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, 39th 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 39th
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.
[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
