Thomas J. Maddox & son Arlie Maddox: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

    

Thomas J. Maddox was born 13 September 1895 in Elliott County, Kentucky, son of Charles and Margaret Creech Maddox.  He and his father were both farmers.  He had light brown hair and blue eyes[i] and possibly had some hearing difficulties according to his draft card.

He married Matilda Stephens about 1916. Tilda was also from Elliott County. Sadly, the Elliott County courthouse had a fire on 19 December 1957 which destroyed some records including early marriages.  Thomas and Matilda had seven children between 1917 and 1929.  Matilda died 25 June 1929[ii] in Elliott County from complications of childbirth of their last child. According to birth records, a son, Thomas[iii] named for his father was born 24 June 1929.  According to a death certificate a daughter, unnamed, was born stillborn on the same date[iv].  Both the infant and Matilda (Tilda) were buried in Stephens Cemetery.  The cemetery was also called Maddox Cemetery by some.   The cemetery is said to be up a hollow northwest of Wallowhole School and southeast of Little Fork Road, Elliott County, Kentucky.[v]   The family resided on Little Fork, Blaine Trace Road.

The following year (1930) Thomas J. Maddox was 34 with children living with his in-laws Daniel and Phoebe Stephens.  He married 2^nd to Amanda Marie Lucas Burke.  Amanda Marie Lucas was born 28 October 1908 in Boyd County, daughter of Frank Kane Lucas and Nancy Ann Perkins. Amanda was also widowed, having married Herman Burke who died 9 March 1930[vi].  She had one daughter Wanda Louise Burke born in 1927.  By the time the 1930 census was taken she was noted as a widow and living with her parents.

The family settled on Durbin Road in Boyd County.  Thomas J. Maddox was one of many that got a job doing road work for the WPA.  The WPA (Work Progress Administration) used crushed rock from a quarry across the road from Klaiber Cemetery during this time frame.  By World War II Thoma’ hair had turned gray according to the draft taken in 1941.

Son, Arlie Maddox, born 18 May 1921[vii], in Elliott County, to Thomas and wife Tilda, was working on the family farm in 1940 and 1941 when he applied for his military draft card.  Like his father he was of slim build with blue eyes and had red hair.

By 1950 Thomas and Amanda were living at Denton (leaving Bolts Fork going over the hill) in Carter County with Frank and Nancy Lucas.  This would be over the southern ridge of Klaiber Cemetery and a bit to the west.  Son, Arlie, had moved to Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio and married Betty Lou Jones 16 June 1950. This was his first marriage and her second.  Betty Lou was sister to Lottie Jones who married Norman Franklin Lucas. They were children of John and Goldie Ellen Walker Jones.

Thomas J. Maddox died 1 August 1960 in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio at the age of sixty-four. He was brought back to Klaiber Cemetery for burial next to Amanda Lucas Burke Lucas parents and grandparents.

Arlie Maddox and Betty Lou Sparkman Maddox were divorced 20 July 1977 in Franklin County, Ohio.  He died 14 August 1978, at Riverside Hospital, and was brought back for burial in Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky beside his father.

 

 His step mother, Amanda Marie Lucas Maddox died 17 October 1994,  at their home on Durbin Road, in Boyd County.  She also is buried in Klaiber Cemetery.

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[i] WWI Military draft card, Elliott County

[ii] KY death vital cert 16443

[iii] KY Birth vol  051 cert 25032

[iv] KY Vital death cert 16444

[v] http://kykinfolk.com/elliott/ellcem05.htm

[vi] He is buried in the Elijah Rice Cemetery, Lawrence County, KY

[vii] KY Birth index cert 29497

Virginia Myrtle Lucas: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

As I have said so many times our family lives on in our memories and our littlest angels should never be forgotten.  Virginia Myrtle Lucas was born 24 September 1924, and according to her death certificate the birth took place in Carter County, Kentucky. To date this compiler has not found an official birth record in Kentucky, Ohio or West Virginia.

Virginia Myrtle Lucas died in White Cross Hospital, Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio 29 July 1926[i].  White Cross had converted affiliation with the Protestant Hospital Association to the Ohio Methodist Episcopal Conference in 1922. 

The cause of death is cited as cholera infantum.  Cholera is an infectious disease caused by bacteria. A child could get cholera by eating food or drinking water contaminated with bacteria.  Combined with Infantum, a viral disease of infants and young children, it is deadly causing speedy wasting.

Virginia was the daughter of Reuben Harrison Lucas born 9 January 1889 in Carter County and wife Cora Combs.  She was the granddaughter of Henry Kane Lucas, Lucinda Sexton Lucas, John “Jack Combs and Martha J. Cotton.

Virginia had at least three siblings: John D., Lelia and Lewis, all born in Kentucky.  Her parents married 27 August 1910 in Boyd County, Kentucky[ii] and by 1920 are listed in Cabin Creek, Kanawha County, West Virginia where Reuben was trying his hand at mining.

The 1927 City Directory for Columbus, Franklin County, shows Reuben, laborer, and Cora residing at 1190 St. Clair Avenue.  This is the same address given on Virginia Myrtle’s death certificate.  I find there is often a lag time in posting in city directories and they did not appear in the 1926 edition.  By 1928 only Cora is listed working as a waitress.  I speculate that Reuben had returned to Cabin Creek, as they appear on the 1930 census in Burnwell, West Virginia where, once again “Rube” is mining, working for Case Mining Company. 

Virginia’s father, Reuben Harrison Lucas died 20 January 1972 in Kanawha County, West Virginia and buried in Montgomery Memorial Park at London, Kanawha County, West Virginia.   Montgomery Memorial Park is an active, perpetual care cemetery.   In 1971,  Cora was living in Rand, Kanawha County[iii] and died July 1980, according to the Social Security Death Index.

 

 

 

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[i] OH, Franklin d cert 44135

[ii] KY, Boyd M bk 32A p 97

[iii] Charleston Gazette 4 Mar 1971 obit of Stephen Franklin Combs

Henry Kane Lucas and wife Lucinda Sexton: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

  

Henry Kane Lucas was born 6 December 1846 in Letcher County, Kentucky to Emanuel “Todd” Lucas and wife Charlotte “Lottie” Moore.   He grew up in Letcher County. Henry and his father, Emanuel migrated and first appear on the 1867 Carter County, Kentucky tax list[i].  Henry was just 21 and had no values while his father shows 100 acres still being taxed in Letcher County.

Henry Kate Lucas met Lucinda “Cinda” Sexton about this time.  Lucinda was born in 1850 in Kentucky. By 1860 she is living in the household of Fletcher Burton along with mother Hulda Sexton[ii] and siblings Bartlett Hasker, Kate and Helen, Sexton.   The next entry in the 1860 census is for the Henry Powell Sexton family.

Family history states that Lucinda was a “woods colt” between Hulda Sexton and James Henderson.  Lucinda’s death certificate also states her father was James Henderson.  The term “woods colt” feels so much freer and nicer than the harsh word illegitimate that society used to put on children. 

There are so many reasons that marriage records may not be located easily.  Marriages are filed by county, not by state, and up until a few years ago we did not have digitized indices, which can still be incomplete or names mis-spelled.  If a minister did not file at the local court house, then there is no record. If the bride and groom slipped across a state line it is harder to track the marriage.  In Virginia we now know that Walter Plecker, state registrar, campaigned to expunge ethnic marriages in Virginia. He even had a list of surnames including Sexton that were to be expunged.  Research shows he succeeded in his hateful quest. To date, we have not found a marriage record for Henry Kane Lucas and Lucinda Sexton, though the records in both Carter County and Boyd County seem very complete where they were living at that time.

Lucinda was seventeen in 1867, and as stated Henry twenty-one.  Their first child, Emily Alice Lucas (m. Frank Kelley) was born in 1868 in Carter County.    This compiler can identify and verify eleven children[iii] and with oral history the possibility of two other children.  Norman Lucas, grandson of Henry Kane Lucas, says two more sons are buried in Klaiber Cemetery, marked only by sunken field stones; Sherman and Taylor Lucas.  When the season is very dry the outline of both the graves is very visible. Both lay, in line with, and just to the south of Emily Alice Lucas Kelley’s headstone.  Norman and his wife usually placed a flower on each of the two graves when they visited. Neither of these boys appear in any census record for Henry Kane and Lucinda Sexton Lucas.    In December 1883, The Ashland Independent wrote the following: “Glenwood, died on the 15^th after thirteen hours bleeding at the nose an eight-year-old son of Henry Lucas.”  Neither of these names appear with Henry Kane on the 1880 census.

For a while in their later years, Henry Kane Lucas and Lucinda lived with daughter Laura Ellen at Geigerville, Boyd County[iv].  Laura had married Reuben Biggs in April 1887, then widowed, had returned from Indiana after Biggs death.   Lucinda Sexton Lucas died 5 January 1931, at Denton, Carter County.[v]   Her death certificate was signed by Fred Tyree, a doctor who resided at Hitchens.    Lucinda was laid to rest in Klaiber Cemetery.

Henry Kane Lucas death followed on 2 June 1933 at Denton, Carter County.[vi]  On the 22^nd of June 1933, son, Frank Kane Lucas, requested a deed from Henry Powell Sexton’s estate via son James McClelland Sexton for the plot in Klaiber Cemetery[vii].  The deed describes the cemetery  “known as the William Hood Cemetery” and is 50 feet in each direction.   The deed gives the family a right to and from the cemetery and strictly stated that the burials would not interfere with other grave sites.

In 2010 some stones were knocked over, by cattle, after someone left the gate open.  One of the stones was Henry and Lucinda’s.  With the help of neighbors we quickly got the stone remounted.

 

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[i] KY, Carter, fhl 008337275

[ii] Hulda was the daughter of James Enoch Sexton and Permillia Sexton and granddaughter of Elisha and Tabitha Sexton.

[iii] Issues of HK & Lucinda: Emily Alice b 1868; Mary b 869; Laura Ellen 1870;  Perry Allen 1872; Eva 1874; John Dee 1876, Henry Denton 1879; Frank Kane 1885, Esau 1887 – possibly Sherman b unk and Taylor b. unk.

[iv] KY, Boyd 1930 census

[v] KY d cert 493, filed Denton, Carter Co.

[vi] KY d cert  13190 filed Denton, Carter Co.

[vii] KY Boyd dbk 314 p 165 not filed until 1955

Charley Lucas: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

Charley Lucas was the son of John Dee Lucas and Dee’s second wife Hattie Gilley. 

Charley’s parents, John Dee and Hattie Gilley were married 12 May 1901 in Carter County, Kentucky.   John Dee Lucas was a coal miner and it appears that, during the first nine years of the marriage they moved around quite a bit.  Charley’s older sister, Louanna Lucas[i],  was born in Tennessee in 1902.  Charley was born 24 May 1905, once again back in Kentucky followed by sister Bertha[ii] who was born in 1909 in Indiana.  By 1910 Charley and his family were all residing with his grandparents, Henry Kane Lucas and wife Lucinda Sexton Lucas, on Straight Creek, in Carter County. 

Making a living at coal mining was a hard and lean way to earn a living.  Many of the miners in our area moved to other coal mining fields during their lives.  John Deed Lucas, was no exception.  After 1910 John Dee Lucas took his family to Cabin Creek, Kanawha County, West Virginia to work as a miner. 

Charley was only twenty-one when he was hurt in a mine accident.  He was working for Imperial Coal while residing at Burnwell, West Virginia.  The Imperial Colliery Company was founded at Burnwell in 1901.  During the 1920’s they had opened and closed several mines in the area.  According to Charley Lucas’ death certificate he was taken to General Hospital in Charleston where his left leg was amputated.

 

 

Charley Lucas died 7 August 1926[iv] from trauma of the amputation. Charley Lucas was brought back to Boyd County, Kentucky for burial on the 10^th of August 1926. Charley was laid to rest near his grandparents, Henry Kane and Lucinda Sexton Lucas. Who ever made his tombstone added a date at the bottom of June 14^th, 1958 which we will assume was when they finally marked the grave.  His father died in October 1956 while residing in Wheelersburg, Scioto County, Ohio.  His parents are both buried in White Chapel Memorial Gardens, in Barboursville, Cabell County, West Virginia.

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[i] OH Vital Lou Anna Horner 4 Sep 1992, Portsmouth, Scioto OH

[ii] OH, Lawrence M to William Belcher 5 Jul 1946

[iii] https://www.liveauctioneers.com/price-result/imperial-coal-company-stock-with-mark-twain-provenance-144353/

[iv] WV Vital death cert 10885

Frank Kane Lucas & wife Nancy Ann Perkins Lucas: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

I wish to thank Dreama Calvo  donated  this picture of Frank Kane and Nancy Perkins Lucas. The picture is thought to be taken on their farm on Long Branch Road, just across the Boyd County line into Carter County, Kentucky.

 

Over the years we had visits with Norman Franklin Lucas and Lottie Marie Jones his wife. Many times we walked among those in Klaiber Cemetery, as Norman and Lottie told us stories.  Norman was one of thirteen children of Frank Kane Lucas and Nancy Ann Perkins, his wife. 

Norman’s father, Frank Kane Lucas was born 4 July 1885 in Boyd County, Kentucky the son of Henry Kane Lucas and Lucinda Sexton Lucas.  They lived on Garner as he was growing up. Farming was the primary source of income, and living off the land.

When Frank was twenty he married Nancy Ann Perkins, the daughter of James “Frank” Perkins and Martha J. Cotton.  Frank was deceased by the time they married and Nancy’s mother Martha J. had remarried to John “Jack” Combs.  Frank and Nancy married 17 January 1906 with the written permission of her mother, Mrs. Martha Combs, because she was only eighteen years and four days old.  Their marriage followed a miserable cold spell for the area, though a bit warmer and damp, everyone wore heavier coats.  Julina Sexton Klaiber, William Vincent Sexton and William’s wife, Elizabeth “Trudi” Enyart Sexton were witness.  They were married by J. W. Hedrick.

Tragedy struck after the birth of Carl Douglas Lucas who was born 10 January 1918 and died the 11^th of September 1918 from gastro intestinal issues. His death certificate is filed for Carter County just across the line on Long Branch.  He was laid to rest in Klaiber Cemetery.

A daughter Martha Edith Lucas was born 23 June 1919 in Boyd County. Julina Sexton Klaiber kept a diary during this time frame and entered her death on 22 October 1923 but did not write down the heartbreaking details.   Little Martha was playing with matches and caught her clothing on fire.  She was buried in Klaiber Cemetery on the 24^th.

 

 

 

Just one year before Martha’s death, Frank had purchased 22 acres on Garner Creek just over the Carter County line from his father and mother, Henry Kane Lucas[i]. Many of the farmers in our area made extra money by signing leases for oil and gas throughout the years and still do. It was an easy way to make some extra money when you owned the mineral rights to your property.  Frank had a lease, in Carter County, with Kentucky Fuel Gas Corporation.  These leases gave the company right of exploration and the possibility of sinking a well.  If the well produced the lease stipulated either royalties or the free use of gas.[ii]

In the late 1930’s Frank invested in 35+ acres along Williams Creek in Carter County[iii]. Williams Creek winds around to Glancy Fork and Denton. Long Branch Road extends, but dead ends, from Boyd County into Carter County. As I have stated many times, there was a horse path across the hill from Long Branch to Denton that was easily accessed. Frank’s World War II draft card, filed in Carter County, describes Frank as five feet ten inches tall, with brown eyes and black hair.  Farming had left him lean at 125 pounds.

Other children of Frank and Nancy that grew to adulthood but are buried in Klaiber Cemetery include Laura Jane born 3 September 1910 in Boyd County and married 20 December 1929 Marion Emerald Jarvis.  She died 31 December 1942 in Columbus, Ohio and was brought back to Klaiber Cemetery for burial. Marion remarried in 1943 Mary Brennan.  When he died 6 March 1968 he was buried in Klaiber Cemetery, as well.

Bessie Juanita Lucas was born 4 June 1926, never married and lived most of her life on Garner.  She moved to Columbus in 1965 and died there 25 November 1966 and was brought back to Garner for burial[iv].

Bessie Juanita’s father Frank Kane Lucas died 23 December 1966 after an extended illness, after farming most of his life. Nancy lived exactly one month and died 23 January 1967 from a heart attack. Both are laid to rest in Klaiber Cemetery.

 

 

Their son Ralph Clifton Lucas born 14 March 1914, married 22 October 1938 Elizabeth Alexander.  He was a member of Coalton Community Church and had worked for Jeffery Manufacturing Company in Columbus, Ohio. Ralph died 16 July 1977, Rush, Kentucky, of a heart attack. He was buried in Klaiber cemetery 18 July 1977.  His widow Elizabeth died 27 November 1989 in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio and was brought back to Klaiber Cemetery for burial on the 30^th.

Frank and Nancy’s daughter Amanda Marie born 28 October 1908, had two marriages. She married Herman Burke who died in 1930 and is buried in Rice Cemetery, Lawrence County, Kentucky.  Amanda married second Thomas J. Maddox.  Thomas was born 13 September 1895 in Elliott County, Kentucky died in 1960 in Columbus, Ohio. He was brought back for burial in Klaiber Cemetery. Amanda died 17 October 1994 and is buried in Klaiber Cemetery.

Other children of Frank and Nancy include Florence Lucas McKnight buried in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio; Nora (no further info.); Lenora Irene Lucas Smith died Sandusky, OH; Hazel Lucille Lucas Davis died Greenup Co., KY and is buried White Chapel in Barboursville, Cabell, WV: Norman Franklin Lucas buried in Columbus, Franklin County, OH; Ruth Evelyn Lucas Caudill buried Franklin County, OH; Raymond Lucas buried Columbus, OH.

 

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[i] Ky, Carter deed book 39 page 285

[ii] KY, Carter Deed book 49-272 release of lease  4-3-1928

[iii] KY, Carter deed book 58 p 603,

[iv] Daily Independent Nov 1966

Hillman Bayes Jordan & daughter Della Jordan: Whispers from the Grave; Klaiber Cemetery, Boyd County, Kentucky

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2023

 

Hillman Bayes Jordan was born 10 December 1906, in Carter County, Kentucky.  Hillman was one of seven known children of Thomas and Mary Elizabeth Arden Jordan. 

By 1929 Hillman was in Ashland along with seventeen-year-old Opal Lucas Jordan Hillman.  He was working in the Ashland Sanitary milk plant on Winchester Avenue.  They lived within walking distance of the plant.

 

 

Hillman B. Jordan went to work in the plant during a turbulent time of the company.  In November 1929 the Boyd County Circuit Court had awarded the estate of Janet Messersmith $10,0000 for her death[i].   Jane, a child, t had been hit and killed by one of the company’s trucks on June 29^th.  For many years, milk trucks and wagons delivered up and down the residential streets of Ashland delivering fresh milk products to homes.  The cost of operation for the company was up because of the Depression.   The Depression of 1929 had effected everyone and everything. The price of milk was lower and it is easy to assume that anyone working for the milk companies would be getting lower wages as well.  The death and lawsuit put a strain on everyone from the plant to the courthouse and those in between trying to make a living during such hard times.

But there certainly were happy times. On 2 July 1930 the Daily Independent   printed: “Mr. and Mrs. Hillman Jordan of Winchester Avenue are announcing the arrival of a baby girl born at the home Saturday June 28.  This is the first child in the family and has been given the name of Della Jean. Mrs. Jordan was formerly Miss Opal Lucas of Rush, KY.”

Opal was the daughter of Perry Allen and Cora May Estep Lucas. She had many relatives in Big Garner, Rush and Glancy Fork areas of Boyd and Carter County, Kentucky.  Born 6 August 1912, she was just days away from her 18^th birthday when little Della was born.

Hillman Jordan went to work on the 31^st July 1931 according to his death certificate[ii].  He became ill and died according to his death certificate 1 August 1931 from a heart block and being over heated.  His obituary appeared in the Daily Independent 3 August (Monday) stating he died on Saturday (the first) after an illness of one day.  To complicate the date and show that “carved in stone” is not always what it seems, Hillman Bayes Jordan’s homemade tombstone states he died the 30^th July 1931.

None the less it was a tragedy and the obituary states he had many friends in Ashland, while his parents still resided on Big Garner.  He was survived by wife Opal and his small daughter.   Thus Hillman Bayes Jordan was brought out to the county and laid to rest in Klaiber Cemetery near his parent’s home. 

It must have been a tragic time for Opal.   Little Della’s death date is carved on the same headstone as her father’s and states she died 30 August 1931. The stone would have been made after her death and there are several other handmade stones for the Jordan’s in the same design.  Della Jean Jordan’s birth, as stated above, was announced in the local paper and the Kentucky Birth Index as “Della J. Jordan”.[iii]  But the only record this compiler can find of her death is the date and name carved on the stone with her father.  “Carved in stone” her middle initial is “C” and the date of date is 30 August 1931.  It took several readings to determine if the it was a 0 or 1.  Della, cited in her father’s obituary, died just weeks after his death.

 

I wish to thank Judy Cantrell Fleming of the Boyd County Library, Genealogy Room, that shares my passion for county cemetery work and who has helped me obtain records now that I have a few mobile disabilities.  Over the past few years I have given her my county notebooks full of notations and photographs and she continues to add to them, update and add material at find-a-grave helping thousands of folks that can’t visit a loved ones grave in person.

Opal Lucas Jordan moved to Floyd County, Kentucky where her widowed father Perry Allen Lucas resided and on 12 April 1932 married Joseph Elmer Akers, a coal miner. For a short time in the mid 1930’s they lived in Wise County, Virginia. Opal died in 2004 at the age of 91 and is buried in Ligon, Floyd County, Kentucky.

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[i] Courier-Journal, 16 Nov 1929 page  21

[ii] KY d cert 18611

[iii] KY B cert 30459