Thomas P. Jordan and Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Arden Jordan: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

 

Thomas P. Jordan was born between May 1868 (1900 census) and  Feb 1871 (d cert) in Lawrence County, Kentucky.  His tombstone says he was born in 1870.  He was the son of Absalom and Julia Ann Coburn Jordan[i].  His maternal great grandparents were Micajah and Eleanor Clay Brumfield[ii].

Thomas married Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Arden, 25 September 1892 in Lawrence County, Kentucky.  The family settled near Willard in Carter County, Kentucky.   By 1910 they are listed at Maddox. 

On 29 August 1925 the Jordan’s purchased a portion of the land now owned by the compiler and her husband.  The Jordan’s purchased the tract of 26 + acres from John Allen and Eula Bolt Hazlett[iii].   This portion of the land includes the original one room log home which was improved and the compiler’s husband grew up in. You can read The Log Cabin Heritage at Deliverance farm by clicking here.

Thomas and Betty were residing on the property in 1930 along with their youngest daughter’s Thelma and Dorothy. The Jordan’s took out a mortgage with the Federal Land Bank in Louisville and on 28 September 1932, with a transfer of $1.00, their son William Estill “E. W.” Jordan became the owner, taking over the loan. The deed reserved the right of Thomas and Elizabeth to live on the premises during they joint lives and the survivor “may” occupy the same until their death as well.  The road was called Poor House Road during this time frame. The county changed the name to Long Branch Road at a later date. 

On 16 January 1940 Mary Elizabeth Arden Jordan died of a cerebral hemorrhage[iv]. “Betty” was the daughter of Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor Arden, both born in Virginia.  She was buried in Klaiber Cemetery 18 January 1940.  Their son Hillman Bayes Jordan, (written about in a previous blog), was buried in Klaiber Cemetery August 1931. 

The 1940 census was taken in April after Betty’s death.  Thomas is shown on Poor House Road along with daughter Hermia and son-in-law Billy Fannin and children. Daughter Goldie and husband John D Fannin live in the next residence, beside James M and Julina (Sexton) Klaiber.

Eight months after Mary Elizabeth Arden Jordan’s death, Thomas P. Jordan married Elma DeVore Davidson 23 September 1940 in Greenup County, Kentucky[v]. He was 72 years old.  Thomas Jordan made another deed, with E. W. and wife Ethel Jordan, in Boyd County on 6 August 1941 stating that Elizabeth died intestate (without a will) and that T. P. Jordan has now remarried, Elma (as spelled).

The marriage with Elma was not without drama[vi].  An article appears in the Portsmouth Times on charges of Bigamy 5 Oct 1941, Greenup County: Mrs. Alma (as spelled) Jordan 48 was arraigned today before Judge Jacob Fisher on a charge of bigamy filed by her husband Thomas Jordan who claimed that he married her in Greenup September 23, 1940 and that she was already married at the time. The charge was dismissed by Judge Fisher on grounds of insufficient evidence.”

Thomas and Alma/Elma seem to have resolved their differences.  They were remarried in Lawrence County, Ohio 22 October 1946.  The license states that he resides at Ponds Run, Ohio and is divorced.   Elma age 56 as of 14 January was born in Bluefield, Wet Virginia, daughter of James and Maxine Sayra Devour and is also divorced.[vii]  Thomas is now 78 years old.

Estill William Jordan, son of Thomas and Betty Jordan was an accountant for Pure Milk Company, on Carter Avenue, Ashland, Kentucky.

 

On November 25 1944 Estill William and his wife sold the 26+ acres to John Henry and Elsie Ellis Rucker Klaiber[viii].  This was during a period when Klaiber was purchasing the partitioned lands of his grandfather along Poor House Road. John Henry was a great-great grandson of Micajah and Eleanor Clay Brumfield thus had “family ties” to the Jordan’s.  His maternal uncle Jasper Newton Sexton had previously resided in the cabin. 

 

The log home with improvements 1940’s, Long Branch Road, Rush, KY

 

Thomas P. Jordan and, the widow of his brother David Taylor Jordan, Anna Jordan were living in Nile Township, Scioto County in 1950 along with Roy L. Jordan age 44, single.  Anna is widowed and Thomas P. Jordan is marked as separated.    The census margin reads “proceeding north from US 52 on Main on Left fork of Pond Run.” 

John and Elsie remained on the farm, on Long Branch Road, living in the house, they purchased from Jordan’s, with several remodels, during their lifetime.  Elsie called the original portion that was the one room log home her parlor, where she played hostess to guests.  Their only son James David Klaiber grew to adulthood on the farm. 

Thomas P. Jordan died in 11 July 1951 in General Hospital, Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio. The information for his death certificate was provided by daughter Goldie Jordan Fannin.  The certificate states that his usual residence was Boyd County, Kentucky. He died from a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried in Klaiber Cemetery in Boyd County, Kentucky on the 13^th.[ix]

The compiler always welcomes additional information to keep with the cemetery records books.

 

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[i] Absolom and Juilia m 6 Jan 1860 Carter County, KY

[ii] Micajah Brumfield and Eleanor Clay m 15 Feb 1802 in Tazewell Co., VA

[iii] The Hazlett’s held title for five years

[iv] KY Vital Death Cert 158 Elizabeth Arden Jordan

[v] KY Grnp M bk 82 page 382 Thos gives his age as 69 she age 45, both reside at Rush, KY

[vi] Alma had married Boyd Adkins 28 Sep 1933 In Law Co OH as Elma Johnson

[vii] OH Law M cert 31988 volume 45

[viii] KY Boyd dbk 192-355

[ix] Oh Vital, Ohio Historical Society, Certificate  44693, volume 13034

Deliverance Farm Cabin Antiques

Log Cabin Heritage at  Deliverance Farm

 This article originally appeared on our webpage at deliverancefarm.com.  Because of illness and unstable posts this is duplicated from my web page.  I will continue to maintain this blog as long as my health allows.uue to maintain the Eastern Kentucky Genealogy Blog as long as my health will allow.      The  
Restoration on the old farm house at "Deliverance Farm" Boyd County, Kentucky began in 1998.  We utilized PermaChink - a grit based silicon mixture that adjusts to shifts in temperature and log expansion and shrinkage.    We have also treated all the logs for "critters," gone over the stain and sealed the logs.

The front room is traditional square log dating to about 1867.  Originally part of the old Howe farm, the Klaiber's purchased this portion of the farm from the Jordan's in 1944.  [See  annotated title search below]

The room is complete with fireplace and hardwood floors.  Memories of Christmas trees, parlor chats, and candy pulling fill the air.  While the front porch is not original it comes complete with two swings - and we invite our friends to visit and sit a spell.    Renovation discoveries have included an unknown window tucked beside the fireplace and initials H and H  W carved   on the left side of porch.  Additionally the name JEB is carved just to the left of the entrance door.  Chinking varied from the original mud and horse hair packed mixture to the 1930's popular "repair" chinking of  cement.

The house was heated with a coal stove, in the added middle section, from at least 1932 until 1971.  It was covered with redwood siding and trim which helped protect the home from varmits.  In 1971 the house was remodeled and aluminum sided. Typical of most early farm homes, the structure was added on as needed.  The 1932 newspapers used as a barrier between log and newer structure and as "padding" for wall paper give clues to the addition of the middle portion between log structure and kitchen and cellar.  This is a good indication that originally there was a dog trot to the cellar area.

                            A Little Bit of History

On the 3rd day of  September 1866 W. P. Hood  and Matilda   his wife sold, their son-in-law, James W. Howe and Sarah his wife,   in consideration of $1.00, a tract of  land described as laying on Salmons fork of Garner, being a part of the survey of Richard Graham, deceased [Boyd County dbk   3:274]. This is one of several tracts now a part of Deliverance Farm, owned by James and Teresa Martin Klaiber.  William P. Hood was the son of  Thomas and Sarah Hood, early settlers of what was then Greenup County, Kentucky.   He was born 2 March 1805 and died 14 August 1874.  He married 13 December 1831 Matilda Howe born 3 December 1805 died 20 March 1887, buried in Klaiber Cemetery. William P., according to historian Evelyn Jackson also had a son named   Price by one of his slaves.

As the Civil War  came to a close,  James W. Howe and Sarah E. Hood Howe [born about 1839]   sold Phillip H. Howe,  December 18, 1867 this portion of the property [Boyd County dbk 7:123] and  we surmise  it was Phillip and his family that first lived in this cabin.  The 1870 Federal Census shows Phillip age 24, Sarah 56 [his mother], Martha K. 32, Sarah 21, George W. 19, Matilda 17 and a Wesley  Bellding 18 being enumerated on East Fork.  His mother Sarah [nee Fannin married George W. Howe  20 Oct 1836 in Lawrence County] died in 1874 and is also in Klaiber Cemetery.

On  19 December 1879 Allen Prichard purchased the property  with the deed giving the description as between Long Branch and Sammons Fork [Boyd County dbk 9:54].   In 1893 he deeded the property to his daughter Hellen S. Finley.  The property stayed in the Prichard family until August 1909 when S. H. and S.D. Finley sold the land to Jasper Sexton [Boyd County debk 57 page 417].
Jasper Newton Sexton [born 15 January 1869 died 10 November 1967] was the son of Henry Powell Sexton and Julina McCormack Sexton.  He married Miriam Robert Lambert 20 January 1898 in Boyd County.  They with their tiny son Royal Norman born 30 November 1899 moved into the cabin.  Through the years the following children were also born while living there:  Willa B. 10 December 1902, Everet born 8 June 1904, Thomas Edgar born 28 June, Sophia Mae born 9 March 1910, Harold Lee born 18 December, Maymie Lynd born February 1917, Wirt Elam born 18 July 1918 and a stillborn infant in February of 1916.   On January 22, 1920 Jasper sold the property and home to J.A. Hazlett [Boyd County dbk 77:604].

John Allen Hazlett was born 24 April 1892 and died 9 December 1959.  He married Eula D. Bolt born 20 November 1895, the daughter of Kent and Bertha Mae Pope Bolt.   J.A. and Eula owned the property for 5 years selling to T.P. Jordan and wife Elizabeth on 29 August 1925.  At the time of the sale the description referred to the ridge between Long Branch and Solomon Fork.  Thus there is a question about the proper name of the fork - Salmon, Sammons, Solomon [Boyd County deed book 106:90].

Thomas P. Jordan born abt. 1870 was the son of Absolom Jordan [s/o Pleasant] who married Julia Ann Coburn .  Julia was the daughter of  Thomas Coburn and wife Julina nee. Brumfield  Julia's grandparents were Micajah Brumfield and Eleanor Clay Brumfield.  Elizabeth Jordan died 18 January 1940 and Thomas remarried.  On November 25, 1944  son E.W. Jordan sold the property to John Henry Powell Sexton Klaiber and wife Elsie Rucker Klaiber [Boyd County dbk 192 page 355], adding the tract to additional lands in the family.  John Henry was the great great grandson of Micajah and Eleanor Clay Brumfield and thus had "family ties" to the Jordan's.   John Henry was the son of  James Matthew Klaiber and wife Julina Sexton Klaiber.  Julina was the sister to Jasper Newton Sexton who previously resided in the cabin.    John and Elsie remained on the farm, having remodeled the home, until their deaths.  Elsie loved antiques and referred to the original cabin which was now the front room as her "parlor"  where she played hostess to guests.  Their only son James grew from infancy to adulthood on the farm and now [2015] retains the deed to the property.

In the Fall of 2013 the Klaiber's opened the cabin doors selling country antiques.  Renamed Deliverance Farm Cabin Antiques the "shop" is open each Saturday May - October from 9am til 4.  You are welcome to come browse, pet our donkeys and sit under the wonderful huge maple trees.

An Interview with Ruth Hazlett Faulkner

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber

Ruth Hazlett Faulkner's obituary appeared in the Daily Independent, Ashland, Kentucky, Monday, June 21, 2010. I have mentioned a comment she made concerning Memorial Day in past blogs but never mentioned her by name. As I read her obituary my mind went back to the interview I did at her home in January 2006.

When interviewing anyone for genealogical purposes I always carry a tiny tape recorder and usually transcribe the material when I get home. Checking Family Lineage Investigations files, I found the tape and the transcription.

Ruth was 95 years old when I visited with her at her home on Edgewood in Ashland, Kentucky. While there she gave me several grainy copies of old photographs in her possession.

Ruth grew up on Clay Jack, Boyd County and the picture is of the old Hazlett home that is no longer standing. William R. and Elizabeth Hazlett are in the buggy in the picture.

Ruth had invited me to her home because she wished to talk about the Robert Hazlett Cemetery, also known as Hazel Dale Cemetery on Clay Jack. Ruth thought it would be nice to plant some Walnut trees in the cemetery but was no longer able to visit herself. She provided me with a handwritten list of people she remembered buried in the family cemetery which I later compared with with Boyd County Cemetery Database.

Ruth, one of six children, remembered her brother Wilbur Hazlett born 7 July 1916 when she was only 5 years old. Wilbur died 11 January 1917 and was buried in the cemetery. Talking about her mother and the twins Ruth said "...twins with red hair and she felt like the good Lord was punishing her because she didn't like red hair and she had two boys with red hair. One of them died at six months old with chicken pox."

Ruth reminisced about going to school. "...[Hazel Dale School]... you turn up Clay Jack Road it is land right where you turn. It [is] like an acre or something. ...one of the Hazlett's donated the land for the cemetery and the other donated the land for the school....May Fannin Lockwood she sold it...."

While we talked Ruth's memory would jump around. But during our conversation continued to mention Hazel Dale School. She talked about it being a one room school and when asked about her first teacher she believed it was Junior Fields then Clyde Bolt. " [The boys] were all mean...The girls sat on one side and the boys on the other. We didn't play together."

"And I remember a neighbor lady came and she had her little boy about my age and mom said, she was visiting with the neighbor ...she said take Howse [Harris] out to play...I got up and whispered to mother But he is a boy. She said well that is alright he is used to playing with his sisters you can play with him it will be alright. So I said come on Howse and I took him out in the sand pile and I built a sand castle, built a farm and had people, cattle and had a fence around it. ...I told dad I got everything and I have a garden laid out but I don't have any seeds. Dad said he would give me seeds to put in my garden so he got me some beans..."

She attended high school with Martha Klaiber. The school was at Cannonsburg and both she and Martha stayed with the Eastham family, coming home on Friday for the weekend. It was to far to go to school otherwise.

When she was older Ruth attended Morehead for less than a year and qualified as a teacher but there were more teachers than schools in Boyd County and she did not like being a substitute so begged her parents to go back to school. Ruth then attended Eastern to study business. During WWII she worked at Willow Run near Yipsalaniti and Detroit, Michigan. She helped build radios for B-52's matching up the wiring.

"My family was Baptist. But it kinda fell by the wayside. The Baptist ...my dad...had a little bit of education for an old timer. They got in the church, you know, as leaders, and were not qualified, and he just could not take it so he didn't go anymore...Mt. Olivet. So we didn't go anywhere for a long time and then when I got up in high school and got to know the Hogan's...lived down by the church...So I started going to the Methodist Sunday School and dad's first cousin, a McGlothlin...was the Sunday school teacher...Dova Hazlett married a McGlothlin." [Married John Chapman McGlothlin - tk note.]

"Then Trudi Hazlett married Ed Chaffins." I asked her if she was a short lady. "Yes a little dwarf. They had two. They had one that was smaller than Trudi that never married. She died rather young."

Ruth mentioned several times that the girls all wore ribbons in their hair. She showed a picture of the Hazlett reunion on Bear Creek at the L. C. [Tobe] Hazlett farm. The picture included the house in the background which Ruth informed me later burned down. As she remembered the reunion she described the afternoon. "...they killed a fatted calf and cooked all kinds of chicken...they put tables along that fence line...They come in there and cooked. And maybe some of them brought them with them...They killed a beef and anyway I just remember having a lot to eat and having my picture made. And Oh they had ice cream that the boys, the young people, made after we all ate...the boys turned, mostly the crank and made the ice cream. They had a great big ice cream maker...we never did have one...."

The ice cream triggered another memory with Ruth because they did not have the ice cream machine. "...we had such cold, cold winters and we had a lot of rocks on the property. Caves. And the water that was flowing over these would form big icicles so it might be a warm day in March or February and we would take, the kids would take a bucket, a big tub and go up on the hill and get the ice. While we was gone mother would be mixing up the ice cream and we would come down and the way we would do it. She put the ice cream in a gallon syrup bucket then we would put that ice all around it in a bigger container and would just, took that bucket with a bail and went around and around and around and around. And dad said he didn't like it, it was to cold. We all loved it. And Mom was right there with us."

When speaking of her parents Ruth became very lively. "She [her mother] was eight years younger than dad and a little more lively. Dad was anemic part of the time and he just had some problems. Like he just didn't have the energy. But he always had help on the farm...he had a rent house and he kept, I'll tell you what he did. A family man, he give him a dollar a day, free rent, a gallon of milk a day, a garden spot, I forget what else... we had a cellar, a nice cellar and all that concrete from the kitchen door into that cellar and it had shelves in there to keep canned goods. It had a pump right outside that went through and had like a trough built [of] concrete and cold water ran through there. Mom put milk and butter and she could even put set jello in there. It was cold water flowing through there. ...we had another we called the smoke house. Great big, it was originally a old school house. Mother and dad bought it for $100.00 and had it moved. It was the original school house...Hazel Dale. And they built another new school at Hazel Dale...and momma had a cook stove in it [smoke house] and when she was going to can instead of heating up the house she cooked out there in the smoke house...she did her canning out there. ... I guess looking back my family was pretty much up to date. We had a cream separator."

I asked her how many cattle her father ran. "Oh I don't know he sold off every year and that was cash. And he never did raise tobacco for sale. He raised a little for his own use and at one time he raised sheep but the dogs made it very difficult. They killed the sheep."

Asked how many acres the family owned she stated: "360. He bought the extra that was momma's old home. It joined after, I don't know, after I was pretty grown up. I guess. And we had a dairy farm and sold milk. So I milked my way through high school...the worst time was Sunday evening to go milk...you had to get your good clothes off and the day was over {laughing}. You couldn't be dressed up and cleaned up to milk cows... I remember momma sold butter. And she had her own bank account. Maybe a sugar bowl account or something. When she got married her daddy gave her a cow and ten hens and one rooster and that was it I guess. So she claimed that when a cow would have a calf that was hers...."

Ruth remembered the first car the family had. "Boggs the blacksmith came and took my older brother out every day for a week and taught him how to drive. So my dad said he would learn how to drive later. ...He just didn't jump right into anything. He had to think about it awhile. He could figure it all out ahead of time and then done better than he could johnny on the spot. Anyway I remember my brother took us and the family different places. Like homecoming at church and one time we went home with a couple. Mom said we was related, some kind of cousins. We went home to eat and my brother was about 15 or 16. He was driving us and had on a suit of clothes but the knickers were like here and then big fancy socks up here and a cap. The girls were quite a bit older and lived at this house and said you are to old to be dressed like that you need some long pants, you are a man now. So he wouldn't wear those clothes anymore. We came home and he said he had to have new clothes. And I guess they ordered them from Sears Roebuck."

I asked her if her father ever learned to drive. "Yes he was sorta forced. And my older sister was that way...didn't want to drive. She put it off for a long time ...I couldn't wait to drive. I was always wanting dad to let me. He let me drive when I was ten or eleven years old with him sitting beside me. You didn't have to have any [license] and then later my older sister was teaching. She went away to school when she was 14 and by 18 she was teaching. So you had to live away from home. And my job when I was think I was 15 when I got home from high school every Friday I had to go get my sister and bring her home for the weekend. That was my job. Everybody else was busy. You know farm work. You never get it done."

The complete interview will remain in my office files and eventually will be donated to the library along with the rest of my collection. I enjoyed my visit with Ruth very much and appreciate her sharing memories with me. Ruth was buried yesterday [June 22, 2010] in Rose Hill Cemetery, Ashland, Kentucky. Her obituary stated that she worked for Ashland Asphalt and Paving for many years. At the time of her death she was a member of the First Presbyterian church in Ashland.