Leonard and Mary “Mae” Gallion Enyart. Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

Leonard L. Enyart was born 7 July 1888 near the Falls of Blaine in Lawrence County, Kentucky.  He was the son of William Frank Enyart (1855-1935) and Sarah E. Lett Enyart (1859-1917). 

Leonard usually left a smile and had a story to tell to those around him.  Luckily the late local historian, Evelyn S. Jackson, captured some of those stories in her writings.

When Leonard was 21 he married Mary “Mae” Gallion  13 February 1910, in Boyd County, Kentucky[i].  Mary would turn 16, the month after they wed so her father signed consent on the 12^th of February.  They were married in the presence of her father Thomas “Allen” Gallion and, her uncle by marriage, Mont Clay.[ii]  Mary’s mother was Belle Stanley.  Belle and Thomas Allen Gallion had married in 1892 and Mary was one of seven children.  Leonard came from large family of ten.

Sixty years later, when they celebrated their anniversary the Ashland Daily Independent carried the story[iii]. The article stated that at that time they had fifty-nine grandchildren and 76 great grandchildren.  Together, the couple had thirteen children and ten were still living to help them celebrate.

Leonard was a farmer in Boyd County. You don’t retire from farming so at age 80 a picture of Leonard and his “Texas size pumpkin” appeared in the Ashland Daily after a torrential downpour in August[iv].  I smile at the title of the article “Bear Creek Gullywasher Uproots Giant Pumpkins.”  I still hear the locals (including yours truly) using the word gullywasher when our creeks swell and overflow.  One of Leonard’s sixty pound pumpkins was located wedged under a house trailer almost a mile from his garden. 

I think my favorite story was written by Evelyn Jackson in the Press Observer[v]  when Leonard  told  stories “that made his blood run cold…” Among his several encounters is the tale of haunts on the adjoining property that we own where Klaiber Cemetery is located. “I heard this thing coming in behind me when I got up pretty close to the old Mrs. Dowdy place…she lived in the old log house there beside the road…the moon was kind of shining and it come… icicles all over it rattle, rattle, rattling. I looked around at it and seen it plain. It just flipped right by me and took straight up that road…I never did find out what it was.”  Let me assure my readers that the haunts and souls in Klaiber Cemetery are gentle and kind.

Mary Gallion Enyart died 4 November 1973, at the home of their daughter, where they were living.  Her funeral was conducted at Mavity Freewill Baptist Church and she was laid to rest in Klaiber Cemetery.  Leonard died 6 January 1975. His funeral service was conducted at Grassland United Methodist Church and burial was beside his wife, in Klaiber Cemetery.

 

 

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[i] KY Boyd Mbk 31A p 21

[ii] Montville Clay 1861-1943 married Nancy Jane Stanley

[iii] Ashland Daily Independent 22 Feb 1970

[iv] Ashland Daily Independent 25 Aug 1968

[v] Jackson, Evelyn S. Press Observer 30 Oct 1975 Boyd County, Ancestors

Curtis and Douglas Enyart. Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

 

One of the saddest things to see in a cemetery is an unmarked grave of our tiniest cherubs.  One of my favorite sayings, which has many versions, is that as long as a person is remembered they live on. I think best said by the quote of George Eliot “Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.” And yet so many cemeteries have tiny angels that lay at rest unmarked and undocumented unless someone remembers.  Klaiber Cemetery has our share of babes.

On a sunny, windy day in March 1968 I walked around the cemetery with Ruby Enyart Lawrence. Her grandparents were Leonard and Mary Gallion Enyart.  She stopped, looked down, and said that when she was growing up, her dad Thomas Roscoe Enyart and grandfather had shown her where infants Curtis and Douglas Enyart were buried. 

 

This particular area near Gallion and Sexton markers has several field stones and the possibility of even more graves that need identified.

Ruby said that Douglas was the same age as her aunt Leonard’s daughter,   Dorothy, who is also buried in our cemetery. Dorothy was born 22 January 1924, in Boyd County.  While the cemetery record book already had her birth, I confirmed the same in the Kentucky Birth Index.  Researchers might have a hard time locating it as the transcribed index spells the surname as Eugart!  Ruby’s oral history and memory was correct.  The birth of Douglas is recorded as Douglas Eugart 22 June 1924, mother Mary Gallion.[i] He was the son of Leonard Enyart. This little cherub did leave a tiny paper trail. 

The next step was to locate a death record. It took a little more sleuthing as Douglas Enyart’s death record gives no given name nor surname, ie the entry to the full name was left blank. The death record does give the birth date as June 21 1924.  Was Douglas born before midnight and his twin sister the following day?  Douglas was seven months and fourteen days old when he died of bronchial pneumonia.  Dr. J. A. Prichard of Buchanan was the attending physician.  Douglas died at Mavity, Boyd County on February 6^th and was buried on February 7^th. The informant was C. H. Fannin,  of Catlettsburg[ii]. The place of burial is cited as Sexton Cemetery and should not be confused with Sexton Cemetery on Pigeon Roost in Boyd County.  The property surrounding the cemetery was in the process of going to the heirs of Henry Powell Sexton[iii].

With Douglas honored it was time to review records for the other little Enyart baby, Curtis.   Once again those transcribing the Enyart name at the state level, mis-read the writing.  The Kentucky birth Index states that Curtis Engart was born to Mary Gallion (mother) 9 March 1931.    I was blessed with an earlier donation of the Effie Gullett Midwife Records to share with researchers.  With permission of Michelle Gullett, I extracted the records in a previous blog[iv].   Among the many entries of the midwife is the birth of Curtis stating he is the twelfth child (11 living Douglas having preceded him in death) of Mary and Leonard Enyart.

 

Enyart, Curtis

9 Mar 1931

Born Boyd Co., Princess. Male, legitimate. Father Leonard Enyard, resides Strait Creek, white, 42, born Boyd Co., KY, farmer. Mother Mary Gallion, white, 38, born Boyd Co. 12th child, 11 living.

 

Using various spellings, this compiler, at this writing, has not located a death record for Curtis.  There is no evidence of an obituary in the Ashland Daily newspaper.  However, the death occurred between 1931 and the Federal Census in 1940. Tiny footprints leave tiny imprints.

May you always have an angel by your side.

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[i] KY Birth Index 1911-1999

[ii] KY D Cert Boyd 2852

[iii] Eventually becoming Klaiber property called today by the owners Deliverance Farm

[iv] http://easternkentuckygenealogy.blogspot.com/search?q=gullett

Frederick Harrison Durham & Sarah Cordelia Taylor Durham. Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

 

Klaiber Cemetery and the family often have given to those in need.  Unlike “for profit” cemeteries that require a huge amount per lot, the cemetery only asks for a donation or donations to help with care.  We are aware  that when mourning  it is difficult to come up with even a donation at times.  Thus Klaiber Cemetery long ago stepped over the line of family to probably non-profit community in the technical sense.   Everyone is connected by some relationship. (That said if you have a loved one in the cemetery it is very expensive to maintain the grounds, fence and road to the cemetery – donations are always welcome!)

Frederick Harrison Durham, known by his friends as simply Fred, did not live in Boyd County.  But his daughter Pauline Eugenia and husband Emmett Rufus Hatfield lived on this road and were friends with everyone. When the need arose Klaiber Cemetery was there to help lay Fred to rest.

Fred H. Durham was born 7 June 1891 in Newcomb, Campbell County, Tennessee.  Newcomb is in the Cumberland Mountains, just a little southwest of Jellico and the Kentucky southern border.  By the time Fred was eight his parents, Thomas and Celista Lawson Durham had moved across the border to Rockcastle County, Kentucky.

It appears that the moment Fred H. Durham turned 18 he joined the 17^th Infantry out of Campbell County, Tennessee[i] and served until 1911.  Coming back to Campbell County, he married Sarah Cordelia Taylor 27 April 1912, at the courthouse.  Sarah was the daughter of Fernando and Nancy Barnes Taylor.

With permission of Cynthia Crawford85 at Ancestry.com

 

Fred and Sarah moved to Raleigh County, West Virginia where Fred worked for Wright Coal and Coke Company.  When he filed his WWI Registration Card there is a note “have reasons to believe this man is not a resident of Precinct 8.”  He was described as medium height and build with blue eyes and dark brown hair.

The family grew and they eventually settled in Mingo County, West Virginia having at least six children, the last (Doris Mae) being born in 1937.  Prohibition laws were still active in the 1930’s and having faced the crash of 1929 Appalachians were hurting and hungry.  Fred along with another man, Ralph Sterling Spangle, faced a court hearing in March of 1933 for operating a still.[ii]  In 1935 both Fred and his thirteen year old son were involved in a altercation and eventually Fred was charged with carrying a pistol without a state license, fined $50.00 and sentenced to six months in jail.[iii]  Sadly by 1942 until at least 1950 Fred H. Durham was a prisoner at the Moundsville State Prison in West Virginia.  At this writing this compiler has not located the complete record.[iv][v]

Daughter Pauline Eugenia Durham married Emmett Rufus Hatfield 13 August 1942 at Pikeville, Kentucky and migrated to Boyd County, Kentucky.  Emmett was also from Mingo County, West Virginia.  Another daughter Doris Mae married Michael Edmond Horton and moved to Ashland, Boyd County.

The other children migrated to Ohio and Detroit, Michigan. Sarah Cordelia Taylor Durham was separated from Fred H. Durham for some time that ended with divorce in Mingo County in 1953[vi].   At some point during the separation or shortly after divorce Sarah moved to Boyd County, Kentucky.  Neither remarried. 

Fred H. Durham died 5 February 1973 in Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia. He was living on Pacific Street.”  The article states that he had been a resident of Charleston for 50 years (which is incorrect), a member of the Baptist Church and a retired miner.  The article says “wife” Sarah survives and resides in Ashland, Kentucky. Fred was first taken to Simpson Funeral Home in Charleston and then moved to Kilgore-Collier in Catlettsburg, Kentucky.[vii]  The obituary in the Ashland Daily Independent  says he died “following a brief illness,” lists the children, but does not list Sarah. The children include Mrs. Emmett Hatfield of Rush and Mrs. Doris Horton of Ashland.

Pauline and Emmett Hatfield were living on Long Branch Road across from the cemetery and adjoining the Klaiber property, to the west, at the time of Fred’s death.  Daughter Doris Mae Durham Horton and husband Michael "Mick" Edmond Horton were living on Chinn Street in Ashland and mother Sarah was living at the same address.  Graveside services were conducted at Klaiber Cemetery by the Rev. Ralph Hester. 

Sarah Cordelia Taylor Durham lived ten more years in Boyd County, born 4 December 1893 in Jellico, Campbell County, Tennessee, she died 4 December 1983.  At her death, the family listed Sarah as the wife of Frederick H. Durham[viii].  Sarah was a member of Skyline Church of Christ. The family provided a beautiful stone with the sentiment “Precious Lord Take Our Hands. Together Forever.”

 

 

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[i] NARA, WWI Draft Registration Card Raleigh Co, WV 1917

[ii] Charleston Daily Mail 19 Mar 1933

[iii] Charleston Daily Mail 16 June 1934; 18 Jun 1935

[iv] NARA, WWII Draft Baisden, Mingo Co

[v] Census, Federal, 1950, Marshall County, WV

[vi] FHL 007616872 D-14 p 37 and 290

[vii] Charleston Gazette 5 Feb 1973

[viii] Ashland Daily Independent 8 Jul 1983

Thomas & Sarah Crabtree Dowdy Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

 

Thomas Dowdy was born 2 March 1895 in Wayne County, West Virginia, the son of Hugh Caperton and Martha Jane Harris Dowdy. Before Thomas’ fifth birthday the family had moved to Twin Branch, Lawrence County, Kentucky and by 1910 the family was living along the East Fork in Boyd County.

The 1917 Military draft describes Thomas as tall, thin, with black hair and blue eyes.  Who can resist blue eyes?  Thomas served, as a Private, in the U. S. Army from August 1918 until December 1918.  At this writing I have no further details of his four months in service.

Thomas fell in love with Sarah Crabtree, also from Lawrence County, Kentucky.  By the time they were ready to marry, her parents Harvey and Vina Holbrook Crabtree were living in Mingo County, West Virginia.  Many local farmers tried their hand at coal mining and when the mines in our area of eastern Kentucky slowed some moved to West Virginia; others to Jackson and Perry counties in Ohio.  Thomas and Sarah were married 18 November 1919 in Mingo County. West Virginia.  They settled in with her parents and Thomas went to work coal mining.

On 14 August 1936 daughter Martha, at the age of 14, married Edgar Jay Diamond, age 16 in Lawrence County, Kentucky.  Both set of parents were present.  Edgar was the son of John and Carrie Lee Diamond.

The Dowdy’s don’t appear to own property but moved several times. By 1940 they are back on the East Fork in Boyd County, at Bear Creek, renting, and Thomas is now farm labor with daughter Martha, seventeen years old.  She is once again using her maiden name, Dowdy, and marked as single. 

The World War II draft has been nicknamed the “old man draft” and Thomas, by 1942, had gray hair. He reported to the registrar, Dorothy Prichard, who helped him fill out the card.  He signed by mark and Prichard made a comment under physical character as “knuckle knocked down on right hand.”   She was a precise registrar giving his address as “one mile up Jerry Branch near the mouth of Trace”, Boyd County.  He told her he was working for Emmit Crace on the Crace farm at that time.

Thomas’ nephew, Fred Dowdy[i] and wife Argie Triplett Dowdy settled on Long Branch, on property adjoining where Klaiber Cemetery is located. Trace is just a few miles from Long Branch “as the crow flies” (a great Kentucky expression).  Thomas’s parents, Hugh and Martha Jane Harris Dowdy, who died 1918 and 1928 respectfully, were deceased and buried in Hogan Cemetery, on Route #3 in Boyd County.

Thomas J. Dowdy died 29 April 1969 in the VA Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia.   His normal place of residence was cited as Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky.  The hospital gave his occupation as a saw mill operator and farmer.  He died from bronchopneumonia and carcinoma of the lung.  The certificate said “Removal to Big Garner Cemetery” with Carman Funeral Home at Russell in charge of arrangements[ii].

The obituary in the Ashland Daily Independent stated he was a retired farmer and had moved to “Ashland” 64 years ago from Lawrence County.  The only surviving person listed in the obituary is his wife Sarah Crabtree Dowdy.  The 21^st Street Tabernacle in Ashland provided the service led by Rev. Paul Diamond.  The obituary correctly said burial was to be in Klaiber Cemetery on Big Garner.

On May 2^nd, 1969 Sarah filed a Headstone Application for Military Veterans.  She gave her address as 709 Greenup Avenue, Ashland.  The form must be signed by the person that will receive the military stone. Nephew Fred Dowdy, living just down the road from the cemetery was the consignee.  The contractor was the Columbus Marble Works in Columbus, Mississippi.  A follow up application dated the 16^th of May included the freight station at Russell, Kentucky and that Herbert J. Greene would transport same.

 

 

Sarah died two years later in January 1971[iii]. Her obituary in the Ashland Independent stated that she had been in an Ashland nursing home.  She was survived by two brothers, Charles Crabtree of Columbus and Albert H. Crabtree of Ashland.  Kilgore & Collier Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements and burial was beside her husband in Klaiber Cemetery.  Sadly, no one made arrangements for a stone to mark her grave.

A special thank you to Phillip Dowdy, Sr., grandson of Fred Dowdy for sharing data that confirmed the link between Fred and Thomas.

 

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[i] Fred s/o William and Nancie/Nancy J. Large Dowdy; grandson of Hugh Caperton Dowdy.

[ii] WV Vital 69-006494

[iii] KY Vital 001 00115

Henry Wiser Crum & Maggie Klaiber Crum: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

 

Because of the entwined stories, this blog  combines three individuals buried in our lovely cemetery: Maggie, Henry and their baby Sophia Francis Crum.  You can read the story of another son, John Allen Crum, buried in our cemetery in the last blog post.

Henry Wiser Crum was born 23 November 1862 in Floyd County, Kentucky, the son of Michael and Martha Lewis Crum.  By 1880, his mother, widowed, was living in Boyd County, Kentucky. 

When Wiser was twenty he was working on Williams Creek.  The Daily Independent, announced that Wiser had been terribly scalded by the blowing out of a valve while he was firing at W. Clere’s sawmill on 11 May 1882. There is a very detailed visual of firing at Best of Historic Steam Sawmill that you might enjoy on YouTube.

Recovered, Henry Wiser Crum married Margretta Ann “Maggie” Klaiber, 29 March 1887, in Boyd County.  Henry Wiser was still working at a sawmill, 25 years old. Maggie was born 15 May 1864 in Boyd County, the daughter of John Andrew and Mary Ann McBrayer Klaiber.  She was named for her grandmother Marguretta Maurer Klaiber, who is also buried in Klaiber Cemetery.

This photograph of a sawmill was found in the smoke house (Sexton/Klaiber farm) on Garner and we believe taken behind what we call the old dairy barn on the hill.  People in the picture have not been identified.  We assume it was run with the help of Henry Wiser Crum.

 

The Crum’s were married at Maggie’s home on Garner by the Rev. Mayson Branham.  James Higgins and John D. Mayhew, both residents of Garner acted as their witness.   The marriage was the talk of the neighborhood for decades.  Years later, as this compiler stood at their graves, John Henry Klaiber told how the older folks talked about the belling having been the loudest and biggest with people coming from Carter, Boyd and Lawrence County.  For my readers, who might not know about a belling; it is a serenade made up of banging of pots and pans, shooting of guns in the air, whooping and hollering, sometimes called a chivaree.

Wiser Crum was well known in the community and seven months after their marriage he was elected into the Mutual Protection Society, Lodge #1 in Boyd County.  This compiler did a three-part series on the Mutual Aide and the Regulators of Boyd County in March 2011.  As I stated then most were farmers and neighbors and did not see themselves as vigilantes, but felt that they were protecting their family, homes, and the community.

Henry and Maggie had five children, all born in a ten-year span: John Allen Crum (in previous blog), Henry Crum, Sophia Francis Crum, Everett Crum, and Delbert Crum.

Sophia, their only daughter was born about 1892.  Oral family history places her tiny death, two years later, as 1894.  During her brief life a picture was taken with her great grandmother Marguretta “Dutch Granny” Maurer Klaiber.  Sophia is in an unmarked grave, in Klaiber Cemetery beside her mother. 

 

Marguretta Maurer Klaiber and great granddaughter Sophia Francis Crum

 

 

The 1900 Federal Census shows the family residing on the East Fork, in Boyd County. They are renting and Wiser is farming.  In 1906 John Allen died of diabetes and was buried near his sister, also in an unmarked grave in Klaiber Cemetery. 

This fragile picture[i] was donated by Martha Klaiber Cox in 1980.  At the time of the photograph it was home to John Andrew and Mary Ann McBrayer Klaiber.  Martha identified Maggie and Wiser Crum and their three boys (standing to the right) which gives this composer the idea that it was taken just shortly after the death of their son in 1906.   Today the house location is on the right side of Long Branch Road and Deer Creek.

By 1910 Wiser, Maggie and boys are just across the line in Lawrence County farming.  They own the property but it has a mortgage. In the 1930’s Wiser sold 50 acres on the East Fork in Lawrence County to son Delbert[ii]. 

Taken 1927 at their home in Lawrence County, Henry Wise Crum and Maggie Klaiber Crum. Donated by Pam Wolfe.

Maggie Klaiber Crum (probably taken on their farm in Lawrence County from the Klaiber collection)

Henry Wiser Crum died 12 January 1943 in Lawrence County.  The doctor said he did not attend him but “after investigation it appears that the possible cause of death was Cerebral Hemorrhage.[iii]  He was buried in Klaiber cemetery beside two of his children.  A homemade stone marks his grave.

 

Maggie began to have failing health by December 1953.[iv]  She was placed in a nursing home in Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky. Her death was 23 December 1955.[v] She was 91 and the cause of death was registered as senility.   She was laid to rest beside Wise and her two children.  Both she and her husband have identical homemade stones.  The standing letters are metal.  There are no dates.

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[i] Photograph in possession of compiler 2023

[ii] KY Law Dbk 87-375  also dbk 86-441 to him dated Nv 9 1933

[iii] KY Vital La Co Cert 1898

[iv] “mother has been thinking of her sister Mag-hope she is better” Sophia Burt, West Point INd to Julina Sexton Klaiber, 29 dec 1953

[v] Ky Vital Boyd

John Allen Crum: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

John Allen Crum was the son of Henry Wiser Crum and wife Marguretta Anna “Maggie” Klaiber Crum. The 1900 Federal Census for Boyd County, Kentucky says he was born August 1890.  The 1900 Federal Census also shows that he had gone to school five months out of 12 (the census was taken 20 June that year) and certainly could read and write.  The family was living on East Fork labeled as district #2.  This compiler knows by looking at surrounding neighbors that the Crum’s were living on Garner.

John Allen Crum died before September 7, 1906.  The exact day is unknown.  But his obituary states he was 18 years and 24 days. In that case John Allen would have been born in September 1888. Either the census or the newspaper could be mistaken.  John’s sibling’s birth dates were questionable in the 1900 census as well.

Big Sandy News, 7 September 1906 page 3

John died from diabetes.  The term insulin (to bring down glucose levels) would not be utilized until 1909/10[i]. According to a blog post at Harvard, even as late as 1933, type 1 diabetes was a death sentence.  Insulin therapy did not begin until 1922.[ii]

Klaiber Cemetery has had many names over the years.  At the time of John Allen Crum’s death, the cemetery was surrounded by the land owned and maintained by Henry and Julina McCormack Sexton.  Their daughter Julina had been married to James Matthew Klaiber since April 1905 and lived on the Long Branch of Garner as well.  Thus John Allen’s obituary says the Sexton Grave yard on Garner.  It should not be confused with the Sexton Cemetery on Pigeon Roost.

John Allen’s grave was one of the first unmarked that the Klaiber family pointed out to me many years ago.  During a severe draught the outline of the grave can be seen beside his parents (grave marked 5a, no marker).

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[i] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3749019/

[ii] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/people-type-1-diabetes-living-longer-201501087611#:~:text=Ninety%20years%20ago%2C%20type%201,into%20their%2050s%20and%20beyond.