Compiled
by Teresa Martin Klaiber
James
B. Stanley was a Baptist lay minister in eastern Kentucky. He was born 31 March 1858 in Lawrence County,
Kentucky the son of James R. Stanley and wife Sarah McGuire. He grew up in the Bolts Fork and Jacks Fork
area bordering Garner, Boyd County, Kentucky where he also farmed. He had ten siblings including Belle who
married Thomas A. Gallion and 2nd John M. Jobe.
J.
B. Stanley married Susan Tomlin 1 December 1878 in Boyd County, Kentucky at the
home of William Rouse. Susan was the
daughter of Andrew “Andy” Tomlin who came to Kentucky from Virginia by the time
she was four years old. The Stanley
family had seven children. The last
child George was born in July 1895. In
1900 the family was living over the county line in Carter County.
A
son Dwight M. Stanley, born 29 August 1884 died 14 September 1904 and was
buried in Klaiber Cemetery. A circle
carved reads “In honor of our beloved son.”
Susan, his mother, died 30 September 1908 and was also laid to rest in
Klaiber Cemetery.
Left
with the children and George only three, James B. Stanley remarried to Eliza
Kiser the widow of Joseph Cordle[i]. In 1920 J. B. and Eliza were residing n Van
Lear, Johnson County, Kentucky but moved back to Boyd County some time before
1926, near Summit. Eliza Kiser Cordle
Stanley died 13 December 1926. Her
funeral was held at the Summit Baptist Church and burial was at Coalton
Cemetery.
Another
son, Frank (born 20 May 1887) had moved to Minden, Fayette County, West
Virginia where he was a miner. He was
only forty years old when he died, just 11 months after his step mother’s death.
Frank died 23 November 1927. The death
certificate states the cause as Bright’s Disease. The document simply states burial “KY.” The Ashland
Daily Independent wrote a small article with the headline “Kilgore Main
Dies in West Virginia.” How-ever the
paper misspelled Minden as Winden and states “Details regarding Stanley’s
illness and death were not learned. In
the early 2020’s Minden made headlines across the nation as a hotbed of toxic
land causing cancers. At this writing it
is unclear where Frank was buried.
The
Reverend James B. Stanley lived until 25 October 1939 when he died in the
hospital at Paintsville, Johnson County.
His son William Bascom Stanley, living at Van Lear, was the informant on
his death certificate. The family
brought J. B. back to Klaiber Cemetery, in Boyd County, Kentucky, for burial
beside his first wife Susan.
Susan
and J. B.’s son Joseph “Joe” Stanley (born 3Aapril 1890) died 16 January 1940
in Floyd County, Kentucky. He collapsed inside a mine shaft and died in route
to a hospital. His wife Myrtle Prater
Stanley had his body brought back to Klaiber Cemetery for burial.
Myrtle
was the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Bays Prater. Myrtle lived until 24
September 1981 and is also in our cemetery.
