Pleasant Barber

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber
February 2011

Pleasant Barber is said to have been born 27 March 1842, his pension indicates March 1844 and census indicates as early as 1840 in Greenup County, Kentucky. When he died 19 October 1897 he died with the surname Barber. He is buried in Ashland Cemetery, Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky.

His mother's first name is Phoebe. Many researchers have repeatedly copied other researchers work stating that she was the daughter of Joseph Barber and Nancy Goad. They lead you to believe that Pleasant took his mother's maiden name as an adult. At this point in my research I am not convinced that this is the case.

Most suppositions by those researchers seem to be based on the 1850 Federal Census for Greenup County, Kentucky. This census shows Phoebe age 41 in the household of Jacob Hood and lists the following children all with the surname of Hood: Hezekiah 16, Nancy A. 13, Pleasant 10, Tabitha 6, and Bluford 4. Also in the household is Nancy Barber [nee Goad] age 72 born in Virginia.

Looking at this census Pleasant Hood has yet another birth year - circa 1840. The assumptions made by researchers is that Nancy must be Phoebe's mother. It is an assumption because the 1850 does not give relationships in households. Being under the same roof does not define a family group simply by age. By experience I know this assumption can sometimes be a slippery slope.

Jacob Hood married Phoebe Barber 17 November 1842 in Greenup County, Kentucky. The marriage record does not state if either the bride or groom might have been married prior to this union. Most Jacob Hood researchers state that Jacob Hood's first wife died prior to the 1842 marriage. She did not. Most Jacob Hood researchers simply say he disappears from records after the 1850 census entry. He did not.

Jacob Hood married 20 November 1829, Greenup County, Kentucky Joanna Lewis. On 3 April 1842 according to Greenup County Civil Court Orders [film 989385] Jacob divorced "Joan" Hood. He was then free to marry Phoebe.

By 1860 Pleasant is residing in Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky with Dr. Hiram Ferguson and family. The census gives his age as 19 [birth 1840/41] and he is still utilizing the surname Hood. Analysis of the 1850 and 1860 census would place Pleasant's birth prior to the marriage of Phoebe Barber to Jacob Hood. Thus he was either illegitimate or Phoebe __ was married to a Barber prior to her marriage to Jacob Hood.

Continuing a review of the 1860 census Jacob Hood is now residing in Carter County, Kentucky with wife Mary and several Cooley children. Jacob Hood married Mary ___ Cooley 8 July 1860 in Carter County. To date this compiler has not found a divorce for Jacob and Phoebe. Phoebe does not appear in any 1860 census I have reviewed but reappears in 1870.

In 1865, the subject of this study has enlisted in the 14th Regiment mustering in at Louisa giving his age as 21 [birth now stated as 1844]. He continues to appear on muster rolls, tax lists, census, and directories as Pleasant Barber with no further mention in his records of the surname Hood.

The next step was to follow the trail of the other male minors in the Jacob Hood household from 1850.

The eldest minor was Hezekiah Hood but by 1860 he is listed as Hezekiah Barber, born about 1835 in Virginia. He is residing in the household of a William Barber just 2 years older and William's family. William Barber was also born in Virginia. Hezekiah migrated to Elizabeth Township, Lawrence County, Ohio by 1870 and later dies 5 June 1924 in Wellston, Jackson County, Ohio. From 1860 until his death he continues to use the surname Barber.

The youngest male child in 1850 is Bluford Hood born after the marriage of Phoebe Barber to Jacob Hood. In 1860 Bluford Hood is in the Andrew Hood household in Carter County, Kentucky. He enlisted at Louisa in 1863 in Company K of the 45th. As expected he is utilizing the Hood surname.

While I have not located Phoebe Barber in 1860, she was still living. In 1870 Phoebe is listed as infirm residing with Hezekiah in Decatur Township, Lawrence County, Ohio. She is 56 years old. Also in the household is a Joseph Hoode age 5 born in Kentucky. For those Barber/Hood researchers who may be scratching their heads and not locating this census it is because The Barber family is listed as Barker. Hezekiah is living next door to Bluford Hood. Thus in 1870 Phoebe is cited as Phoebe Barker.

Joseph Hood"e" born in 1865 was born five years after the marriage of Jacob Hood to Mary __ Coley. To date this compiler does not have any documentation for Phoebe from 1860 until her reappearance in 1870.

Phoebe continues to reside in Lawrence County, Ohio and by 1880 she is listed at Bluford Hood's as his mother, age 68, a widow with the surname Hood, born in Virginia and her parents born in Virginia.

Phoebe's death record gives no further clues about marriages. She died 7 June 1881 in Washington Township, Lawrence County, Ohio as Phoebe Barber . The register simply states that she was a "widow" at her death.

From the analysis we can safely assume that Phoebe was in Virginia in 1835 when Hezekiah was born. She did migrate to Greenup County, Kentucky about the same time that Joseph and Nancy Goad Barber did. Joseph was in Campbell County, Virginia in 1830 and in Greenup County, Kentucky by 1840.

In the 1830 Campbell County, Virginia there are females in the Joseph Barber household but none fit the age of Phoebe. If she is Joseph Barber's daughter she is not living in that household in 1830.

Joseph Barber does have a son named Pleasant Barber. This Pleasant was born about 1808 in Virginia and married Jane Crain according to researchers. {I find a marriage of a Pleasant to Irene Crane 20 Aug 1831 in Campbell County but have not located a marriage under Jane Craine.} This Pleasant is in Greenup and Boyd County and in 1870 is residing in Upper Township, Lawrence County, Ohio. This family unit ended up in Cass County, Missouri where they died.

Joseph and Nancy Goad Barber also have a son Reuben who married Frances Mary Crain. They named their first son Pleasant Barber. He was born 15 May 1827 in Virginia. Pleasant married 2 December 1851 in Greenup County, Kentucky to Jestine Betts. By 1880 Pleasant and Jestine are residing in Oak Hill, Jackson County, Ohio.

Joseph Barber appears to have died about 1844 when the Pleasant Barber, our subject was an infant/toddler. Joseph had no land holdings according to the Greenup County tax rolls. Researchers attribute four sons to Joseph: Pleasant, Reuben, Charles and Lewis along with 2 daughters. It is possible that there were other sons, one who may have married Phoebe of this sketch.

Until further evidence crosses my desk I will try not to assume more than the records indicate. Phoebe had at least one or possibly 2 [William] male issues under the name of Barber while residing in Virginia. After her marriage to Jacob Hood her children born prior to that marriage are in the census utilizing their step father's surname which was not an uncommon practice. As the minors reached adulthood they went back to using the surname Barber.

Our subject, Pleasant Barber married 9 November 1865 in Morgan County, Kentucky to Mary Ann Phillips. The family had six children and in later years lived on West Front Street in Ashland, KY.

Joseph Kelley Goes To Prison

compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber
October 2010

In an earlier blog I wrote about Eliza O. Kelly's tombstone in Klaiber cemetery. Eliza was born 23 February 1849 and died 18 November 1895 "the wife of Joseph Kelly". [Kelly on the tombstone Kelley on many records.]

After writing about her I realized I did not know as much about her as others in our cemetery so the last two weeks, when time has permitted, I have been on a quest to learn more about Joseph and Eliza O.

There certainly have been serendipity moments with this new quest. I no sooner began researching and received my Kentucky Explorer which included a picture of Joseph and Eliza's son Robert Lee Kelley. Within a matter of hours I was in touch with two descendants who had hit several brick walls looking for this family and had no idea that Eliza O. was buried in Klaiber Cemetery.

Review of death and marriage records for the issues of Eliza list the spelling of her last name from Byran, Bryan, Barnes, Baum and Buiram. The tombstone lists her as Eliza O.

I have kept copious cemetery notes and was also able to get in touch with descendants of yet another issue Samuel Franklin Kelley who had visited with me in 1997. Sadly their father, Harry passed away in 2003 in Muskingum County, Ohio. I am so glad I was able to meet him but he had not been sure about his family history.

Harry's grandfather "Frank" married first Emily Alice Lucas who died in 1896 and is also in Klaiber Cemetery [Boyd County, KY]. After consulting with descendants and doing general background research it appears that Joseph died between 1900 and 1910.

In 1900 he was residing, age 84, with son Robert just a few miles from our cemetery in Carter County, Kentucky. Logically [one would think] family would put their father to rest next to Eliza. And there is the crux. There is a large expanse on either side with what appears to be unmarked graves. There is no writing on the other 3 sides of Eliza O.'s pretty pyramid stone.

We are able to track Joseph through various records but could not locate him or his family in either 1860 or 1870. One family theory was that he had been arrested after the Civil War as a guerrilla and was in the state prison in 1870. Certainly we did find a Joseph born 1826 in the Kentucky State Prison but confirmation that it was the correct Joseph was needed. Kentucky Legislative reports listed the crimes of inmates in 1870 and war fare was not among the items for incarceration at Frankfort. With the idea that a whisper of family tradition might have some merit, I decided to investigate.

Criminal actions are filed in the county circuit courts in Kentucky. After reviewing the Boyd County records I found the indictment against Lafayette Lovejoy, Walker Rollin, Joseph Kelley Jr., Washington Bryan Jr., Taylor Bryant and Nat Edmonds for "breach of public peace". [Boyd Circuit Court, June 1869, page 286, 324, 364--Bryan and Bryant as spelled. Research confirms they are brothers].

Of these gentleman only Joseph went to trial and was convicted and sent to the penitentiary for a term of two years. The next step in this research exercise is to visit the Kentucky State Archives and review the surviving case packets to find out the details of the crime.

Now that we had determined where Joseph was in 1870 and confirmed that he returned to Boyd County where he appears on the 1873 tax records, I set out to fill in the previous 10 years. From issues records I knew that his first child, Samuel Franklin "Frank," had been born across the river in Lawrence County, Ohio in 1865. Their daughter, Maria J., was born in Kentucky 3 years later in 1868.

Being knowledgeable about locality and common surnames in a given area helps when formulating and processing clues and documents. Thus when I found the following New York Times article I immediately knew that members of the Shepherd family lived & still live in the neighborhood where Klaiber Cemetery is located. Not only does the article cite Carter County in Kentucky but Ironton is in Lawrence County, Ohio.

"16 Nov 1858: Another gang of Counterfeiters Broken Up - The Cincinnati papers of Wednesday state that an extensive organization of coin counterfeiters has been broken up in Lawrence County, Ohio. The police officers found at the houses of Joseph Kelly and Wm. H. Shepherd, near Ironton, a large lot of counterfeiters' machinery, tools and acids - a full and complete set, and all that was necessary to manufacture bogus coin - concealed in different parts of the dwellings. They then searched further for the men, who were absent at the time, and arrested them, Shepherd on Friday evening last, in Carter County, Kentucky, and Kelly not far from his own house, on Saturday morning about four o'clock. The apparatus is quite extensive, and includes almost everything necessary to the successful prosecution of the trade, although the implements are rather crude and awkward, just such as men in the country would be apt to construct or have constructed. there were exhibited at the examination implements of various kinds of mulling, stamping, galvanizing, polishing, chipping, etc., with muriatic and sulphuric acid, and various chemicals. A number of half finished coins were also shown."

So the question is posed: had Joseph been released from prison in Ohio only to return to prison in Kentucky? I decided to find William H. Shepherd. Yes, by 1870 Shepherd was back in Kentucky residing in Greenup County. To confirm that the family resided in the portion of north eastern Kentucky near Klaiber Cemetery I decided to see if I could locate his large family in 1860. My heart sank as I found William Shepherd listed with Margaret and children in 1860 in Carter County. The counterfeiter was in prison in Ohio. Had I jumped to the wrong conclusion? Was it another William Shepherd from Carter County? Was I on the right track?

It is extremely important to read every line of every document and not rely on extractions or indexes. In this instance, William Shepherd, age 44, born Kentucky, has a listed occupation as "counterfeiter." Following the census column to the right is a notation "convicted in Columbus."

The 1860 Federal Census for the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus lists William H. Shepherd age 44, born Kentucky and Joseph Kelly, age 34 [born 1826] born Ohio as counterfeiters.

Further work needs to be done on the exercise and several problems present themselves. First most records of Joseph in Kentucky, that we have located thus far, place his birth as Kentucky, not Ohio. So while William Shepherd is from "our" neighborhood and the age is exact, it is not conclusive, but circumstantial, that the Joseph Kelley who went to prison in Kentucky is the same one who went to prison in Lawrence County, Ohio. And while Joseph Kelley, the husband of Eliza O. interacted with Bryant's for the indictment in Kentucky further research is still needed to connect Eliza to her paternal family. Nor have I yet located Eliza and her two children [Samuel Franklin born 1865 OH and Maria J. born 1868 KY] while Joseph was in prison.

The descendants are excited to learn so many new things about the issues and burial of Eliza O., and like all good researchers they want to know more. As the trustee of the cemetery, it would be wonderful to be able to confirm another unmarked grave in our cemetery and add to the growing wealth of history on top of our hill.

And that 7 degrees of relationship - or is that six degrees of separation - holds true to the cemetery. Like the song "...the shin bone is connected to the leg bone..." the Kelley family is connected to the Lucas family connected to the Sexton family connected to the Klaiber family. Can you tell I am as excited as the descendants? Well of course! I love the genealogical hunt. And with open arms I await the next serendipity moment in this research exercise. I'll be watching the comment box!