Robert Sanford Bocook: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

 

The little ones in any cemetery usually have a lamb or tiny angel figure guarding over them. When we took over care of Klaiber Cemetery in 1995 I was aware that there were unmarked graves.  In 1997 I received a telephone call from Thelma “Oley” Bocook Hunt asking if she could visit the cemetery and talk to me about placing a stone in the cemetery.

The story she told warmed my heart.  She was the daughter of Martha Helen Sexton and John Samuel Bocook.    She was one of fourteen children born to the Bocooks.  She explained that she was born in April (22 April 1910) and her brother (born January 1908) died in December 1910 when she was just five months old.

The family visited the grave of baby Robert Sanford Bocook many times over the years and each time her mother wished there was a marker.  Thelma said that before her mother died in 1958[i] she promised she would place a stone over his grave.  Time has a way of getting away from all of us and at eighty-seven years of age Thelma needed to keep her promise to her mother.

Of course I was very pleased to be able to identify one of the unmarked graves.  Thelma ordered a lovely marker complete with a praying angel to guard over her brother. 

John Samuel Bocook[ii] and Martha Helen Sexton were married on Garner, Boyd County, Kentucky 28 March 1905. The 1910 Federal Census was taken in April, the month of Thelma’s birth and while it does not show her as a child, Sanford along with older brother Delbert[iii] do appear, all living on Winding Avenue in Catlettsburg, Boyd County, Kentucky.

Thelma kept her long standing promise to her mother Martha Helen Sexton Bocook. Thelma died 6 September 1998 and was laid to rest in Catlettsburg Cemetery beside her husband Chester Hunt.

This tiny stone is a reminder that while we are gone we are not forgotten.  We live on in the hearts of others.

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[i] Oh, Scioto D Cert 13069 burial Vernon Cemetery, Scioto, OH

[ii]  D Portsmouth, Scioto County buried in Catlettsburg Cemetery

[iii] Delbert Bocook died in 1984 Cabell Co., WV and is buried in Catlettsburg Cemetery

John Taylor Clark & Joseph Mitchell Clark: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber March 2023

 John Taylor Clark was born 9 October 1848 in Carter County, Kentucky.   He was the son of Mitchell and Sarah R. Stanley Clark.

As an adult he along with all able bodied men were required to serve in the county militia as needs arose.  Boyd County was no different and John T. Clark appears on the militia list in 1872.  The Boyd County Militia lists are stored in the attic of the Boyd County Courthouse in Catlettsburg and were digitized by James Kettel and this author a few years ago. They are available at the Boyd County Library, Central Avenue, Ashland in the 2^nd floor Genealogy Room.  At this writing you must ask the attendant on hand to view the disc.

John Taylor Clark was a lumberman working as a sawyer. There was a huge financial boom on lumber as the Civil War dawned in Eastern Kentucky.  Huge shipments of logs were floated down the Big Sandy to Catlettsburg for points beyond.  Many land owners of Garner, Boyd County and Carter County had small saw mills on their properties and mule teams that would skid the large, mostly virgin timber.

John T. Clark and Samantha Ellen McBrayer had a daughter Elizabeth “Lizzie”born in Carter County 1 May 1875. Elizabeth  would  later marry George Dallas Burton and died in Greenup County, Kentucky in 1968.

Samantha Ellen McBrayer was the daughter of Elizabeth Elkins the widow of William G. McBrayer.  William G. McBrayer died in March 1852 and Elizabeth had three more children giving them the surname McBrayer after his death.  DNA linked to this compiler’s husband and others indicate Samantha was indeed a McBrayer.  The Carter County vital birth records list James H. McBrayer as her father. With DNA markers Samantha is most likely a cousin to Mary Ann McBrayer Klaiber also buried in Klaiber Cemetery. 

John Taylor Clark told the census taker for Carter County, Kentucky, in 1900,  that he was divorced. [Samantha died 4 November 1920, having remarried in 1907 to Jonathan Skeens.]    In 1902 John T. Clark sold 118 acres on Strait Creek to John M. Clay[ii]. [iii]

John Taylor Clark and Tennessee Wellman had a son George Clark born 25 December 1902 in Carter County.  George became a plumber, married Ruby Alice Johnson and died 29 March 1979 in Carter County, Kentucky.

John T. was milling lumber in 1910, residing in Grayson, Carter County stating that he had been married two times and was now widowed.

John Taylor Clark is attributed as the father of Sarah, given the surname of Wellman, 5 August 1906.  Sarah is living with her grandparents, Tilford and Rebecca Wellman in Grayson, Carter County, in 1910. She died at the age of 12 in 1918. Neither parent was the informant on her death certificate but John T. Clark and Tennessee Wellman are listed as parents.[iv] 

John T. Clark died 15 July 1915 in Grayson, Carter County, Kentucky.[v]  Cause of death is listed as asthma and heart disease. While Dr. W. A. Horton did not attend him, he did sign the certificate.  The death certificate states that he was to be buried in Hood Grave Yard.  Hood was an alias for Klaiber Cemetery. J. M. Clay of Rush, Kentucky was the informant and gave Michael (sic) Clark born Virginia as the father and Sarah R. Stanley as the mother. This is the same John M. Clay who purchased property from Clark in 1902.

There is one other anomaly concerning John Taylor Clark.  It is apparent that his tombstone was not made until the death of his brother in 1915. While “carved in stone” is taken to mean it is permanent in this case the death certificate is a higher standard of evidence.

 

 

   

Joseph Mitchell Clark, was a younger brother to John Taylor Clark,  Joseph Mitchell Clark was born 24 July 1860, son of Mitchell and Sarah R. Stanley Clark.

Joseph married Elizabeth Bays (daughter of John and Sarah Easterling Bays)29 January 1891 in Carter County, Kentucky.  Their first child Ida was born in October the same year. 

Two days later Joseph M. Clark with his mother Sarah R. Clark purchased 65 acres on Wilson Creek, Carter County, from Kate Applegate of Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.  The transaction involved the payment of 97.50 on that day and another 97.50 to be paid on 31 January 1892.[vi]  Joseph sold this property in 1905 to Sarah Alice Proffit.[vii]

By 1900 Joseph and Elizabeth Clark have two more children William J. born March 1894 and John born August 1898. Joseph Mitchell shows him owning the property when the census was taken.  His mother Sarah Stanley Clark, age 78, lives next door. Sarah dies two years later.

By 1910 Joseph Mitchell is working as a laborer doing odd jobs and has become a widower, living on Williams Creek at Geigerville, Carter County, Kentucky. Ida and John are listed in the household.

Joseph Mitchell Clark died  in Scioto Township, Pickaway County, Ohio 4 August 1915.  His brother George Washington Clark was the informant. George W. says that his residence at the time is Orient, Ohio (George later dies in 1919 back in Carter County, Kentucky & was buried at Denton.) George states that Joseph is widowed, his father was Mitchel Clark and mother Sarrah (as sp) Stanley. The doctor, R. A. Brown states that he tended Joseph M. Clark from February 19^th 1915 until his death.  The cause was Multiple Neuritis contributory cause being pneumonia.  The death certificate said that he would be buried in Rush Cemetery on August 7^th.  Rush Cemetery is located at Rush, Kentucky.  Since burial was actually in Klaiber Cemetery it is more likely that the body was sent by train to the Rush depot. The depot was located in Rush which is on Route #854 today. The body would then have been hauled over Rush Hill to Long Branch Road for burial in Klaiber Cemetery.

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[i] Elizabeth m George Dallas Burton.  She d in 1968 at Hitchens, Carter County, Kentucky

[ii] KY Carter dbk S 181

[iii] John M Clay and wife Catherine Lambert. Daughter Henrietta Clay m George Stanley (b Scott Co VA) in 1877

[iv] D Cert 38178 Sarah Wellman

[v] D Cert 17627

[vi] KY Carter deed book M page 407

[vii] KY Carter deed book Y p 255

Sarah R. Stanley Clark. Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber March 2023

 

 

 

Sarah R. Stanley and Mitchell Clark were married over fifty years when he died in 1892 and was buried in Klaiber Cemetery.  Sarah lived ten more years and died, 3 October 1902 before being laid to rest beside her husband.

The 1900 Federal census, taken in June, places her in the dwelling next to son Joseph Mitchell and wife Elizabeth Bays Clark in Carter County.  Sarah is 78 years old, widowed stating she has had nine children and six are still living.

Sarah R. Stanley was born 1 March 1823 in Virginia.  She is attributed as the daughter of Hannah Riggs[i] Stanley Watson.  Undocumented on-line family trees repeatedly state that the father was a Jeremiah Stanley but this compiler has not found concrete evidence to defend those statements, at this writing.  A study that includes questions about Hannah, that is well done, by Alvy Ray Smith, can be read at this link: William Riggs of Virginia and his Probable Family .

Hannah Stanley married James Watson on 28 February 1838 in Lawrence County, Kentucky by Joel Cook a minister of the Baptist Church. By 1850 Hannah Watson, 56 is living with James and Sarah Stanley, in now what is Carter County, along with two month old Hannah.

James R and Sarah McGuire Stanley resided on Jacks Fork of Garner in what would become Boyd County.  They are buried in Stanley-Barber Cemetery on Jacks Fork just over the ridge from Long Branch Road and Klaiber Cemetery.  Two of James R. Stanley’s children are in Klaiber Cemetery and will be highlighted in future blogs.

In 1854 Sarah Stanley Clark and Mitchell Clark have a baby girl, born on Garner, that they also name Hannah.  It is easy to draw the assumption that she is named for Hannah Riggs Stanley Watson.  I wrote more about her in my previous blog post.   Sarah was thirty-two when toddler Hannah died and had already buried a two-year old son, James Calvin Clark.  It is terribly hard to imagine any mother having to bury their children.

Sarah is also sister to Andrew Jackson Stanley who married Barbara Ellen/Allen “Barbary” Rice Stanley.  Sarah’s other brother George W. Stanley appears in Andrew’s household in 1850 in Carter County, Kentucky.  Just as a reminder to readers, the 1850 Federal census does not give relationship so it is assumed that George is a brother since he is contemporary to the Stanley’s. Andrew Jackson and Barbary both die in Rising Sun, Randolph Township, Ohio County, Indiana.

The area known as Garner in Boyd County, Kentucky includes #854 that runs along Garner Creek to where it empties into the East Fork at Route #3. Garner Creek flows down the steep Rush Hill from the Old Bryant Fannin home at the mouth of Pigeon Roost. The area includes Long Branch and Long Branch Road which at one time was called Poor House Road.  Many of the properties on Jacks Fork considered themselves a part of Garner as well. The families  from the neighborhood have always been a tight knit group.  The Fannin’s, Ross, Clark, Stanley, Klaiber, Lucas, Lambert, Barber and others have lived in the neighborhood for many generations.

Whispers from the Grave Series of this blog will continue the Clark family in the next post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[i] Hannah Riggs attributed as a d/o William Riggs of Scott County, Virginia.  Scott Court Orders show George Stanley taking over as overseer in place of William Riggs in March 1822. Later, a William Riggs sells 50 acres in Hunter’s Valley to George Stanley in February 1855.

Mitchell Clark. Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber March 2023

 

Mitchell Clark was born in Virginia 7 May 1819.  There has been much speculation[i] but no documentation as to parentage of Mitchell Clark.

The first record this compiler can find for him is in the Carter County, Kentucky Personal Property tax for 1842[ii].  This is the same year that Samuel Ferguson Clark of Cabell County, Virginia, having either moved or going to move to Missouri, sold fifty acres of land on Bolts Fork, Lawrence County, Kentucky, to James Prichard.[iii]   James Prichard’s son William would later marry Mary Jane the daughter of Mitchell and Sarah R. Stanley Clark.[iv]

The land Samuel F. Clark sold was described as adjoining Elijah Rice, very near the newly formed Carter County line (formed 1839).   Elijah Rice[v]  was a brother of Barbara Ellen Rice that married Andrew Jackson Stanley [vi] brother to Sarah Stanley who married Mitchel Clark circa 1840/41. No record of an official marriage has been located at this writing by this compiler.

Both Mitchell Clark and Joseph Miles Clark (born about 1821 in Virginia) appear side by side on the 1843 and 1844 tax lists of Carter County, Kentucky with no land values.

By 1846 the Carter County tax list places Mitchell Clark as being on Garner with 150 acres valued at 100. Just north west of Bolts Fork there is a dividing ridge between Jacks Fork and Garner. The 1850 Federal Census  show the Clark family  with children James, William R. Clark, Mary Jane and John Taylor Clark and shortly after the census was taken Bryant Smith Clark was born.

In October 1853 James Calvin Clark died and was buried in Selbee-Clark Cemetery on Garner (now Long Branch Road, off Rt. 854). This cemetery lays about 600 feet from the then site of Greenhill Lodge and very close to Banfield Cemetery.  Selbee-Clark at one time had an iron fence. When the KHS cemetery project was done the people merged Selbee-Clark with the Banfield cemetery because they were so close together.  The Banfield and Selbee-Clark cemetery is approximately 1 ½ miles from Klaiber Cemetery on the opposite side of the road.

Researchers have been quick to jump on the band wagon and claim another James Clark as the son of Mitchell Clark(e) simply because of his death in in Carter County[vii].  They did not follow the subtle documentation.  James was marked as an idiot in the 1850 Federal Census, a designation given a person that mental facilities are arrested in infancy or childhood. They did not research the locality and entries of cemetery records in the area of Garner within Boyd County.  They did not note that in 1900 when the census taker asked how many children Sarah has the response was nine with six still living.  (Hannah, James and William were all deceased before 1900).

Sarah was pregnant at the time of James Calvin Clark’s death. Hannah Clark was born to Mitchell and Sarah 14 May 1854 on Garner according to her recorded birth record.

In January 1855 Allen Prichard made a motion in the Carter County Court that Mitchell Clark was to oversee a road leading from the East Fork to Sulphur  on Williams Creek commencing at Bryan(t) Fannin’s house leading to the Sulphur Spring calling all hands living on Garner above Fannin’s and all hands residing on Rush Creek and to keep the same in good repair, digging 12 feet when digging is necessary and the cut to be 20 feet.[viii]   Today this is Route #854.

August 27^th, 1855 little Hannah Clark died on Garner from fits.  She was buried in Selbee-Clark cemetery, next to her brother James Calvin Clark on what is now Long Branch Road.  The stone gives a different date of death by about two weeks compared to the recorded county death record.

In December, that year, the Carter Court ordered William P. Hood, Chrisley Banfield and Mitchell Clark to review a change of the road leading over A. (Allan) Prichard’s and Jno. Banfield’s.  But almost immediately, at the next session, the court ordered that Powell Sexton replace Mitchell.[ix]   This compiler speculates that with strain of the death James, and Hannah, in probability Clark might have asked to be relieved from duty.

George Washington Clark was born to the Clark’s on 10 July 1857. When he was a toddler Charles E. Hood and Amanda his wife sold land on the upper edge of Clark’s farm on the dividing ridge between Jacks Fork and Bolts Fork for $543.00, dated 1 December 1859 to Mitchell and Sarah Clark.[x] [xi]  The acreage is not cited in the deed and the deed was not filed in Carter County until 6 April 1875.  That section became Boyd County in 1860. There is indication in Carter County, Kentucky court records that there was an issue with some land transactions Charles E. Hood had been involved with as a constable and thus the purchase was not filed until they were ready to sell.

In turn, on the same day, 1 December 1859, Mitchell Clark took out a mortgage receiving $100.00 from Allan Prichard putting up what he then describes as 181 acres “where he now lives.”  C. E. Hood did sign as a witness but Soloman Davis filed the deed of mortgage with the clerk the same day.[xii] Thus this document (unlike the previous) is in sequence within the deed books of Carter County, Kentucky.

Both the earlier tax records and the Hood deed indicate that Mitchell was already paying on some property prior to the 1859 purchase. There is the possibility he took on the responsibility of the tax prior to having it documented. To date this compiler has not been able to confirm any further land holdings.

Births and weddings are always a happy time. Joseph Mitchell Clark was born to the Clark’s 24 July 1860. Weddings were usually small neighborhood affairs. Daughter Mary Jane married William Prichard 14 August 1861 at the Mitchell Clark house. Mitchell Clark was a witness for the marriage of Jasper Breeding to Elmira R. Fannin, daughter of Bryant and Mary Smith Fannin 20 August 1868.[xiii]

Sarah Ellen Clark was born to Mitchell and Sarah in 1863.  When she was six, Mitchell Clark along with William P. Hood, C. P. Banfield, Riley Sexton, Lindsey Fannin, Philip Howe and others agreed to pay James W. Mullan to teach at the Greenhill School House in the neighborhood (part of the Greenhill Lodge) 12 December 1869[xiv].  Subscription school teachers were taken care of by donations, lodging and food of people of the area. Two of Mitchell and Sarah’s children, Joseph Mitchell Clark and Sarah Ellen Clark, would benefit from this education.  The subscription teacher, James W. Mullan would go on to marry 16 March 1871 Louvernia Prichard the daughter of William Allen Prichard.

By 1870 there are five children living at home with Mitchell and Sarah. Mary Jane now married to William Pritchard lived nearby.  John Taylor Clark is now 21 and brother Bryant Smith Clark 19 and able to help with farming and labor as needed.  Even George at thirteen is able to do labor while Joseph and Sarah are marked simply as “at home.”

Sarah and Mitchell Clark sold John N. French[xv] the 181 acres on Jacks Fork…on the high knob between Bolts Fork and Garner 2 February 1875.  James W. Mullan was by then acting as clerk of Boyd County and signs the deed. Both Sarah and Mitchell sign by mark.[xvi]

Mitchell is sixty-two by the time of the 1880 Federal Census and still indicated he was farming.  But he no longer is paying real estate tax. Joseph Mitchell Clark and Sarah Ellen are still living at home.  Sarah would marry Van Buren Goins in 1882[xvii].  Joseph Mitchell Clark would marry Elizabeth Bays.

Mitchell Clark died at the age of 73 years 4 months and 7 days on 14 September 1892 and buried in Klaiber Cemetery which is on the ridge of Garner, Boyd County, Kentucky.  According to some descendants, at one time an iron fence enclosed the Clark family graves.  There has been no sign of a fence in over 50 years in Klaiber Cemetery.  The fence is described much like the remains of the fence in Selbee-Clark that could be seen when visited by this compiler.

A photograph of Sarah and Mitchell Clark has circulated from time to time on the internet.  At one time it was submitted to the Carter County genealogy, history and research web site by Gary Kutcher (click to link). Wayne Clark of Olive Hill, Kentucky shared a grainy copy of Sarah and Mitchell for the cemetery record books. 

 

 

 

 

Whispers from the Grave Series of this blog will continue the Clark family in the next post.

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[i] He might be a relative of Joseph Miles Clark who m. Mary Thomas in 1840 Carter County with son Stephen buried in Banfield aka Selbee/Clark Cemetery which lays on the same road (Long Branch Road in 2023 on Garner).

[ii] Fhl 008337274

[iii] Law KY deed book C page 251

[iv] Boyd KY m 14 Aug 1861

[v] Married  Eliza Jane McCormack

[vi] M 11 Jul 1848, Carter KY

[vii] That James Clark’s CW record & subsequent records show he was born in Mercer Co KY , m in Owen Co.

[viii] Fhl 008686579 Carter KY Court Orders

[ix] Fhl 008696579Order bk 2 p 108

[x] Carter KY deed book G p 1982

[xi] Charles E Hood son of William and Matilda Howe Hood who are also in Klaiber Cemetery. As a constable he signed several deeds that ended up in court cases and by 1875 was not paying his own property tax on Jacks Fork. 

[xii] Carter County deed book 8 page 184

[xiii] Boyd KY M

[xiv] Klaiber, Teresa; Boyd County Kentucky Genealogy, Stories, Articles & Research: Monographs II p 78

[xv] John N. French’s son James W. would marry Oct 1874 Hannah Stanley niece of Mitchell Clark’s wife Sarah.

[xvi] Ky Boyd deed book 7 p 206

[xvii] Boyd KY M record 31 Aug 1882

Whispers From the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber, March 2023

 

This is an introduction to a new series in this blog, “Whispers From The Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky”.  There is an earlier post (2015) concerning the general history of our cemetery, and a map of Klaiber Cemetery at find-a-grave. 

Photograph by Ann Strosnider 2023

Klaiber Cemetery is a neighborhood/community cemetery, with many twisted branches and many stories to tell. The cemetery has long grown beyond the original “legal” bounds merging with what is now our deed. Our property surrounds, hugs and protects Klaiber Cemetery (aka Hood Cemetery, aka Garner Cemetery, aka Sexton Cemetery).

It is the first day of Spring. It is time of year that many family historians are gearing up to visit their ancestor’s graves. The days just before Memorial Day will be busy here at the farm.  Many will come to honor their loved ones.  We tend them all year long.

As a trustee of Klaiber Cemetery I help tend and care for each person laid to rest in this hollowed ground, we love so much. James Klaiber and I took over caring for the cemetery in 1995, at the death of John Henry Klaiber who tended and cared for the cemetery for many years after his mother Julina could no longer oversee it.

As a researcher and genealogist I began creating records for many of those in the cemetery long before officially becoming a caretaker. Those early notations, questions that I asked, and a fruit jar with small change were all we had in 1995.   Today there are three appointed trustees: James Klaiber, Greg Fannin, and this compiler.  The cemetery is a recognized cemetery in the state of Kentucky and the fruit jar has been established (and grown) as a cemetery account safely in a bank to help with fencing, road maintenance and mowing. As one trustee steps down, the other two will appoint a new trustee as needed.

There is now a record book (actually 3 notebooks) with photographs of the graves, notations, stories, obituaries and death certificates. I have come to know and greet many family members. We have stood by as many new graves have been dug and of course researched these people whose branches inner-twine.

As an extension of my project it is now time to share more information for future researchers and descendants.   As any author knows, as soon as something is “published” someone will reach out with more information, which I welcome with joy.