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.
[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.
