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.
