mule would
continue thru woods and by trail.
Hoods, Howe’s, Banfield and Ross
already had large land holdings along the creek. The
Geological Survey of 1856 talks about ore beds being one hundred and five feet “higher”
in the hills. It does not talk about the distance or the many farms that were
tapped for the ore. According to the Survey Sandy Furnace on Bolt’s Fork was
producing seven tons of iron in twenty-four hours. James and Sarah Hood Howe watched as ore was
taken from the ridge of their property and hauled over the hill. Today you can still see the ore trenches
along the ridge above Klaiber Cemetery.
This author believes that the first
school house was at Green Hill (Greenhill) on what we now know as Long
Branch. Farmers would collect enough
funds to pay teachers in subscription schools.
In December 1869 Chrisley Banfield, among others, agreed to the terms of
one James W. Mullan (as spelled) to teach a subscription school. The one room Long Branch School would be
established later on a lot of land that George W. Ross sold to H. P. Sexton in
1885. The school was nestled at the edge of the then
Mayhew property (left of Klaiber home drive and corner to Wright’s 2016). Mae Harris Bryant (daughter of J. H. &
Susan Eva Mayhew Harris) wrote a letter in 1957 stating “…I watched them move
the Long Branch School house…” to what is now Robert and Jean Fannin’s
property. Teacher’s, at Long Branch
School, from 1912 through 1957, when Garner School opened, include: Willa Ross,
Mary and Amanda Burke, Edna Hatfield, Clarice Skaggs, Homer Pope, Pauline Davis,
Dorothy Selbee, Gladys Manning, Elsie Klaiber and Elizabeth Miller.
An early building stood at the mouth
of our road referenced as “McCormack Meeting House” (not to be confused with
one of the same name at Summit) in court orders in the mid 1860’s. As late as 1916 Martha Cox remembers walking
or riding a mule down to pick up mail prior to home delivery.
The 1860’s were turbulent. Able bodied
males were required to join the county militia and by 1863 they were required
to sign the US Civil War Draft Registration.
Among familiar names are William Howe, H. P. Sexton, C. P. Banfield,
George W. Ross, William Mayhew and other members of their respective
families.
In 1866 James W. Howe became the
guardian of Isabelle Stewart daughter of Allen Stewart. James had married Sarah Davidson Stewart
(husband Henry Stewart) in October 1865 at William Hood’s house. Shadrach Estep was the minister. Probably not the first wedding on our creek,
but one of the first distinguishable in our neighborhood. This little home sat on
the edge of today’s Eastern Kentucky Development Company, about ½ mile up a
deserted haul road between Pierzala and Klaiber’s. In the 1940’s/50’s a sawmill was still
working in that hollow.
By 1870 families began to expand along
our road. In the 1860’s Phillip Howe
moved into the one room log structure known today as 22937 Long Branch. It
still stands. In 1899 the Jasper Sexton family moved into the cabin &
Bonnie Sexton Moore’s mother Willa Mae was born there in 1902. For a short while the Hazlett family lived in
the cabin followed by the Jordans until 1944.
Other names that we are still familiar
with today begin to appear in the ‘70’s.
Henry Kane Lucas, great grandfather of Garner Lucas (1949-2008) settled
on the creek. James McWhorter, who
served in the Civil War, married Margaret Davis in 1866 and moved with infants
Elizabeth and America, on land on the left fork building a two story home that
stood until just a few years ago. Pleasant Burke’s family lived in the large
home for some time and for a few years in the 1970’s Earl and Mary Susan Warren
Sexton occupied the house.
The aftermath of the Civil War
lingered well into the 1880’s. Fraternal
societies and granges began to form. The
Mutual Protection Society was formed.
Regulators roamed to “police” our area.
Among members of the MPS from our road I found: Nelson Sexton, Sherman
Lucas, John Higgins, John Mayhew, John A. Klaiber, L. D. Sexton, W. T. Hood and
many others from surrounding areas.
Chrisley Perry Banfield was appointed
commissioner to purchase 118 acres from William Lewis Geiger for the poor in
1870 “on a fork of Garner Creek”. Our
road still had no name. John Higgins was
appointed the first superintendent. There were several superintendent changes
during the 70’s including John D. Ross and James Leslie. In the late 1870’s a fire destroyed the
buildings. At the time 62 “inmates”
resided at the poor house (located where Parker’s home is in 2016). A new two story log structure was built. The home was almost identical to the Sexton
home that stood for many years where the Blair family reside in 2016. Among those who worked on construction of the
home and out buildings were William Banfield, German immigrant John Andrew
Klaiber, and William J. Ross. The home
had many residents over the years including at least one Civil War veteran,
William Ball. In 1909 the Poor House
Farm was sold to Burns Banfield. The
residents were loaded on wagons and taken across the hill to Rush Station. The
AC&I train picked them up and took them to the new county home located at
Winslow.
A group known as the Fish and Game
Association had a few meetings in the building after the Poor House closed. And in October 1930 the “Traipsin Woman” Jean
Thomas, hosted the first festival in the house, though she advertised it as on
the Mayo Trail. Dorothy Gordon was the
guest singer from New York as well as Jilson Setters. The Governor of Kentucky was there as well as
the Banfield children.
The records begin to reflect that
residents on this branch of Garner live on “Poor House Road” in late 1879 and
1880. In 1880 William Selbee was 15 and
living with the Banfield family. He
would later marry and purchase property on the road. Joseph Marcum, appointed blacksmith for the
poor house, resided in what is now known as Marcum Holler (between the J. D. Klaiber
and A. K. Blanton farm in 2016). An
early haul road up Marcum Holler crossed over to Bolt’s Fork and may have been
how the ore was taken to Bolt’s Fork.
The 1880’s had “local reporters” who
would send in community news to the Independent. Sexton’s were making 1000 gallons of molasses
at a new mill on the road in 1883. In
November of 1883 the paper reported “We are told that three barrels of molasses
went down Garner the other day, in the time of high water.”
In the spring of 1882 typhoid fever
was prevalent and raged into 1883. The
Independent reported that Dow Sexton was recovering from an attack of typhoid
and pneumonia fever in June 1883. Not all things were gloomy in the 1880’s. Wiser and Maggie Crum were married in 1887.
Wiser had recovered from a terrible scalding on Williams Creek in 1882, while
blowing out a valve he was firing at Clere’s sawmill. The neighborhood had a “belling.” The
wedding was a huge community event. The young couple were treated to cow bells and
a barrage of loud noise on their wedding night. In December Crum was elected into the Mutual
Aide Society aka MPS.
By the 1900’s James M. Klaiber had
established a blacksmith business. The
blacksmith shop sat near a branch that flows into Long Branch on the right side
of the lane leading to a rock quarry on the Reffitt/Blair property (behind and
back left corner of barn (2016). He
kept up his tools and techniques through a subscription to American Blacksmith during the 1900’s. His desk was made from an
old crate with drawers designed from cigar boxes. The shop was made from board
sawed on the farm. His anvil was similar to a London Anvil mounted on a log
stump. With the development of modern equipment, he was able to have a rotary
blower. A ledger is in possession of the family.
The rock quarry was developed on the
Sexton farm and many chimney and foundation stones were utilized up and down
the road. During the era of WPA a rock
crusher was used to improve the road. Lon Boggs, living on the road in 1940 is
listed as working as a machinist with the WPA. The quarry was leased to the
county as late as 1946 for “crushing and ballast for county and state roads and
to build tool buildings…”
The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 allowed
Kentucky farmers to grow hemp. Hemp was
grown in the field across from where Blair’s built their new home (2016). The first and second annual Long Branch
Reunion are held in this field today. By 1940 Federal Census continues to call
the road “Poor House”. It starts at the
mouth with the surname Bolt and including families of Workman, Smith,
Alexander, Click, Jones, Jenkins, Stewart, and others thus ending with
McCormack (head of the hollow). Many are marked as renting.
In 1939 William Albert Brown (son of
Thomas Brown and Olivia McGlothlin), a Spanish War (1898) Veteran was laid to
rest in what is now marked distinctly as Banfield Cemetery. His death
certificate states he was buried in Greenhill which is over the fence but on
the same ridge. Brown married several times including into the Stewart and
Mayhew family. It is not clear if he
actually resided on our road – at least until his death.
Gas and oil leases were and are
popular and active along our road. In
1938 Landon Klaiber, who had handled explosives while working for Ben
Williamson applied for a license for Klaiber Explosives Company. The business address was Ashland but the
explosive material must be made and stored elsewhere. “…nature is buying and
selling of wholesale and retail dynamites, powder, gelatin and other high
explosives of all kinds and makes including blasting supplies used in
connection with said explosives and with hauling and transporting of said
explosives …likewise the preparation of explosives for purpose of shooting and
exploding same in gas and oil wells, mined and other places…” Klaiber and the
Weddington sisters, who were also partners, built a facility on the edge of the
property where his father lived on Long Branch.
Today the hollow stands behind where the 2016 Long Branch Reunion is
held and is still called “Powder House Holler.”
Hunters are rarely discouraged. The game association continued meeting after
vacating the poor house. Their next cabin was on the cliff across a swinging
bridge on what was the Dowdy property.
The hunters named it Camp Schroeder.
At the time they were members of the Eastern Kentucky Coon Hunters
Association. They hunted mostly squirrel
and never saw any deer. Because it was hard to access, about 1944, they rented
property to the right going up Klaiber Cemetery hill. Art Damron, (who worked for Glenn Judd, father
of “the Judd’s”) bought two box cars and hauled them from Ashland. They had a porch, an old gas stove and they
had the creek for a swimming hole. One box car survived well into the
millennium. In just a few years (1947/8)
they moved once again “up the road” and leased from Frank Stewart, for 99
years, for $15.00 and a milk cow. They
had a block machine at Pollard and when one of the members was available would
make each block by hand and haul them out.
The Ashland Women’s Club had several “adventures” and had their lunches
in the building. Among the last members
was Roy Rice. They tried to revamp the building but it was vandalized and
Rice’s son cut and lost use of his arm on a window. These little camps were the
forerunners of what is now the Blue Ribbon Fox Hunter’s Association in another
area of the county. The last building
on Long Branch still stands on the right of the lane going to Keith Blanton’s
home.
The box car clubhouse was rented to
Rosa Sammons family for a short time after the hunters moved up the road. She drew her fresh water from the spring
which is still crystal clear in 2016.
In 1950 there were seventy-three
dairies in Boyd County. The mid-fifties
changed federal/state health department regulations and production standards.
Today you can still see the milk houses left standing on our road. The bulk truck rumbled, daily, down our road.
Compton (Tom & Claudia), Dowdy’s (Thomas & Sarah), Diamond (Ova & Dovey) and Klaiber
(J.H. & Elsie) all had small milking operations at one time. The largest
and last milking operation to withstand and improve their milking equipment and
barns was Klaiber’s. Most farms along the road raised beef cattle. From the beginning of the county in 1860
farmers were taxed by the hoof for horses/mules, hogs, cattle and sheep
(apparently goats were not worth counting even in those days!). Tax records show most of the farmers had a
few sheep on their properties.
The fifties health regulation requirements
included cattle to be tested for tuberculosis and brucellosis (Bangs
Disease). Hydrophobia was also a huge
problem and rabies clinics were set up. When a case of rabies was diagnosed,
the local health department was required to quarantine the area for a month.
The new regulations were a few years too late for the Jones family. Four-teen year old Charles Jones was out
hunting rabbits (they lived in Ashland at the time but had ties on the road)
and was dog bitten in late November 1942.
He suffered until January of ’43.
There were no measles vaccines during this time either. Arthur Jones, just two years old, died in
Ashland from the disease in 1944 and once again the family brought another
child out for burial. They, along with
other children including Lottie, were children of John and Goldie (Walker)
Jones. Lottie married Norman Lucas,
grandson of Henry Kane Lucas. In January
1967 a case involving a fox on Garner, Route #1 caused two children to have the
anti-rabies series. The fox attacked
several cattle and two or three dogs.
When the county began to make
improvements to the road in 1955, including rerouting of portions of the creek,
right-of-way deeds still included the words “Poor House Branch”. The Tennessee
Gas Transmission Company began running lines across several of our properties
in 1957.
We were not the first to get amenities
such as electricity, telephones or county sewers. We do qualify for having one of the last
party lines in the county. Outhouses are
a novelty now. Neighbors still get a good laugh from pranks. In the 60’s at
least one outhouse was placed in the middle of the road during Halloween.
Hunting season is still an important ritual. In the fifties the hills were full of grouse
and quail. They are all but gone today.
Turkey had been hunted to extinction by our pioneer families, in our
hills, and you never saw a deer. Deer
slowly began to repopulate in the 1970’s and by the 1990’s we all began to see
turkey in our fields.
Compton, heirs of Tom, began to subdivide
their property in the 1990’s and a new road was created off Long Branch, called
Deer Creek Estates. In May 1998 the
family defaulted and the surveyed lots were sold at auction by Brooks Wells.
As time pushes each day into history
there are still weddings on the road. In 2012 The Tuzik- Pierzala wedding took
place in the field in what was known as the Elisha “Lige” Sexton inheritance
until the 1930’s. Other families have lived near the cliffs of that lane
including Stapleton and Workman. In 2014
the lane finally was properly named “Walnut Grove Lane.”
The road has always flooded and residents know how to
time getting in and out. In 1880 H. P. Sexton wrote on May 2nd “Dear
son, I got myself to answer your kind letter…hale storm the 24 day of April. Very
high water…” Christmas Day 2015 was the first winter flood that our generation
can remember. We were hit with one of
the worst floods preceded by a hail storm this year. Most homes on the road had to have
replacement roofs. Lanes eroded and Stewart’s bridge was severely damaged. Flood
waters entered the Vanover residence causing severe damage. “God willin’ and the creek don’t rise” our
community will continue to thrive for another two hundred seventy-five years.
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