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 12th 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.
