Little Children - Our Ancestors' Lives

 Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2020

 

Genealogists build the life story of their ancestors utilizing family stories, court records and more.  The children of the household may be counted in the family census records or even a guardianship.  But they rarely show up in other court records until they attain the age of consent.  Did our ancestorial children have happy childhoods? Were they well fed and properly clothed?  Genealogists can assume religious upbringing and possible wealth through their parents records but personality and other factors in life may be harder to ascertain.

Julina McCormack was born on Christmas Day, 1836 in Lawrence County, Kentucky. By looking at calendars we know that day was also the Sabbath, Sunday.  In early December, prior to her birth, Martin Van Buren was elected the 8^th President of the United States.

Julina McCormack

Julina was the daughter of Lorenzo Dow and Emily “Emma” Brumfield McCormack.  Her father was born 11 October 1804 in Bedford County, Virginia and named for itinerant preacher, Lorenzo Dow.  An article, while Lorenzo’s mother, Mary, was pregnant, gives a clue as to why so many in Bedford county were named Lorenzo. “A brief account of the remarkable work of God, in Virginia, Bedford County, which originated at a Camp Meeting, held by the Rev’d Lorenzo Dow, in conjunction with eighteen Methodist Preachers … souls were …converted – with innumerable awakenings… …June 5, 1804[i].

Julina’s parents married 2 March 1826 in Giles County, Virginia.  Lorenzo Dow McCormack’s father-in-law to be, Micager Brumfield witnessed the marriage bond.  Lorenzo Dow and Emma Brumfield McCormack were married by Landon Duncan, a Baptist minister who the next year united with the Disciples of Christ Church.  Their first child, Ellen was born 25 December 1827, their first Christmas baby, in Giles County, Virginia.

There are several family stories handed down about Julina’s mother, Emma.  Some family members were told that Emma and sister Lucinda were Cherokee and either adopted or raised by the Brumfield Family. This is a fallacy, disproved by DNA.  This compiler’s husband has no native blood and over 100 dna matches showing that Micager Brumfield is the father of Emma. 

Another family story told this compiler says Emma was killed in a corn crib by Creek Indians in North Carolina and her husband (Lorenzo Dow McCormack) then brought the children to Kentucky after her death.  This also is a fallacy.  Emma/Emily is accounted for on her husband’s census in Giles County in 1830 along with a female child under five (Ellen) and a new son Micajah (named for his grandfather Micajah and called Cager).  There is a published story in the History of Tazewell County about the capture of the Andrew Davidson family along with a bound boy and girl “orphans whose parents were Broomfields.”  However, this incident occurred in the Spring of 1791 and both Lorenzo and his wife were not born until the early 1800’s. While this story may be connected to the Brumfield family it does not directly involve Julina’s mother.

Lorenzo and Emma did not own property and they may have been in financial trouble when an indenture was drawn up to Charles and Daniel Hale in September 1831, in Giles County, Virginia.  The other possibility is the McCormack’s were preparing to migrate to Kentucky and needed money, not material items. The indenture involved a debt of $45.75, Lorenzo, signing by mark. McCormack put up 44 shocks of hemp, one cow and calf, a two year old heifer, 12 hogs, two beds, furniture and all household and kitchen furniture.  Charles Hale was infirm and exempted from working the public roads the same year.   

What is clear is that early in 1832 Emma had another baby boy James Madison McCormack born in Giles County, Virginia and Lorenzo’s father also had a debt. Father Dennit McCormack signed an agreement, in September, with David and Andrew Johnston for $30.00.  Among the articles in the debt indenture was a “little wheel” (spinning). 

Lorenzo’s father, Dennit McCormack, died sometime before August 26, 1833 in Giles County. Among his inventory is a flax wheel, one loom and one set of spools.  Lorenzo’s mother, Mary/Polly retained the spinning wheel from the sale.  Lorenzo, Emma and the children had already begun their roughly 218 mile trek to Kentucky.  Lorenzo Dow McCormack appears on the 1833 tax list in Lawrence County, Kentucky, where they have another baby boy in March 1833, named Lorenzo Dow McCormack Jr.

Settled in Lawrence County, Kentucky, after three years, 25 December 1836, Julina McCormack was born.  The second Christmas baby born to the family.   There is no further record for Emma/Emily Brumfield McCormack after the birth of Julina. 

Emma’s parents had also migrated from Tazewell County, Virginia to Lawrence County, Kentucky.  Julina’s grandfather, Micajah Brumfield, died just a month short of Julina’s first birthday, 28 November 1837.  This is also the last appearance of her father, Lorenzo Dow McCormack, on Lawrence County tax rolls. 

Julina’s sister, Ellen, nine years her senior, was bound out to learn the trade of spinstress in February 1839.  She was bound out to uncle, James Brumfield.   This hints that her mother was not around to guide her.

Julina, a toddler, was 2 ½ years old, when father, Lorenzo Dow McCormack married a second time to Winna Bolling, across the river, in Lawrence County, Ohio, 26 September 1839.  I do not locate L.D. in 1840. But this compiler believes that Ellen, Julina, and Lorenzo are among the children listed in their grandmother Eleanor Clay Brumfield’s household during the census in Lawrence County, Kentucky.  She was probably under Eleanor’s care since the death of her mother. The family resided on the East Fork of Bolts Fork.    A court order in March 1839 describes the Widow Brumfield’s property in a county road order: “Widow Brumfield’s up the fork to the Carter County line.” Other records indicate the property very near Sandy Furnace.  This is all beautiful bottomland until it reaches the hill approaching Carter County.

Julina’s grandmother, Eleanor Clay Brumfield,  was cited as owner of cattle that family herded to Wabash, Illinois in 1842[ii].  Among other family members involved in a suit against Eleanor Brumfield was William McCormack, Julina’s uncle.  While the suit does not mention Julina’s father a lot of family was involved.  I usually think of cattle drives out west, but an excellent and informative read appears in Agricultural History, April 1954 titled Cattle driving from the Ohio Country, 1800-1850.  I now visualize them taking the cattle across to the Vincennes Trail, earlier known as the Buffalo Trail, to Wabash where cattle were bringing top dollar during this timeframe.

Sister Ellen again appears in a court record citing Peres Randall as her guardian 26 January 1846 stating that father Lorenzo Dow McCormack is deceased. Ellen is 18 and can chose her own guardian. Randall was a well- known physician in Lawrence and later Boyd County. Julina had lost both her parents by the time she turned nine years old.  Her life during this period is a mystery. I have not located a guardianship or apprenticeship for her or her other siblings. 

Step-mother, Winna Bolling McCormack, remarries 14 December 1845 to, German immigrant, Henry Osendott, in Lawrence County, Ohio. This suggests that Julina’s father died before December 1845. The Osendott’s are living in Vernon Township of Scioto County, Ohio in 1850. Julina’s  brother, James Madison McCormack, is residing with Ellen now married to Harvey Slusher, in Lawrence County, Kentucky.  Brother, Lorenzo Dow Jr. is residing with grandmother Eleanor Clay Brumfield along with cousin Malinda McCormack[iii], in Lawrence County, Kentucky. Neither Julina, now 14 years of age nor her brother “Cager”, age 20, is accounted for in 1850.  Either the census taker has slaughtered the spelling of names or they were not counted as members in a household which presents a conundrum.

The Osendotts had son Pleasant Osendott in 1851, in Ohio. He moves to Twin Branch, Lawrence County, Kentucky and dies in 1914 in Carter County, Kentucky.  Winna also has a daughter, Nancy, in 1852 in Kentucky.  By 1870 she is back in Lawrence County, Ohio.

Julina married Henry Powell Sexton in Carter County, Kentucky 2 March 1854.  She was 17 years old.  She like other members of the family learned and loved to spin. 

Julina McCormack Sexton spinning, Sophia Francis Crum[iv]and Henry Powell Sexton carding wool.

She would bare ten children all born in the portion of Carter that became Boyd County.  Her youngest child, a daughter, Julina Leota Sexton Horton Klaiber gave me her mother’s old spinning wheel which I cherish.

 

Julina McCormack Sexton developed pneumonia and died January 14, 1914. She is buried in Sexton Cemetery on Pigeon Roost, Boyd County, Kentucky.[v]

I often think of Julina McCormack Sexton's childhood. Especially those years between the age of 4 and 17. Formative years.  She taught daughter Julina all the things needed keep a household sufficiently.   The children of our ancestors had to be resilient, able to adapt to changes in circumstances and self-sustaining.

 

 

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[i] Carlisle Weekly Herald, 20 Jun 1804

[ii] Phoebe Anne Hale Webb, Lawrence County, Kentucky Annotates Abstracts Of Circuit Court Records 1821-1873 (McDowell Publications: n.p., 1984), Page 17.

[iii] d/o Wm and Lucinda Brumfield McCormack

[iv] Sophia Francis Crum b c 1892 d/o Henry Wiser Crum and Maggie Klaiber.  Sophia d c. 1894 and is buried in unm grave Klaiber Cem.

[v] KY, Boyd D Cert 311, 1914. Age 77.1.20

Secrets & Clues From the Smokehouse

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber October 2020

 

The “mansion house” was built in the 1860’s, in Boyd County, Kentucky, similar to another house on the road that was utilized as the Poor House. The name is derived from a cemetery deed that called it by that name.

 

The “mansion house” 1922

 “mansion house” about 1970

 

The “mansion house” last breath 1996

     

You step out of the kitchen with a slam of the screen door to a small porch. Just steps away is the well. You pull up the bucket and dip the metal ladle to get the coldest, clearest, best drink of water in the world. So cold your front teeth ache from the tin.  By the time I “married in”[i] the Sexton/Klaiber house was empty and sagging.  But when I walked through, I still felt the energy of family and history. That water is still the clearest and best water I have ever tasted.

 

Julina Sexton Klaiber and daughter Martha at the well. #2  Julina and unknown

James David Klaiber getting a drink from the well 2006

Behind the well is the two-story smokehouse.  It is all that remains at this writing. The plat map simply called that portion of the land where the smokehouse sits as the “widow’s portion,” when Henry Powell Sexton died in 1912.[ii] The bottom made of hand-hewn stone from the rock quarry on the property has a heavy wooden door.  While technically not underground, as a cellar would be, it was used for cold storage of canned items.  Shelves lined the walls and even after being abandoned blue Ball fruit jars were discovered on the shelves.  It was not pleasant salvaging the jars, emptying the old contents.

You climb the narrow steps to enter the smoke house where meats hung to be cured.  When I first started exploring the farm, the smokehouse was locked.  I asked my father-in-law what was in there.  With his distinct laugh he said “not to worry, Missy”.  I quickly translated that as off-limits.

After John Henry Powell Sexton Klaiber (yes, his official name) died in 1995 we inherited the farm.   We dubbed our beautiful gift Deliverance Farm and built our dream log home utilizing square logs to honor the tradition of both the “mansion house” and the one room log “parlor” that was a part of the house hubby grew up in.[iii]  Concerned that the old mansion house would be dangerous the remains of the home were burnt and dozed in 1996.  It was time for the lock to come off to discover what had been the secret at the smokehouse.

My imagination wondered if there were valuable antiques, jars of money or a farm treasure.  As a genealogist, and cemetery advocate, I was already giddy with pleasure at having the privilege of becoming a trustee of Klaiber Cemetery.  My hubby pried off the rusted lock and I clapped with glee as my husband rolled his eyes.  Once several snakes were shooed away, we were looking at huge piles and large fruit baskets filled with papers.  I dove in elbow deep ignoring silver fish and pesky paper mites.  I quickly ordered him to not throw a single thing away.  I think he already knew that.

It took several days to salvage the paper items, placing them on a wagon so I could look at each individual piece.  There were holiday cards, letters, clippings, calendars, you name it.  Some were beyond salvage. Many had bug holes or corners missing. When a cousin visited, we made one last trip and hubby took a shovel and scrapped across the dirt that had accumulated on the floor uncovering one last treasure – one of the earliest documents, a “Resolution of Decease” for Marcus Sexton dated 16 November 1877.

The next task was to “debug” and rid the items of the musty smell.  Several archivists suggested putting items in a plastic bag with baking soda and placing them in the freezer.  It was a time-consuming task which we had to repeat several times.  But it worked.  The salvaged items are now in acid free sleeves to prevent further damage.

Among the treasured items was a group picture. I held my breath until I found the bottom half.  Once I found that the pieces fit together perfectly, I did another happy dance.  A small string is threaded in the center top of the backing as though it had been displayed on a wall at one point.

 

 

The last resident of the “mansion house,” was “mamaw”, Julina Leota Sexton Horton Klaiber.  We quickly identified her as the tiny lady, sitting on a chair with dotted dress, on the far-left front.  For as long as we can remember she wore “ear bobs,” her word for pierced earrings.  She does not have them on in this picture.   She appears to be a teenager.  To her right, this compiler believes, is Lorain Klaiber born in 1872 sister of Julina’s future 2nd husband, James Matthew Klaiber.

 Julina Leota Sexton Horton Klaiber with her “ear bobs.”

 

A study of the photograph leads this compiler to believe it is a church gathering with children holding up certificates and books or bibles on their laps. It would not be a school picture because of the diverse ages of participants.

Both Baptist and Methodist held quarterly meetings.  Julina was a member of Second Baptist Church later in life.  While, her husband James Matthew Klaiber’s family were Methodist.  Usually a presiding elder would visit four times a year for quarterly meetings.  The Baptist in our area were part of the West Virginia Association while the Methodist were part of the West Virginia Conference. 

Armed only with the old proverb “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” I plunged on going through the chronology of citations I have on “mamaw.” 

A newspaper article dated 27 April 1893 practically slapped me in the face.  The Ashland Republican[iv] [v]published long social articles.  I believe the smokehouse picture may have been taken in April 1893 and correlates with the picture. There are exactly five other ladies gathered with Julina, on the far right, for a total of six young ladies.

“Garner, Ky. Misses Sude Ross, Olive Hazlett, Ramy Klaiber, Demmie Mayhew, Lade Sextone and Gracie Davis attended quarterly meeting at no 11 last Sunday.”[vi]

The paper was published on Thursday and “last Sunday” would have been April 23^nd, 1893. 

The article references “no 11” which would be the county district number 11 at Grassland on Bear Creek.  The Methodist Episcopal Church South bought property on Bear Creek at Grassland to build a school and a chapel in 1872 known as Fannin Chapel.[vii] [viii]  By 1890 Mattie Colbert French was the teacher at Bear Creek School. 

These social articles were usually submitted by someone in the neighborhood who would sometimes using pseudonyms.  The article Garner, Ky. was written in two parts. The first unsigned and the second signed simply “By Another Correspondent.  

Several of the girls are mentioned in part two of the Garner Article as well.

“Misses Gracie Davis and Belle Banfield are both suffering with an attack of fever, which Dr. B. Banfield and his assistant, are trying to check.”

“Miss Lade Sexton was the guest of Miss Kate Selbee Saturday evening.” 

The William Selbee family also lived on what today is Long Branch Road, Boyd County, Kentucky along with the Sexton, Klaiber, Mayhew and other families.

“Miss Olive Hazlett, Gracie Davis, Ramy and Miriam Klaiber have returned from Ironton, and peanuts and candy will find no favor in their eyes for a long time.”  

Miriam is Miriam Frances Klaiber daughter of John Andrew and Mary Ann McBrayer Klaiber.

Ramy could only be Lorain “Rany” Klaiber daughter of John Andrew Klaiber and Mary Ann McBrayer Klaiber. She crossed the river to Ohio to marry ,15 June 1893, James Oscar Cornwell in Lawrence County, Ohio.  Her marriage was just two months after her visit to the quarterly meeting.  The Klaiber’s resided on the same road as the Sexton’s and Mayhew families.

Demmie Mayhew was born 2 June 1867 and would be 25 if she is one of the ladies behind Julina in the picture.  The Big Sandy News copied an article from The Smokey Valley News 16 June 1893 stating that Miss Dimma Mayhew and Sude Ross of Boyd county had been visiting their aunt Mrs. Dimma Riffe (of Smokey Valley).[ix]  Dimmie’s mother was Mary Elizabeth Ross who married William Mayhew 19 June 1854.  Dimma Ross Riffe was sister to Mary Elizabeth Ross Mayhew. Mayhew’s  farm laid just east of the Sexton/Klaiber farm on the road.  Dimmie died just two years after she attended that Quarterly Meeting, 9 April 1895, and is buried in Klaiber Cemetery. 

“Sude” Ross was Susan Elizabeth Ross, daughter of William Isaac Ross and wife Mary Francis Riffe. Sude was born July 1874 and would be 18 years old when the girls attended meeting together.  In November 1893 she and James Franklin Leslie crossed the river to marry in Lawrence County, Ohio.

“Lade” was the nickname that Julina Leota Sexton had all her life.  Julina was born 30 June 1877, in Boyd County, daughter of Henry Powell and Julina McCormack Sexton. She was 15 years old when the article appears.  Three years later on 28 October 1896 she married William Harry Horton, Jr. After he blew up, in 1902, in an accident in the saloon he owned, in Ironton, Ohio she returned to Boyd county and married James Matthew Klaiber on 2 April 1905. She lived in the “mansion house” as long as able and in her later years lived with John and Elsie Klaiber on the portion of the farm that I write from.  She would also spend time with daughter Martha on Valley Street in Catlettsburg, KY.  Julina aka Lade was 100 years old when she died 20 May 1978.  She is laid to rest in Klaiber Cemetery.

Olive Hazlett may be the nickname for one of eight daughters born to John Hazlett and wife Hannah Hensley Hazlett. James Matthew Klaiber sold John Hazlett land on Garner in 1895.[x] James Matthew’s first wife Kathryn Stewart Klaiber sold a piece of property on Jacks Fork to John Hazlett in 1896.  The Klaiber’s officially divorced 7 May 1897.  Further research is needed to determine more about the family of “Olive Hazlett”.

Like Olive, I have not been able to pinpoint which of the various Boyd County Davis branch’s Gracie is from.  Leaving this post a bit more of a fishing expedition hoping others can verify the other ladies in the picture and possibly identify the Elder and others gathered.  Feel free to email me at deliverancefarm@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[i] 1968

[ii] KY, Boyd deed book  57, 482

[iii] The one room cabin still stands and is marked as a Kentucky Historical Building.

[iv] A huge Thank you to Judy Fleming for correcting my handwritten extraction and providing the proper newspaper microfilm (UK).

[v] Library of Congress, Chronicling America Newspaper list. Ashland Republican, publisher JM Huff

[vi] Copied as originally spelled in paper. Sextone should be Sexton and Ramy should be Rany

[vii] Klaiber, Teresa. Monographs II. Boyd County Kentucky Genealogy, Stories, Articles & Research. 2006 p 67.

[viii] KY, Boyd deed book 12 p. 54

[ix] Cora Meek Newman, Big Sandy News. Page 82. 2000.

[x] KY, Boyd deed book 26 p 70

Deliverance Farm. What is in a Name?

 

Compiled by James David & Teresa Martin Klaiber 2020

Hubby and I inherited the Sexton/Klaiber farm in 1996.  The largest portions of the farm had been in the family since 1885, 135 years.  We decided to build a traditional log home to honor the “mansion house” that sat on the “widow’s portion” and was still standing (albeit badly deteriorated).  We also were building near hubby’s childhood house that’s front was a one room log home which was, at that point, known as the “parlor.” I wrote about the history of the log cabin in May 2015 (Click to go to early article).

I grew up making country calls and visits to the Klaiber farm, cattle farms and horse farms across the state because my father was a veterinarian.  Farms were given names that often reflected the personality of the owners. My own father had a dream, as a small child, that he would name his farm Jomar.  That dream became a reality in the early 1960’s.  The explanation for that name was modified to include my mother thus Jomar was named for John & Mary Martin.  It was a serendipitous coincidence that it was also the name of John Ringling North’s rail car.

Mother, a guest, and I sat rocking on the newly built porch of our log home in the summer of 1997 as carpenters continued to work inside.  We could hear the hay balers working the field on another portion of the property.  I love hay season with the sweet smell, newly cut and the knowledge that it will sustain animals throughout a coming winter.  But the first cutting is also during spring birthing of fawns.  The deer tend to hide their babes in the tall grass.  Knowing that, the farmers make as much noise as possible to alert mom and fawns that they need to move into the woods.   The farmer sits high up and cannot see inside the grasses prior to mowing. The sad side is sometimes a fawn does get maimed by a mower.

We rocked, as we watched a man approach us on horseback with a rifle attached to saddle and small gun holstered at hip.  He tipped his hat and said he just wanted to alert us that a small fawn was beyond saving and we would hear a gunshot.   We thanked him for the alert and went on with our conversation though with a sad tone.  After five, FIVE, shots my mother looked over at me wide eyed and said “Oh my goodness, just like Deliverance”.  Excited I told her I thought it was the perfect name for our farm since coming home and back to our Kentucky roots felt just like the definition for deliverance: the act of being set free.  Hubby was quick to concur.

We have had a lot of fun with our beloved farm and the name Deliverance Farm.  The first comment came from one of our naïve son’s who thought he was being tactful when he asked if we were sure because there was “a bad movie” that we might not have seen. He was naïve if he thought his parents or grandparents had not seen that movie. We have a sign coming up our lane by the creek that reads “Paddle faster I hear banjos”.  But the truth is, that after living in neighborhoods where houses were side by side, in other states, being back in Kentucky and our home has set us free. 

Deliverance Farm already had distinguishing areas with names.  From the view from my office window I see a forest of trees. But when our sons were small they would race straight up the cliff side to Madonna Rock.  The cliff boulder, hidden from view until the foliage dies back, has a huge scooped area that Aunt Martha Klaiber Cox suggested would look nice with a large statue of Madonna gracing it.  Thus its name.

“Powder House Holler” was named by the Klaiber’s before hubby was even born.  John Landon Klaiber (1888-1939) created Klaiber Explosives Company in the 1930’s. The company bought and sold, wholesale and retail dynamite, powder and other high explosives as well as making blasting supplies some of which were used for exploding in gas and oil wells and mines[i].  A small storage building, with a steel door, is on what is now Watt’s farm at the edge of “Powder House Holler” on Deliverance Farm. 

“Powder House Holler” sits across the road from the “widow’s portion” (owners now Pierzala) and the lane to the “rock quarry.”    The rock quarry was utilized during WPA days for crushed rock along the road.   But the quarry was here long before WPA.

 

Courtesy of KDL Utilizing the background of the KDL picture from the WPA days we believe that this quarry picture is from the farm

 The beautiful hand-hewn stone foundation and chimney rocks of the “mansion house” were also taken out of that quarry. We have salvaged several of the beautiful stones and utilize them on Deliverance Farm.  We also have the scales from the scale house from the 1950’s.

                        

 

 

 

Melody Springs dubbed so by our middle son, was part of Deliverance Farm and is now owned by the Reffit family.  My son loves to walk past “Lonesome Pine” and down to Melody Springs.  Where he says he can hear the music playing on a windy day. 

 

Long Branch of Garner Creek turns and comes up our lane while Solomon’s Branch continues along Long Branch Road.  The branch meanders past our log home, the cabin, tractor shed and barn  to a lovely pasture.  We literally live up a holler in a holler. High on the cliff above the creek and pasture is Skull Rock.  This wonderful rock will show its face when the foliage falls, greeting the Halloween season. I believe the spirit of the place and Skull Rock look after us.

 

 

Deliverance Farm is also the last earthly home of our ancestors and neighbor’s ancestors. Klaiber Cemetery has a beautiful view of God’s country.

Continue Past Klaiber Cemetery and up the hill for a visit to Iron Ore Ridge.  Ore was dug along the ridge creating trenches and then hauled to Sandy Furnace on Bolts Fork. I wrote about Sandy Furnace and It’s People in June 2010 (click to read that article).

Leave the ridge and go down a steep hill of Deliverance Farm to visit Marcum Holler (we don’t say hollow) and the rock water fall.  Joe Marcum lived in that hollow in the 1880’s and like James Matthew Klaiber was a blacksmith[ii].  I often wonder if Klaiber, who turned 21 in 1878, learned his trade from Marcum.   The commissioners wanted to open a road between Deliverance Farm and what is now Blanton’s farm in the early years of the county according to early court orders. It was utilized as a haul road and probably is how the iron ore made its way over to Bolt’s Fork.  The rock water fall is a huge rock ledge that cattle and humans alike can stand under even when the water is flowing.  It is cool on the hottest day and the area is lush with ferns.  I love it there.

Our newest landmark is the “shootin shanty.”  Built by cousin, Greg Fannin for obvious reasons. Each year it gets a little more elaborate.  Rumor has it someone placed a tv satellite on the roof at one point.  The “shootin shanty” is the perfect place to sit and meditate or enjoy a picnic. The vista overlooks Deliverance Farm.

I hope you have enjoyed a tour of Deliverance Farm from then and now. What’s in a name?  Personality and love.  Home. So the next time you see a farm sign see if you can figure out how it got its name.

 

 

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[i] KY, Boyd, Incorporation book 7 page 271

[ii] Daily Independence 14 Feb 1884.

Who Is Buried in McBrayer Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky?

 

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber October 2020

 

In college[i], hubby and I had come back to Boyd County for a weekend visit.   My father-in-law, John Henry Klaiber, strolled by me, nodded his head and said “come on”.   He was not one to mince words.  I knew he was on a mission.  We headed for the truck, he popped the clutch and we were off.  I knew better than to ask where we were going. He would tell me in his own time.

We came out of Garner and turned north on #3.  As we neared Trace he nodded to the left and said “McGlothlin Cemetery is over there, Elsie will take you.” 

I had already had 18 years to learn the farms and roads of Boyd County, Kentucky.  My father was the local Veterinarian and from the time I could toddle I carried his bag and opened the gates. Lots of gates. I had earned the nickname “lil Doc” dubbed so by Claude Groves.  Thus I knew when we turned on Four Mile and passed the Davis farm exactly where we were but not where we were headed since the road dead ends.

 

He stopped the truck and again said “come on”.  We literally shinnied up the right-hand side road cut. J. H.  walks about 100 feet, sits on a huge boulder then nods & points with his walking stick to several field stones scattered in the weeds.  “My grandmother was a McBrayer. These are her people.”  The significance of that moment was a little elusive as I was about to begin my genealogy journey. 

As a side note that was one of two private walks I had with my father-in-law.  The second, would follow in 1974 when they met us in the Smokey Mountains for a camp-out.  His now familiar “come on” led me up the side of mountain at a quick pace. I was out of breath, he turned around, chuckled and marched back down again.  No words needed. If it was a competition he won.

Mary Ann McBrayer married John Andrew Klaiber the first day of November 1855 in what was then Carter County by the Reverend Lewis Nutters, a Baptist minister.  They, according the West Virginia Methodist News later converted to the ME Church at Cannonsburg. They opened their home to the Methodist minister.  The article states that the Reverend John Martin[ii] would visit and retire to a room upstairs for “prayer and study.”  Martin dubbed the room the Prophets Room.[iii]  The name stuck and was referenced as such by all ten of the Klaiber children.

Mary Ann McBrayer was born 24 May 1834, Lawrence County, Kentucky.  She died 1 April 1919 in Boyd County and is buried in Klaiber Cemetery which is on the farm that we own at this writing.  Prior to her marriage, she is listed in the 1850 Carter County census with her parents James R. McBrayer and wife Anna Sanders McBrayer.    Mary Ann was sweet 16. Still at home were elder brother James Riley McBrayer born 22 February 1832, brother William 12, Susan 8 and Henry 1.  The last of nine siblings John Milton McBrayer would be born in November 1852 on Four Mile.

Mary Ann’s father, James R. McBrayer[iv] was born 8 August 1803 in Buncombe County, North Carolina.  He married Anna Sanders 7 July 1823 in Floyd county, Kentucky County. A history of the formation of our counties is always necessary in genealogy.   By 1830 the family is in Greenup, later Lawrence and Carter in the area that would become Boyd County in 1860.  In February 1847 Aaron Davis and James R. McBrayer exchanged small pieces of property on Four Mile Creek but the transaction was not recorded until 1873 in Boyd County[v].   Much of the land in that area was part of what was known as Carter Lands for a William G. Carter who continually promised but failed to file deeds[vi]. Thus much land was embroiled in court cases.  McBrayer did not get clear title of 200 acres until 1867 in Carter County Circuit Court[vii].

The Four Mile Creek property was sold to the Lexington And Big Sandy Rail Road, Eastern Division in January 1875[viii]. By 1880 the L&BS Eastern Division was known as Ashland Coal and Iron.  Simply put by locals, even today, “company land”.  James R. and wife Anna moved to Elliottville in Rowan County, Kentucky where James R. McBrayer died 5 January 1880.  He was buried at Hoggtown, Elliottville.  McBrayer descendants say they replaced an older stone in 1976 from money gathered at a reunion. I never saw the older stone but have visited the new stone and cemetery.

Anna Sanders McBrayer died 25 April 1880 on a visit back to Boyd County and because of weather was buried in Sexton Cemetery on Pigeon Roost in Boyd County.  In September 1979 some descendants had her remains removed to Hoggtown beside James R. McBrayer.  I wrote about her missing tombstone and confusion in 2010 titled “Anna Sanders McBrayer & The Missing Tombstone.”

With James R. McBrayer and Anna said to be buried elsewhere who were “her people” buried on Four Mile?

 

I did question my father-in-law who made it clear that was all he knew.  I was not surprised when I got a phone call from my mother-in-law telling me that the “company land” was being surface mined and you could not tell where the field stones had been.  It is now 2020 and the land is the entrance to a company known as Rush Off-Road, still referenced as “company land” or “Lowman lands” as the chain of title has gone.   The area at the end of Four Mile has been dozed and what has not been dozed has been decimated by four wheelers and side by sides.  I have driven over several times to get my bearing but any sign of where we got out of  the truck that long ago day is gone. 

 

 

I have reviewed and puzzled and mourned the loss of history about those field stones.  I now believe I know at least two of the graves we visited that long ago day.

 

James R. McBrayer was the son of Ichabod and Mary Stratton McBrayer. Ichabod died between July and September 1837 in Floyd County, Kentucky.  His mother remarried to Edward Branham 23 January 1840 in Pike County, Kentucky.  By 1860 she is again widowed and living with James R. and Anna in Boyd County on Four Mile.  She was 79 years old.  I believe that Mary Stratton McBrayer Branham is one of the destroyed graves we honored that day in 1968. She was the great great grandmother of John Henry Klaiber.

 

James R. McBrayer and Anna’s son Solomon S. McBrayer also resided on Four Mile, interacted with Aaron Davis and others. He married  Mary Margaret Harris 13 May 1847 in Lawrence County, Kentucky. He was a Marshall for Boyd County in 1862.  In February 1863 he mustered into military service at Peach Orchard, Company D, 39^th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry after a heroic encounter with the enemy while hunting.  According to William Ely in The Big sandy Valley “…On the morning in question Solomon McBrayer, a citizen of the East Fork …who had moved into town (Catlettsburg) for a temporary purpose, was living with his family in the old Catlett house…McBrayer persuaded two young men, refugees from Virginia to accompany him on his morning on a squirrel hunt…between the Sandy River and Ceredo. Having no guns, they…procured…government Enfield rifle.  The trio …were in sight of troopers as they passed down the road…believing capture…returned to town before the Confederate soldiers had left…Solomon McBrayer and his companions were lying in ambush…two or three days after these stirring events went to Louisa and volunteered in the 39^th Kentucky and a day or two after while sitting on a dry goods box, a rusty nail projecting through scratched his thigh, causing a slight abrasion…producing gangrene which terminated in his death within 24 hours.  His widows pension runs back to the day of his death.”  In 1870 his widow, Mary Margaret is living with James R. and family on Four Mile.  It would be logical that Solomon would be buried on Four Mile.

 

Many years ago I was asked by an archeologist to define what the “job” was of a genealogist involving cemeteries.  At the time I was advocating for burial rights of Natives in Ohio.  I had and have also been involved in many restorations of cemeteries.  I have supported the Association of Gravestone Studies.   I am now trustee of Klaiber Cemetery in Boyd County, Kentucky.  But that question, along with different burial believes around the world is a great one.  I respect and honor every grave. It is the last physical place our bodies hold.  My religion tells me that the soul has left that place.   I have seen cemeteries destroyed by dozers, neglected by time, bombed by wars and flooded only to be washed away.  “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” What is the job of the genealogist?  Genealogists have a very specific job.  The job is to record the information for prosperity. 

I was so reminded of that job the day, many years ago, at a genealogy conference in Pittsburg. I received an urgent phone call from the sheriff’s department in Muskingum County, Ohio.  I no longer lived there so was baffled as I hurried to find the telephone.  They had tracked me down to Kentucky and back to the conference because they had arrested a person for stealing and reselling the stones surrounding a small cemetery that my eldest son had restored as his Eagle Project.  They needed evidence and someone said we might have it. Yes I said the group had photographed not only the tombstones but the large hand cut stones that formed the wall because several had initials cut in them.  The scouts had recorded every word and letter on the stones and plotted the cemetery.  That evidence sent that person to prison for theft and desecration of a cemetery.  Those scouts all earned their genealogy badges.  

So as my job as genealogist I tell the story of McBrayer Cemetery in Boyd County, Kentucky to leave it as part of the history of Four Mile, the McBrayer family and for prosperity.  May the souls of our ancestors rest in peace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[i] 1968

[ii] No relation to compiler

[iii] West Virginia Methodist News. April 1919

[iv] s/0 Ichabod McBrayer and Mary Stratton

[v] KY, Boyd, Deed book 5 p 477

[vi] KY, Carter deed book B page 339 James R. McBrayer mortgage to John Eastham.

[vii] KY, Boyd deed book 3 page 287

[viii] KY, Boyd deed book 7 page 236