Compiled by Teresa
Martin Klaiber 2023
Henry Kane Lucas was
born 6 December 1846 in Letcher County, Kentucky to Emanuel “Todd” Lucas and
wife Charlotte “Lottie” Moore. He grew up in Letcher County. Henry and his
father, Emanuel migrated and first appear on the 1867 Carter County, Kentucky
tax list[i]. Henry was just 21 and had no values while his
father shows 100 acres still being taxed in Letcher County.
Henry Kate Lucas met
Lucinda “Cinda” Sexton about this time.
Lucinda was born in 1850 in Kentucky. By 1860 she is living in the
household of Fletcher Burton along with mother Hulda Sexton[ii]
and siblings Bartlett Hasker, Kate and Helen, Sexton. The next entry in the 1860 census is for the
Henry Powell Sexton family.
Family history states
that Lucinda was a “woods colt” between Hulda Sexton and James Henderson. Lucinda’s death certificate also states her
father was James Henderson. The term
“woods colt” feels so much freer and nicer than the harsh word illegitimate
that society used to put on children.
There are so many
reasons that marriage records may not be located easily. Marriages are filed by county, not by state,
and up until a few years ago we did not have digitized indices, which can still
be incomplete or names mis-spelled. If a
minister did not file at the local court house, then there is no record. If the
bride and groom slipped across a state line it is harder to track the
marriage. In Virginia we now know that
Walter Plecker, state registrar, campaigned to expunge ethnic marriages in
Virginia. He even had a list of surnames including Sexton that were to be
expunged. Research shows he succeeded in
his hateful quest. To date, we have not found a marriage record for Henry Kane
Lucas and Lucinda Sexton, though the records in both Carter County and Boyd
County seem very complete where they were living at that time.
Lucinda was seventeen
in 1867, and as stated Henry twenty-one.
Their first child, Emily Alice Lucas (m. Frank Kelley) was born in 1868 in Carter County. This compiler can identify and verify eleven
children[iii]
and with oral history the possibility of two other children. Norman Lucas, grandson of Henry Kane Lucas,
says two more sons are buried in Klaiber Cemetery, marked only by sunken field
stones; Sherman and Taylor Lucas. When
the season is very dry the outline of both the graves is very visible. Both lay,
in line with, and just to the south of Emily Alice Lucas Kelley’s
headstone. Norman and his wife usually
placed a flower on each of the two graves when they visited. Neither of these
boys appear in any census record for Henry Kane and Lucinda Sexton Lucas. In December 1883, The Ashland Independent wrote the following: “Glenwood, died on the 15th
after thirteen hours bleeding at the nose an eight-year-old son of Henry
Lucas.” Neither of these names appear
with Henry Kane on the 1880 census.
For a while in their
later years, Henry Kane Lucas and Lucinda lived with daughter Laura Ellen at
Geigerville, Boyd County[iv]. Laura had married Reuben Biggs in April 1887,
then widowed, had returned from Indiana after Biggs death. Lucinda Sexton Lucas died 5 January 1931, at
Denton, Carter County.[v]
Her death certificate was signed by
Fred Tyree, a doctor who resided at Hitchens.
Lucinda was laid to rest in Klaiber Cemetery.
Henry Kane Lucas
death followed on 2 June 1933 at Denton, Carter County.[vi] On the 22nd of June 1933, son,
Frank Kane Lucas, requested a deed from Henry Powell Sexton’s estate via son James
McClelland Sexton for the plot in Klaiber Cemetery[vii]. The deed describes the cemetery “known as the William Hood Cemetery” and is 50
feet in each direction. The deed gives
the family a right to and from the cemetery and strictly stated that the
burials would not interfere with other grave sites.
In 2010 some stones
were knocked over, by cattle, after someone left the gate open. One of the stones was Henry and Lucinda’s. With the help of neighbors we quickly got the
stone remounted.
[i]
KY, Carter, fhl 008337275
[ii]
Hulda was the daughter of James Enoch Sexton and Permillia Sexton and
granddaughter of Elisha and Tabitha Sexton.
[iii] Issues
of HK & Lucinda: Emily Alice b 1868; Mary b 869; Laura Ellen 1870; Perry Allen 1872; Eva 1874; John Dee 1876,
Henry Denton 1879; Frank Kane 1885, Esau 1887 – possibly Sherman b unk and
Taylor b. unk.
[iv]
KY, Boyd 1930 census
[v] KY
d cert 493, filed Denton, Carter Co.
[vi]
KY d cert 13190 filed Denton, Carter Co.
[vii]
KY Boyd dbk 314 p 165 not filed until 1955
