Compiled by Teresa
Martin Klaiber 2023
This is the only
picture the compiler has of Lizzie. Cropped from a family group picture
standing behind her older brother James Matthew Klaiber.
Some
people never grow old. Mary Elizabeth Klaiber Fannin is forever a young woman
in the hearts of family.
Mary
Elizabeth Klaiber was born 9 October 1866, on Division Street, in Catlettsburg,
Boyd County, Kentucky. She was the fifth
child of immigrant John Andrew Klaiber and wife Mary Ann McBrayer. She was called Lizzie by family and friends.
As
a child the family moved to Garner[i],
in Boyd County. The pastime for children
along Garner, besides farm chores, was wading in the creek to catch
crawdads. Some things make time feel
like it stands still, as this compiler can still watch children drawn to the
low water crossing to play in the creek.
Mary
Elizabeth did not marry until she was twenty-five. Lizzie married John H.
Fannin, 15 December 1891. The couple
were married in Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio.
Lizzie had five children between 1891 and 1897, all born on Garner, Boyd
County[ii].
Three survived. Lizzie died at the age
of thirty-two on 31 January 1899 after a snow hit most of Kentucky the day
before. For many year’s horses sledded
coffin’s up the hill for burial in Klaiber Cemetery where Lizzie was laid to
rest.
John
H. Fannin was born 17 December 1859 in what was then Carter County,
Kentucky. He was the son of Lindsey and
Samantha Jane Prichard Fannin. After
Lizzie’s death John settled in with his brother-in-law, George W. Workman and
sister, Mary Reed Fannin Workman. His
mother also lived with them along with John’s three children. They lived up a tiny hollow, across from
Klaiber Cemetery[iii].
On
1 August 1903 John remarried to Cora Stanley.
Cora was the daughter of John Stanley and Sarah Sexton. In
1893, her mother, Sarah, had remarried to Arch Johnson and Cora sometimes
utilized her step-father’s surname. The
couple married in Hocking County, Ohio but came back to Garner, Boyd County,
Kentucky to reside. Together John and
Cora had a daughter Goldia. They still
lived on property behind James Matthew Klaiber and his family in the
Sexton/Klaiber two story log home.
John
made a trip to Scioto County, Ohio to visit his married daughter, Kathryn
“Kate” Fannin McCormick in April 1914. The Big Sandy News reported that “he was
feeling very well. On arriving at the home he sat down in the chair saying that
he felt rather tired. Suddenly he became faint and died almost immediately.” He died in Green Township, Scioto County, on
the 10th from aortic insufficiency.
His son-in-law Vinton McCormick provided the information for the death
certificate.[iv]
The
death certificate says that he was returned to Rush, Kentucky for burial on the
12th of April. Rush, was the
hub of the area, complete with train depot and a post office. The road from
Rush leads to first Pigeon Roost and then what is now called Long Branch Road. John’s father died in 1886 and is buried in Sexton
Cemetery on Pigeon Roost, which is the ridge north of Long Branch, Garner
Creek, and Klaiber Cemetery. His wife,
as stated above, is buried in Klaiber Cemetery on Long Branch where Cora and
the children were living. Walking through both cemeteries, it is, in this
compiler’s opinion, obvious that John H. Fannin is buried beside his first
wife, close to his home, in the area of our cemetery, where there are known
unmarked and field stone graves. It
would not be a stretch to believe that Charlotte and Clara Mae Fannin, infant
children of John and Lizzie are also buried in the area marked by an arrow,
next to the tombstone of Mary Elizabeth Klaiber Fannin. But please draw your own conclusions, hopefully,
until further proof surfaces.
