John B. Sanford, Catlettsburg, KY and his Kentucky Spring Saddle

 

By Teresa Martin Klaiber, January 2023

 

Kentucky, A History of the State was written in 1887 when John B. Sanford was 31 years old.  Sanford had already made a name for himself as a talented harness maker and rated a small clip in the publication stating he had been born in Bath County to Reuben and Sarah (nee Lyons) 26 June 1856.  Reuben and Sarah married in Bath County 9 January 1854.[i]

John’s father, Reuben was a farmer and as his family grew began to work as a tailor in Bath County, Kentucky.  A sister, a year older, was named Elizabeth.  Next came a brother,2 years younger than John B., named Reuben for his father initially, but because of confusion, later was called Richard.  Younger siblings were Minerva, Laura Lee (m. 1898 Elijah Terrell[ii]), Charles G., Sophia B., Edward (a minister in Lexington) and Mary Francis (Fanny)[iii].

It was not uncommon for families to have apprenticeship agreements to teach a child a trade.  But it appears that John chose his occupation and his teacher, as a young adult. By 1880 John B. Sanford, age 23, is listed in the household of Jacob W. Hutchinson, on Main Street, Owingsville, Bath County. Both Hutchinson and John are listed as saddlers.  Hutchinson was an artist stitching beautiful patterns on the Kentucky Spring Saddle.  Hutchinson died 2 December 1923 and is buried in Owingsville Cemetery.

The Kentucky Spring Saddle with its basic English tree shape is one this compiler is very familiar with.  I learned to ride English saddle with a proper seat.  The Kentucky Spring Saddle not only used the traditional English saddle tree but was modified for more flexibility, more padding and quilted leather. All stitching hand done.  The saddler’s stitching and pattern his own.  There are a few saddlers today that can recognize a Sanford.[iv] [v]

Sanford was a quick learner and a savvy business man.  Unmarried, by 1881 Sanford had moved to bustling Catlettsburg, Boyd County, Kentucky to ply his trade of saddlery.  He set up his harness business on Panola and quickly became a Deacon of the Hampton Lodge #235, an excellent way to get to know the gentleman of the county.  

John married Jessie Kibbe 29 September 1890 in Catlettsburg and by 1892 John B. Sanford owned a lot on Louisa Street.  His letter head shows him doing well selling harness, saddles, buggies and carriages.   But it was his beautiful saddles that people far and wide wanted for comfort when riding.

Photo by Ann Strosnider 2023

Among the treasures we have here on Deliverance Farm is a rare Sanford Saddle.  The stitching is intact, the leather shows cracking but the tree and pattern in perfect condition. Over the years and the many miles riding from Garner in Boyd County to Carter County and to Catlettsburg the stirrup straps were probably replaced many times. Handed down thru the family, both my husband, James David Klaiber and his father utilized the saddle well into the 1960’s.  A true treasure and certainly built to last.

John B. Sanford’s first wife Jesse was the daughter of Marcus L. Kibbe(y) and wife Elizabeth.  John and Jesse had a daughter Gladys born in 1898.  Jesse contracted pneumonia and died 12 March 1915[vi]. At the time of her death, John B. Sanford was serving a four-year term as Mayor in Catlettsburg, Kentucky.  Jesse Kibbe Sanford was laid to rest in Ashland Cemetery.

The 1920 census shows John B. widowed, his daughter Gladys age 22 and sister-in-law Mary Kibbe who had lived with them since prior to Jesse’s death.  In 1923 Sanford married Mary D. Kibbe. By 1930 Sanford’s worth in real estate and funds was valued at $8000.  His occupation was listed in the census and on his death certificate as a merchant of hardware.   Mary, sister of Jesse, was  the daughter of Marcus and Elizabeth Clark Kibbe. 

Sanford died 7 January 1939[vii] of arteriosclerosis.  The funeral was held at the Presbyterian Church, undertakers were Kilgore & Collier and burial took place 9 January in Ashland Cemetery[viii].  Mary Kibbe Sanford died 7 January 1941 and was laid to rest in Ashland Cemetery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[i] Kentucky, Bath Marriages fhl film 000273006

[ii] Kentucky, Bath M. 7 Jul 1898 Elijah F Terrell and Laura L Sanford. Wit Wm Terrell and Mattie Scott 7 Jul 1898

[iii] Owingsville Outlook, 30 Jul 1896. “death…flux…at Farmers…Fanny…daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Sanford…buried at Old Virginia.”

[iv] Preston, Tim. The World’s Most Comfortable Saddles A Stitch in Time  http://www.princealbertstables.com/Kentucky%20Saddler%20Saddle.htm

[v] Kasiak, Neil A Quilted History: The Kentucky Riding Saddle  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebyEHkoE0Y4&ab_channel=NeilKasiak

[vi] Kentucky D Cert 1914 cert 5967.

[vii] Kentucky D Cert. 1939 - 187

[viii] Bath News-Outlook 19 Jan 1939

 

Ethel = Etel = Oertel Language Barrier In Handed Down Family Stories

By Teresa Martin Klaiber 2020

I remember my great grandmother, Nellie Clara Kautz Martin as short and plump with an apron on working in the kitchen in their house in Ironton, Ohio to make the perfect dinner just for me.  How I wish I had asked her to tell me about our family.   I also had no idea I was getting an appendicitis attack that would, at the age of 9, end up in surgery two days later.  My great grandfather got a bit gruff, but humored me by cranking the Victrola with its huge horn. He thought I was a bit spoiled when I could not eat her lovely meal.  My memory of her will always be in that kitchen, on that day, lovingly fixing that meal for just the three of us. Other family members say she spent the majority of her time in the kitchen. 

Nellie Clara Kautz Martin wearing an apron & holding compiler’s father John Geer Martin.  Taken in 1924

Nellie’s own grandmother, known to us as Mary Ann Kautz had come over from Germany in 1848 after marriage to Johann “George” Kautz.  Mary Ann’s maiden name according to the “little black book” where my grandfather wrote down the family history was written as “Ethel.”  A great granddaughter, Lillian Rose Kautz Holley said the family pronounced it more like “Etel.”. Mixed dialect and migrations along with handed down oral history quickly skewed her maiden name. 

George and Mary Ann Kautz first settled in Sullivan County, New York where there was plenty of lumber and stone.  They sold property in Sullivan County in 1876[i] and migrated to Cameron County, Pennsylvania, another area with a large lumber supply.  In their 70’s they moved to Scott Township, Marion County, Ohio.  George died in 1888 and is said to be buried in Miller Cemetery at Kirkpatrick in that county.  Mary Ann Kautz in her late years resided with daughter Mary Elizabeth Kautz Lyon.  Mary Ann, as the family called her, died 20 February 1908.  The Marion county death register lists her as Mary Ann Kautz born in Germany, cause of death “old age.”   Her parents are listed as “Ethal George” and “Johna.”  While I don’t like assumptions, at this point, I would say daughter Mary Elizabeth was the informant.

Mary Elizabeth, was the youngest of eight children, born  7 April 1858 in New York and we can assume heard German in the household growing up.  I was so hopeful that I would glean further information on Mary Ann’s life when I found her obituary in the Marion Weekly Star and also the Daily Mirror.  “An Aged Resident Dies at Kirkpatrick. Mrs. Mary Ann Kautz Succumbs to old age. Funeral service will be conducted from the home Saturday afternoon. Mrs. Mary Ann Kautz, aged 90 years died at her home near Kirkpatrick at 10 o'clock Thursday evening. Her demise was due to old age. She had scarcely ever known a sick day in her long life and her death was apparently without suffering. She simply slept away. The deceased was born near Hamburg Germany. She had been a resident of Marion County for about 18 years. There are six children living. They are Mrs. Elizabeth Lyons near Tobias, Mrs. Rose Bessmer of Kansas, Mrs. Margaret Bliss of Los Angeles CA, Mssrs Richard, John and Fred of Florence, WV. Funeral services will be conducted from the home at 1 o'clock Rev Mr. Cole of Kirkpatrick to officiate. The remains will be interred in Miller Cemetery near Kirkpatrick”.

I stumbled (yes not every research step is scientific) upon others saying their family spelled their surname Etel, Ertel and Ehrtel,  in Low German dialect. In High German Dialect Ertel becomes Ortel or Oertel.   Pronounced in German the “r” is basically undetectable.

Like a flower bud beginning to blossom, slowly, with the generosity of many volunteers, German Lutheran records are being transcribed and available at online genealogy sites.

Tintype Mary Ann Etel Kautz aka Anna Maria Oertel Kautz

It was an “ah hah,” “do a jig” discovery to find the marriage (heirat) of Georg Kautz 11 May 1841 in the Kirchenbucher for Baden in the city of Kork, Muchenschopf stating her parents as Johann Oertel and Margaretha.  Her birth (24 April 1813) and baptism have also been transcribed in Muchenschopf.  Further research shows that it was her grandfather who was a Georg Oertel.

It is the story and the journey, not just the dates that make up my ancestor’s lives.  Lillian Rose said “Great Grandmother Mary Ann Ethel settled in New York state and was pregnant with my grandfather and was not sure he would not be born on the boat but waited and was born in Freemont..."  Lillian’s grandfather is this compiler’s 2^nd great grandfather (Johann) John Kautz.  He was born 14 October 1848 in or very near Freemont, Sullivan County. He appears on the census in Sullivan County, New York in 1850 along with his two older brothers George Johann (George) and Frederick George (Fred) who both were born in Muchenschopf.  Both of the elder brothers baptism (taufe) is recorded in the Lutherische Kirchenbucher for Muchenschopf.

John Kautz (son of Mary Ann and Georg Kautz) worked both in lumber and in stone, building his own home after migrating to Salt Lick, Bath County, Kentucky.  My husband, another couple, and myself took a wonderful drive to Fremont Centre and Callicoon in Sullivan County, New York where John was born and lumber still appears to be a mainstay.  I felt at home in Sullivan County, still full of timber and a bit of pioneer adventure.  John followed his parents to Cameron County, Pennsylvania then migrated to Boyd County, Kentucky where he worked at the Normal Planning Mill and eventually settled in Salt Lick, Bath County.

Johann (John) George Kautz s/o George and Anna Maria/Mary Ann Oertel Kautz

  Lillian Rose[ii] was proud of the beautiful furniture our ancestor also made. The dresser is made of tiger maple and totally pinioned.  Lillian was born six years after the death of Mary Ann.  She was a warehouse of knowledge remembering John and Elizabeth Grosholz[iii] Kautz and full of memories of Salt Lick, Kentucky.

Kork is now a suburb of Kehl in Baden-Wurttemberg. Mary Ann’s obituary states she never had a sick day.  Knowing that she made the trip from Baden to America pregnant and then migrated from New York to Pennsylvania to Ohio and having eight children says a lot about her strength.  Her picture portrays her as a tiny, slim lady. I am glad I could visit all the places she lived in the United States. I am sad that any tombstones marking her and her husband have disappeared from Miller Cemetery.  When I visited Miller Cemetery in the 1990’s many stones had been pushed over a hill and were buried in dirt and weeds.   It was a sad moment but I was there to honor their memory. I doubt, at 71 I will ever visit their fatherland.  From Etel to Oertel, my genealogy journey has shown she was a strong woman.

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[i] NY, Sullivan, Dbk 75-552

[ii] Lillian Rose Kautz m Thurman Hobert Holley. She was b. 26 Dec 1914 in Bath Co., kY d 4 Mar 2012 Roane Co., Tn. When I visited with her along with another cousin Barbara Martin Strosnider she was living in Huntington, WVA.

[iii] Elizabeth Groszholz was born 2 September 1848 Memprechtshofen, Kork, Baden, Germany

News Media Can Be Misleading

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber
September 2010

News media is making its own news these days, accused of being either left or right or incorrectly presenting information. Some genealogists tend to take newspaper articles as gospel trying to utilize them as primary evidence.

When I discovered a clipping in the Portsmouth Times about an early furnace in Eastern Kentucky that I did not recognize I could easily have passed the information on. But something nagged me. First while I am certainly no expert on the early furnaces of our region, I am familiar with the names of most. The name of the furnace in the Portsmouth Times just could not be retrieved in my memory bank and I also knew enough history of the city of Ashland's Central Park and Armco Park in the county to know this property did not relate to them.

I am also very proud of the fact that I helped rescue 403 record books [yes we counted them] from Bellefonte, Buena Vista, Princess and Amanda furnaces in 2000. Many years ago Greenup and Boyd county lost these treasured records and 68 years later they turned up in the attic of the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan. When asked if our library wanted them back I quickly volunteered to make the trip to retrieve them. They are now safely back home where they belong, thanks to a tolerant husband that pulled our trailer and a cousin that tagged along to help load ledgers.

But I digress. The article reads:

27 July 1895: "The old Preston furnace and lands near Ashland, KY is about to pass into the hands of Boyd County to be used as a park. This was the first furnace constructed west of the mountains, having been built in 1789. The cannon balls used by the Americans at the Battle of New Orleans in 1813 were cast at this furnace."

With notes in hand, I set out to document this early furnace that seemed to have been within the bounds of present day Boyd County, Kentucky, at least according to the Portsmouth newspaper.

Before investigating court records I first reviewed my copy of Iron Furnaces Of The Hanging Rock Iron Region by Donald E. Rist. Rist states that the first furnace in the Hanging Rock Region was not built until 1818. The furnace is named Argillite and was built within the bounds of present day Greenup County. This is a well documented publication. Had I stumbled across an earlier furnace and piece of history that no one else seemed to have concentrated on? I found that highly unlikely.

Approaching the problem in what seemed a methodical method, I reviewed the Boyd County deed indexes followed by the Boyd County Court Order Books and Boyd County Fiscal Court Minutes. Neither the order book or minute books were indexed thus the exercise was time consuming. Besides the time, it also turned into what we genealogists term negative research. I found no entries or discussions concerning Boyd County receiving furnace lands for a park in the given time frame or even near that time frame.

Reviewing the article I concentrated on the surname Preston realizing that Colonel John Preston had large holdings from Virginia Grants in the Big Sandy Region sometimes simply referred to as the Preston lands. Prestonsburg was named for him and he established Paint Lick Station in 1790 later to become Paintsville, Johnson County. But within the many available articles I found no mention of an early furnace.

The article states "the first furnace constructed west of the mountains..." With the help of both Bing and Google I found two furnaces with the claim that they were the first west of the Alleghenies. The Peter Tarr furnace was built in the 1790's near Weirton, West Virginia. I found several articles and a description in Wikipedia. Wiki did state the furnace was used to cast cannon balls but that they were utilized at the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813 not New Orleans. Add that with the fact that it is not in Eastern Kentucky it scored a minus two in my research notes.

The second furnace known as the Slate Creek furnace was in Kentucky. I found several references and varied names. The furnace was also known as Bourbon furnace located in Bath County, Kentucky. While this furnace is in Kentucky I was about to give it at least one minus score because of the distance from Ashland but decided to look a little further. I found a wonderful article, Thomas Deye Owings of Maryland, Kentucky, Texas posted by the son of deceased author W. T. Block referencing the furnace.

Block states that the furnace was settled in 1789 which coincided with the Portsmouth newspaper. His article is well documented and appeared in Ancestry Magazine, Volume 19 #2 July/Aug 2001 as well as at the link above.

Block writes "According to the Lexington Gazette (10 December 1813), by 1813 the furnace was making three or four tons of iron daily. Some of its products were cannon balls that were later used at the Battle of New Orleans..."

However the furnace was sold by Jacob Myers to John Cockey Owings, Willis Green, Christopher Greenup and Walter Beall. There is no mention of Preston. Do I give this a minus score?

In genealogy we never use the word assume. It is an ugly word for any research project. But yet the more I reviewed the small Portsmouth, Ohio article the more I wondered did the writer carelessly misread the county name when both begin with "B" and did he assume it had to be near Ashland? And even if that assumption is correct where did the name Preston furnace come from?

Over the years I have turned to Kentucky geological reports and surveys for many projects. With one last ditch effort I decided to see what possibilities were left. In Geology of Kentucky, chapter 28, Misc. Mineral Resources, I once again found the old Slate Creek furnace listed as the first west of the Alleghenies. Within an instant the puzzle pieces finally fit together.

The publication describes the Preston Ore Banks that were located on Slate Creek southeast of Owingsville. It goes on to say that the remains of the furnace are on the bank of Slate Creek along the road between Preston Station and Owingsville. "Of historic interest is the shipment of cannon balls by way of the Licking and Ohio rivers to General Jackson for the defense of New Orleans..."

The three sentence 1895 article in the Portsmouth Times had utilized Preston Station or the ore banks for lack of a better name of the furnace. Preston Station was founded about 1881, just 14 year prior to the writing of the newspaper article in question. According to the History of Bath County, Preston was named for William Preston who had significant land holdings in the area. He donated a right-of-way to the Elizabethtown Lexington & Big Sandy Railway Company with the stipulation that a station be named for him at that location. The rails continued to Ashland.

The information concerning William Preston and the right-of-way was repeated in Robert Rennick's Kentucky Place Names. Neither author elaborated on Preston but this compiler recommends reading Kentucky's Last Cavalier. General William Preston 1816-1887 by Peter J. Shelinger for details about his massive land holdings which included lands in Bath County.

Yes, someone had inserted the four letter Boyd instead of the four letter Bath into the article. Before I blame this particular paper remember that articles got copied and recopied from one town to the next. While I have not found any other paper publishing that article I would not be surprised to find it again sometime.

Am I upset that I did not unearth a new historical tidbit for Eastern Kentucky or another furnace for Boyd County by utilizing this exercise? Not at all. I expanded my knowledge base a bit further.

Other notations I located on Slate Creek furnace state that the surviving stones had been within a highway roadside park. In 1969 the Owingsville Jaycees and the state Highway Department completed a joint project and dedicated the park on July 1st, 74 years after the announcement of a park in the Portsmouth paper.

The Kentucky Historical Society Historical Marker Database lists the furnace as The Bourbon Ironworks, marker #993 placed at KY Route 36 and KY 965 which is Preston Road. Mr. Block's well informed article, cited earlier, includes pictures of the remaining furnace and marker. Those interested in further information on Bourbon aka Slate Creek furnace and its works will enjoy reading page 90-98 of the History of Bath County by J. A. Richards.

News media past and present can be misleading. When you read tomorrow's paper maybe you should dig a little deeper before drawing conclusions.