Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber March 2023
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 2nd 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 19th 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 7th. 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.
[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
