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 6th and was
buried on February 7th. 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.
