Frederick Harrison Durham & Sarah Cordelia Taylor Durham. Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

 

Klaiber Cemetery and the family often have given to those in need.  Unlike “for profit” cemeteries that require a huge amount per lot, the cemetery only asks for a donation or donations to help with care.  We are aware  that when mourning  it is difficult to come up with even a donation at times.  Thus Klaiber Cemetery long ago stepped over the line of family to probably non-profit community in the technical sense.   Everyone is connected by some relationship. (That said if you have a loved one in the cemetery it is very expensive to maintain the grounds, fence and road to the cemetery – donations are always welcome!)

Frederick Harrison Durham, known by his friends as simply Fred, did not live in Boyd County.  But his daughter Pauline Eugenia and husband Emmett Rufus Hatfield lived on this road and were friends with everyone. When the need arose Klaiber Cemetery was there to help lay Fred to rest.

Fred H. Durham was born 7 June 1891 in Newcomb, Campbell County, Tennessee.  Newcomb is in the Cumberland Mountains, just a little southwest of Jellico and the Kentucky southern border.  By the time Fred was eight his parents, Thomas and Celista Lawson Durham had moved across the border to Rockcastle County, Kentucky.

It appears that the moment Fred H. Durham turned 18 he joined the 17^th Infantry out of Campbell County, Tennessee[i] and served until 1911.  Coming back to Campbell County, he married Sarah Cordelia Taylor 27 April 1912, at the courthouse.  Sarah was the daughter of Fernando and Nancy Barnes Taylor.

With permission of Cynthia Crawford85 at Ancestry.com

 

Fred and Sarah moved to Raleigh County, West Virginia where Fred worked for Wright Coal and Coke Company.  When he filed his WWI Registration Card there is a note “have reasons to believe this man is not a resident of Precinct 8.”  He was described as medium height and build with blue eyes and dark brown hair.

The family grew and they eventually settled in Mingo County, West Virginia having at least six children, the last (Doris Mae) being born in 1937.  Prohibition laws were still active in the 1930’s and having faced the crash of 1929 Appalachians were hurting and hungry.  Fred along with another man, Ralph Sterling Spangle, faced a court hearing in March of 1933 for operating a still.[ii]  In 1935 both Fred and his thirteen year old son were involved in a altercation and eventually Fred was charged with carrying a pistol without a state license, fined $50.00 and sentenced to six months in jail.[iii]  Sadly by 1942 until at least 1950 Fred H. Durham was a prisoner at the Moundsville State Prison in West Virginia.  At this writing this compiler has not located the complete record.[iv][v]

Daughter Pauline Eugenia Durham married Emmett Rufus Hatfield 13 August 1942 at Pikeville, Kentucky and migrated to Boyd County, Kentucky.  Emmett was also from Mingo County, West Virginia.  Another daughter Doris Mae married Michael Edmond Horton and moved to Ashland, Boyd County.

The other children migrated to Ohio and Detroit, Michigan. Sarah Cordelia Taylor Durham was separated from Fred H. Durham for some time that ended with divorce in Mingo County in 1953[vi].   At some point during the separation or shortly after divorce Sarah moved to Boyd County, Kentucky.  Neither remarried. 

Fred H. Durham died 5 February 1973 in Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia. He was living on Pacific Street.”  The article states that he had been a resident of Charleston for 50 years (which is incorrect), a member of the Baptist Church and a retired miner.  The article says “wife” Sarah survives and resides in Ashland, Kentucky. Fred was first taken to Simpson Funeral Home in Charleston and then moved to Kilgore-Collier in Catlettsburg, Kentucky.[vii]  The obituary in the Ashland Daily Independent  says he died “following a brief illness,” lists the children, but does not list Sarah. The children include Mrs. Emmett Hatfield of Rush and Mrs. Doris Horton of Ashland.

Pauline and Emmett Hatfield were living on Long Branch Road across from the cemetery and adjoining the Klaiber property, to the west, at the time of Fred’s death.  Daughter Doris Mae Durham Horton and husband Michael "Mick" Edmond Horton were living on Chinn Street in Ashland and mother Sarah was living at the same address.  Graveside services were conducted at Klaiber Cemetery by the Rev. Ralph Hester. 

Sarah Cordelia Taylor Durham lived ten more years in Boyd County, born 4 December 1893 in Jellico, Campbell County, Tennessee, she died 4 December 1983.  At her death, the family listed Sarah as the wife of Frederick H. Durham[viii].  Sarah was a member of Skyline Church of Christ. The family provided a beautiful stone with the sentiment “Precious Lord Take Our Hands. Together Forever.”

 

 

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[i] NARA, WWI Draft Registration Card Raleigh Co, WV 1917

[ii] Charleston Daily Mail 19 Mar 1933

[iii] Charleston Daily Mail 16 June 1934; 18 Jun 1935

[iv] NARA, WWII Draft Baisden, Mingo Co

[v] Census, Federal, 1950, Marshall County, WV

[vi] FHL 007616872 D-14 p 37 and 290

[vii] Charleston Gazette 5 Feb 1973

[viii] Ashland Daily Independent 8 Jul 1983

Memories of Elizabeth Crutcher Weakly McNamara

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber August 5, 2010

I am getting old. When I started genealogy I was a youngster. I have had many mentors along the way, corresponded with many good researchers who have now gone on to the great beyond. Each person taught me something new to put in my tool kit and carry forward in my own genealogical journey. Elizabeth Crutcher Weakly McNamara is still teaching me lessons even after her death.

Correspondence from Libby, [she requested we call her Libby] has been tucked in my files for 32 years. I recently renewed my research interest in the Peake/Peek family and opened those old files for review. Knowing that she was now deceased I began to wonder where all her wonderful materials ended up.

A quick Google search gleaned little and I was deflated when I read a genealogy query thread that asked who Elizabeth McNamara was and no one could give a definite reply.

I was able to ascertain that her last publication done in 1985 Descendants of Thomas Cruther is back in print. I was deeply impressed with a quick response from Kent Crutcher who explained that he had purchased the copyright from the lawyer following her death but did not know where her other materials might be housed.

That said I had a flashback and did remember that several boxes of her genealogy books had come to the Boyd County Library after her death which added to our collection. But again there is no original notes or research housed in the Boyd County library archives.

Libby also corresponded with Dr. Reba Neighbors Collins in Edmond, Oklahoma. Reba did thankfully add a section to her book History of the Janes-Peek Family on Elizabeth Weakly McNamara's Peak line in 1975. Unfortunately the publication does not give citations for Elizabeth's work and Collins is also now deceased. I cherish my autographed copy of the book.

Besides her contribution to Collin's book and her Crutcher publication in 1985 I am aware of three other publications compiled by her. In 1980 Gateway Press published Weakley, Scearce, Arnold Families of Kentucky: their descendants and ancestral families. In 1978 she did a 28 page typescript titled The Novinger family of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania and Adair County, Missouri which is housed at the NSDAR library. The same year she published Old Letters and Documents from the Estate of James Crutcher 1755-1823. The Kentucky Historical Society and Library of Virginia have copies of this last publication.


Searching the catalogs of Kentucky libraries, Library of Virginia and NSDAR I found no indication that her original research notes made their way to a repository. I am especially saddened since I can now say she was a distant cousin through our Peak/Peek family and would love to see her citations for the information she wrote about in correspondence to my grandmother and myself.

Thankfully I have preserved the correspondence from 1978. In one letter she wrote "...Yes, I know that you are close to Ashland as that is where I was born [1911]. Dad and mother went there right after they were married in 1906 - Dad went into the law office of an uncle-in-law of mothers. We left there in 1915 and went to Covington, Ky., and in 1921 to Ft. Thomas, Ky., which is just across the Licking River from Covington and in Campbell Co. Might add that we still have many friends in Ashland."

Libby's childhood memories are good. I find the family living in Ward 6 of Covington in 1920 and in Fort Thomas for the 1930 Federal Census.

Libby shared her and her siblings full birth dates with another Peak researcher in the 1980's, J. B Hitt. But like others, Hitt would also love to know what happened to her original research. The full birth dates and place of birth for the Weakley children:

Sarah Ross Weakley 13 February 1907, Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky
Leonard Adriel Weakley 21 October 1908, Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky
Elizabeth Crutcher Weakley 12 March 1911, Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky
Margaret Ann Weakley 3 Dec 1917, Covington, Kenton County, Kentucky

Margaret's birth is the only one that qualified to be recorded in the Kentucky Vital Records that began in 1912. Leonard applied for a delayed certificate for Boyd County.

Libby's mother Carrie/Caroline Frances Peak was born 27 October 1884. Collins states Carrie's birth place was Bedford County, Kentucky in her Janes-Peek publication. But Bedford is a town in Trimble County, Kentucky. Carrie was the daughter of Robert Francis Peak who was also an attorney. Her grandfather William Francis Peak was the president of several banks including the bank at Bedford. He died in Bedford, Trimble County 29 January 1911 [KY cert#2484].

By the time Carrie was 15 they were residing in Shelbyville, Shelby County, Kentucky. It was there that she married Calvin Simpson Weakley 20 January 1906 and then moved to Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky, where they resided for nine years.

The Ashland City Directory for 1908-1909 shows Calvin working in the office of Zerfoss & Weakley in the Thomas Building on 16th Street. The Weakley family resided at 209 Carter Avenue. In fact the house was quite crowded. The following Weakley family members were boarding at this residence: Effie a milliner, Jennie a clerk, Sallie a milliner, and Samuel S. a grocer.

The Zerfoss in Zerfoss & Weakley, attorneys was L. Frank and wife Lizzie who resided at 201 E. Central Avenue.

Libby was very small when they left Ashland. Her memories are in areas of Campbell County and surrounding Bluegrass region counties that would later help her with the genealogy research that she was interested in. She began her love of genealogy in the 1930's while still in Shelby County.

She went on to join the Women's Army Corp - WAC - during WWII. She attained the rank of Captain and served 2 1/2 years in England. Elizabeth married Harold Webster McNamara 30 June 1956 in Arlington, Virginia where she would live out the rest of her life. Both she and her husband are buried in Culpeper National Cemetery in Plot E-0155. Elizabeth Crutcher Weakly McNamara died 30 July 1998 and was buried 5 August 1998.

There are many Peake researchers that hope Libby's research has survived and is tucked away in a repository for our review.

The lesson is an age old one with genealogists. Be clear and concise about what is to become of your genealogical research materials. We can protect our work with a simple codicil to our will and pre-arrangement with a library of choice.

I think of others whose research was shattered, divided or lost after years of work and that it may include Libby's unfinished Peak materials. I am truly thankful that I am able to preserve several of her letters in my own collection. I would love to be able to add an addendum to this article that her Peak materials have been located.




Elizabeth Cruther Weakley McNamara [Carrie Peak Weakley- Robert Francis Peak - William Francis Peak - Thomas Peake - William Peake - Francis Peake - John Peake]

Teresa Martin Klaiber [John Geer Martin - Henry Kautz Martin - John Shouse Martin - Henry Foster Martin - Mary Ann Peek Martin - Thomas W. Peek - Francis Peake- John Peake]