Forget Me Not

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber
January 2011

No better time to write about historical quilts than when the temperatures dip to single digits across the United States. I have written about signature quilts and utilized them as examples in many genealogical speeches throughout the years.

Some of my most treasured documentation comes, not from courthouse paper sources, but rather from the items that surround me. My beautiful blue garnet ring bears the inscription date that my great grandparents were engaged. I carefully dust a tiny porcelain bride and groom from 1918 that sat on top of the cake when my grandparents were married. Quilts tell stories as well.

The documented provenance of an artifact is as important to a genealogist as it is to any archaeologist or antique auctioneer. Lose the link in the provenance of a bible, for example, and we lose a little more of our personal history. Elizabeth Shown Mills provides family historians and genealogists a template to cite our source, including the provenance in Evidence Explained [page 105]. While many provide footnotes and sources for books and documents, I rarely see artifacts having a full citation.

One blustery, cold November day in 1996 while visiting Martha Klaiber Cox [1908-2005] in Catlettsburg, Boyd County, Kentucky, she pulled out a fragile quilt from beneath many others quilted by her mother, Julina Leota Sexton Horton Klaiber.

As Aunt Martha lovingly spread the quilt on the bed I could see the deterioration, especially of the early silk materials which is commonplace in crazy quilts. She told me that either her mother Julina [1877-1978] or her grandmother, Julina McCormack Sexton [1836-1914] had pieced the quilt. The quilt simply has initials but Martha explained they were initials of friends and family that lived on or around Garner, Boyd County, Kentucky.

It is possible that both Julina's worked on the beautiful stitches.

The initials with probable names:

AJS
AS = Anne [Caldwell] Sexton [1856-1892]
ASS
BS = Bertha Sexton [1888-1890 d/o James & Missouri]
BW
CE = Cora Enyart [d/o Wm F. & Sarah Lett Enyart]
DWM
DM = Dimma Mayhew [1867-1895]
DS
EHS = Elisha H. Sexton [1856-1946]
EWS = Edward Sexton [possibly 1880-1892 s/o LD & Miriam]
GMH
GWM
HB
HPS = Henry Powell Sexton II [ 1874-1963]
HS
JFR = James Franklin Reeves [1828-1921 1st cousin of Julina McCormack Sexton]
JH
JLR = Julina L. Reece [1891-1893 d/o D. W. and Martha E. Sexton Reece]
JM
JMc
JMS = James McClelland Sexton [1865-1941]
JS = Julina Sexton [1877-1978]
LB
LDS =Lorenzo Dow Sexton [1858-1949]
MFS = Miriam Frances [McKnight] Sexton [1861-1931]
MHS = Missouri Haines Sexton
MLS =Marcus Lindsey Sexton [1857-1880]
MM
MS =
NS = Nelson Sexton
OMH
RC
TMS = Telitha nee May Sexton [1862-1945]
WCS
WDR
WH
WVS =William Vincent Sexton [1861-1936]
WW

At 88 years of age, Martha was generous and gave me the quilt that day. Having family of her own, I knew that I was meant to be the guardian of the quilt for just a short time and would some day return the quilt to her branch of the family.

I purchased a large textile acid free box and tissue and lovingly cared for the quilt from November 1996 until the summer of 2009. In 2009 the quilt was given to Freda Cox Tackett, daughter of Martha to deliver to Martha's grand daughter Tina Lynn Tackett Toth. Another generation can now cherish the history of this beautiful artifact.

My own home has many reminders of both Julina's including several pieced quilts by Julina Sexton Klaiber. She walks with me in spirit as I see the spring daffodils she planted many years ago. In February 1962, nicknamed Lade, she wrote:

"This is my request - Lade Klaiber. One thing I am - if I should pass away I do want you all to be good to each other and devide {sic} the dishes and quilts and the other things in the house if you want them and the pictures take care of them and each one will know what yours that you gave me. And one thing please take care of the flowers for I did love them and hope all will be happy and live for Jesus."

In 1996 James and Teresa Martin Klaiber divided some of the daffodil bulbs sharing them with others within the neighborhood. On Memorial Day 1997 we donated bulbs in Julina Leota Sexton Horton Klaiber's name to a daffodil project in Greendale, Wisconsin as part of a program for Birds & Blooms.

Forget Me Not

Henry Preston Scalf: Day Tripping in Eastern Kentuck

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber

The sun was blazing on our day trip to Ivel, Floyd County, Kentucky. Our outing to Davidson Memorial Cemetery was two fold. We wanted to pay our respects to aunt Mildred Rucker Hall Crisp and Boone Hall. Both Mildred and Boone had taught for many years in the Floyd County school system. Secondly we wanted to see if there was a marker for Confederate Soldier Middleton Garrett.

The office 3x5 cards quickly verified that there was no marker for Middleton Garrett. We parked the car on the hillside and walked among the various sections taking the stairs up and down the hillside. Flowers overwhelmed the cemetery that is teetering, literally on the hill. As I turned to head back to the shade of the car I smiled as I recognized a very familiar name.

Henry Preston Scalf was one of the first people I corresponded with when I began genealogy in the 1970's. [Ok I admit I have been around awhile!] Sadly I was introduced to him near the end of his life. We became acquainted when I subscribed to The East Kentuckian. Scalf was editor and I looked forward to the quarterly bringing me a little flavor of Kentucky while living in New Jersey.

Looking back at the old newsletters that have traveled with me from New Jersey to Ohio and finally back to our beloved Eastern Kentucky, I see the love he put into everything he did. Each of my 1978 editions are hand addressed. By 1979 Scalf's friend and fellow writer, Clayton Cox had taken over as editor of the publication. The front of the March issue shows a wonderful picture of Henry P. Scalf standing beside a Kentucky highway marker commemorating Tandy R. Stratton on Mare's Creek, Floyd County. I had found my way to this wonderful publication because of connections between the McBrayer and Stratton families.

Cox began the issue with information on the founder of The East Kentuckian stating that he was a "distinguished historian and genealogist of Eastern Kentucky." Henry Scalf was also a distinguished teacher in the Floyd County School system but for most of us we will forever remember him for his many publications on history and genealogy and what he has taught us about our Eastern Kentucky ancestors. He was awarded a Kentucky Citation for Outstanding Journalism in 1954.

Among his many publications was Kentucky's Last Frontier with an honored forward by Thomas D. Clark who was named Historian Laureate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The book is still available and gets a five star rating on most sites handling the publication. Another favorite publication of Scalf's was Four Men of the Cumberlands which told of the story Devil John Wright and others and is now out of print.

Henry Preston Scalf married 21 October 1831 in Pike County to Norah James who also loved teaching. When her husband became ill Norah took the reins of the quarterly to keep it going until Clayton and wife Elizabeth Cox stepped in. At that time the publication shifted from Stanville, Kentucky to a Lexington address.

If it were not for teachers and genealogists like Henry Preston Scalf, I may not have taken up pen and paper to follow the path I have taken. It has been a good journey and because of Scalf and his creative publications I have been able to formulate a respect for the pioneers that proceeded me in these wonderful hills that I call home. His research was grass roots and in depth research without aide of the click of a computer. He knew the importance of sharing information with others so that our history would continue to be handed down from generation to generation.

Standing on the side of the hill just outside Allen at Ivel, Floyd County, Kentucky I paid my respects and knew the warm feeling was not just from the sun beating down but the warmth of good feelings for those that came before us so we could continue on the journey.

Henry Preston Scalf
20 February 1902-2 September 1979