Elsie Ellis Rucker Klaiber 1912 – 1987 Autobiography

 

Transcribed and comments by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2020

During the Fall of 1985 I asked my mother-in-law to write her autobiography. She insisted, she was not a writer but would do her best.  I am thrilled to see her flowing handwriting, written on lined paper that is now aging.  As I sit to transcribe, I think of how many students lives and family that she touched.  It is November, as it was when she left us.  We were so upset we did not realize her funeral was scheduled for Thanksgiving Day.  But that day, as I stood on the hill and looked back down the road, I saw hundreds of cars coming to honor her.  Tears streamed down as I thought how each had given up their own Thanksgiving to give Thanks and praise to her.    

I miss her chatter as the pots and pans banged in her kitchen. She taught me to cook.  I never mastered biscuits or her cream candy. She gave so much of herself.  Newly married, for some reason I wanted a long velvet dress.  I never thought of the cost nor did she say a thing.  Instead I got both a blue and red velvet long dress hand made by her[i].  As each year dawned, she would open a Christmas Savings Account and never missed a payment always presenting it to us to fulfil the Christmas wishes of her three grandsons.  She was their secret Santa.  As students we were always assured a freezer full of beef while others ate romaine noodles. 

And while her autobiography does not express her personality, I am so honored to transcribe it.

Elsie Ellis Rucker Klaiber

I was born Jan. 7, 1912[ii] to David L.[iii] and Barbara E. McGlothlin[iv] Rucker. Our home was located on Jack’s Fork of Garner (Boyd Co.) mailing address R. 1, Rush, KY.  My brother Harold (9)[v] was disappointed when I was born. I was not a boy. My sister Elzema (6)[vi] and Mildred (3)[vii] were happy to have a little sister.

When I was 6 months old, my parents moved to Mavity (mouth of Bear Creek) R. 1, Catlettsburg. My father had a large store and grist mill there.  My youngest brother Kenneth[viii] was born three yrs. Later in 1915.

I attended a one room school (Grassland) for 2 years.

Since the school term was short and my older brother & sister were ready for high school, we moved to Ashland, KY. on Bath St. and Win. Ave[ix]. in 1921. I attended the Wylie Elementary School. Our next move was to Catlettsburg in 1924.  I graduated from T. R. Brown High School in 1929.

I attended Marshall College one semester and began my teaching career in 1930. My first position at 18 years old was a teacher at a one room school, Slick Rock (Boyd County).

 

I attended college in the summers and renewed my certificate to teach. During the spring of 1931 I met John H. Klaiber and married him 8 years later on August 4, 1939 at London, Kentucky. We lived on Laurel[x], R. 1, Catlettsburg for 3 ½ years moving to the farm in 1943.[xi] [xii]

John & Elsie 1940

Our daughter was born and died on April 17, 1945[xiii] in Huntington, W. VA. Hospital. She was buried in the family cemetery on our farm (Klaiber Cemetery).

Two years later March 15, 1947 my son James David Klaiber was born in St. Mary’s Hospital in Huntington, W. VA[xiv].

I taught until 1968 when I retired due to a heart condition[xv].

My hobbies are sewing, canning, reading, traveling and visiting my grandsons and their parents[xvi].

I was a leader of 4H groups for 30 years of my 35 years of teaching and was a member when I was in my school years. I was a member of the Garner Homemakers for two years[xvii].

 

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[i]

The red velvet dress taken on the farm 1968

[ii] KY Vital. B. Cert 985

[iii] Rucker, David Leander 27 Dec 1875 – 13 Dec 1955

[iv] McGlothlin, Barbara Elizabeth 2 Jan 1877 – 17 Sep 1946 m. DL Rucker 16 Sep 1902 Boyd Co. KY

[v] Rucker, Harold Delbert b 14 Oct 1903 Boyd Co., KY died 3 May 1971 Detroit, Michigan

[vi] Rucker, Emma Elzema b 2 Jan 1906 m. George Gallup. Died 6 Jan. 1994 Columbus, OH

[vii] Rucker , Mildred Beatrice b 18 Oct 1909 m Boone Hall. 2 Alton Crisp died 15 Jun 1990

[viii] Rucker, Kenneth Winfield 15 Jul 1915 – 13 Mar 2000 m. Willa Mae Allie

[ix] Ashland City Directory, 1922 1505 E. Winchester Ave.

[x] KY, Boyd Deed book 151 p 93. 5 acres left hand side of pike.

[xi] Long Branch Road, Boyd Co., KY

[xii] Taught Oakland 1933

[xiii] WV Cabell D Register Vol 6 p 7K

[xiv] She taught at one room Long Branch where son James David was in her class until she traded and went to Trace so he could have another teacher.  Later she taught at Garner Elementary.

[xv] Bachelor of Arts Morehead, August 1962

[xvi] The week before her death traveled to Central Ohio to visit. She said then it would be her last trip as it had been very hard.

[xvii] Student Ally United Scholarship Memorial 1995; presented to Boyd Co grad. In memory of SAU charter members including Elsie Klaiber.

Remembering Ruckers Of Alley Branch

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2020

 

A recent request on The Boyd County genealogy Face Book wall, I manage, gave me the perfect opportunity to get out with hubby and visit a cemetery.  What a perfect way to social distance during a pandemic.  We would be driving lovely Fall country roads and the people in the cemetery would be at least 10 feet away.  You may have to think about that sentence for a minute to understand it. 

Several years ago I had handed over my beloved CSI[i] kit to a Rucker researcher, due to health issues.  I loved researching in cemeteries. I have missed the adventures, which could be another potential article. Physically I could not reach this cemetery but hubby managed to get some super digital photographs of Brown Cemetery on Indian Trail Road.  It was a dual project. There were several needing pictures and we knew that Mary Elizabeth Alley, wife of Isham Brown was a niece to Bazel Rucker, hubby’s second great grandfather.

As I waited for his return walk down the hillside to our vehicle, my mind flooded back to another visit to the Chadwick Creek area, forty-two years ago.  We were back in Kentucky to visit family in July 1978.  We had driven from New Jersey with 3, 5, and 7-year-old boys who were delighted to be on the farm. After several wonderful days my mother-in-law suggested that we slip away to visit where she had grown up.  A girl’s afternoon outing.

Elsie Ellis Rucker Klaiber packed her famous bread & butter pickles, some home canned veggies and we were off to visit Chadwick Creek, Alley Branch and Katie Wilcox.  No one ever left the Klaiber house without a jar of love. Elsie was not about to visit without giving some more.

Katie B. Wilcox was 81 years old that July 19^th day, spry and lively as ever.  My father often talked about Katie. She was well-known and well-loved in Boyd County, often walking the 4.2 miles to Catlettsburg and back home, refusing many offered rides throughout her life.  

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 31 October 2020), memorial page for Katherine "Katie" B Wilcox (7 Apr 1897–25 Jul 1979), Find a Grave Memorial no. 76272021, citing Ashland Cemetery, Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky, USA ; Maintained by LeDee (contributor 47128407) .

 

I was ill prepared for a formal interview.  Elsie and she were about to give me a day to remember. Katie hopped in the car and directed me up the left side of Alley Branch.  Katie chattered that the Wilcox farm adjoined the old Rucker property.  Katie was the daughter of Gavit Wilcox and granddaughter of John and Levica Brown Wilcox. She was also the great granddaughter of Isham Brown, Sr.  Born in 1897, Katie lived her entire life on the farm on Alley Branch.

She took us where in her words “Bazil and old Mrs. Rucker lived in a log cabin.”  I estimated we had driven about a mile or so up the road from the Wilcox property.  There we stopped along the side of the road while Katie asked a tenant farmer for a drink from the old well which was still in use.  There is nothing, in my estimation, better than fresh cold well water.  According to Katie, Bazil Rucker dug the well next to their house.  She turned to Elsie Rucker Klaiber and said “Your drinkin’ from the well your great grandfather dug.”

As a side note, while Katie was alert, I would like to tell my audience that Katie was born in 1897 while Bazil Rucker had died in 1881.[ii]  His wife, America McGuire Rucker had also died in June 1893. Both deaths were prior to Katie’s birth. When I asked, she said she “knew of” her (America’s) funeral.  Katie said America died having a tiny trunk full of family papers that she put under the stairwell.  When the place was later renovated (during Katie’s life) the trunk was found.  Sadly, Miss Wilcox could not recall by whom.  According to Katie Wilcox, it contained Confederate money as well as family papers.  Elsie Rucker Klaiber joined in agreeing she had heard that same story told by her family.

As records unfolded in my own research, I was able to confirm that Bazil and America’s eldest son, John H. Rucker, served the Confederacy in Company D of the 2^nd Kentucky Mounted Riflemen.  John, as many others, took the Oath of Allegiance by the US government after surrender compelled them.[iii]

Katie said the log house later burned.  She introduced me to the owners of the property by the name of Ferguson.[iv] We sat on the porch while the Ferguson’s stated that deeper in the hollow was a foundation of another house.  Katie was adamant that that house was not the Rucker home.

According to Katie Wilcox, Bazil and his wife were buried above what is now the Ferguson home, marked only by stones and two trees. Mrs. Ferguson walked to the graves with me showing where they were marked by of the two trees and two field stones.  According to neighborhood tradition they both lay between the shade of the trees.  My polaroid caught the sun between the trees, and yes there were two small field stones at the trees.

 

We said good-bye to Ferguson’s, leaving the old Bazil Rucker homesite proceeding up Alley Branch to the house site of James Leander Rucker and his wife Emma Garrett Rucker, grandparents of Elsie.  This property stands on the left-hand side of Alley Branch Road.  The house site was then owned (1978) by the J. Wright family. Mrs. Wright invited us to stay, while Katie Wilcox continued her narration, describing the Rucker’s two-story home.  Because Elsie knew her grandparent’s home place, with her own experiences, she confirmed that Katie had not missed a beat.  The old stone cellar was still standing (1978) though renovated and used by the Wrights in the form of a garage.

Elsie also reminisced saying that she walked to her grandparents in the 1930’s.[v] That the house was “old” then.  She recalled an outside stair leading to a ‘bedroom’ where all the children slept; they being separated by curtains of a sort.  What was left of the place later burned according to Mrs. Wright.  Katie added that she remembered lovely flowers being grown around the house and the table “was always full.” Certainly, a Rucker tradition from my own experience.

“James Rucker inherited the left side of the farm and later sold to some Griffith’s. His sister Mandy inherited the right and sold to the Allie’s. Mandy married John Brown, my uncle” said Katie.

I will again pause the narrative. There was a total of ten children in the Bazil Rucker family.  Bazil’s will, after giving America all personal property, did indeed give James L. Rucker the farm on the left-hand fork of Chadwick Creek “…which I purchased from John Alley, which lies on the left hand or south side of the present site of the county road[vi] coming up the creek. Except about two acres now planted as an orchard.  This boundary given to said James L. Rucker, includes a forty-acre tract to which I have heretofore made a deed to Emma his wife…” Daughter Amanda received the “home farm” along with stock.  None of the other children were cited in his will but were established in their own homes.  James L. and Emma lived next to his parents, at the time, and Amanda “Mandy” did not marry John Brown until after the death of her mother, America, in 1893.[vii]

But Katie had said that James Rucker later sold some to a family named Griffith.  As a genealogist I have now completed a title search of the properties.  I found no deed transaction with Griffith’s. I did not locate Griffith’s close to Wilcox property until 1930 and then the family was marked as renters.  The Griffith’s were probably renting from the Ike Hicks family who bought property from James L. in May 1918.[viii]  [ix] One deed does deserve merit in this story.  James L. received a tract on the left-hand fork of Chadwick’s Creek from John and Amanda Brown for $650.00 with $100.00 to be kept back for maintenance of the Widow Rucker during her natural life, she being the mother of Amanda and James L. Rucker…[x]” 

Returning to the remarkable day in 1978 on Alley Branch, Katie began to tell about James and Emma (Garrett) Rucker’s daughter, America Mae.  She was nicknamed “Make”.[xi]      Katie said she had lovely blonde hair and blue eyes, very fair and thin.  She dated a John Hensley by horse and buggy.  When she was in her teens she died from “stomach trouble and was buried on top of the hill (Alley Branch Road Hill) which is called Light House Point but no Light House”. 

Elsie, who by the way, was also, as a young girl, blonde, blue eyed, with very fair skin, remembers an old rail fence and walking a path looking down on the grave around the 1930’s when she would go for visits to her grandparent’s place (James and Emma Rucker’s).  Elsie later made notes stating “Make” died in 1905.  Elsie said America’s grave is unmarked and slightly sunk in the backyard of a home at that location.  Katie Wilcox pointed out the original dirt road that wound down Alley Branch.  While “Make was a little older than described, I located lose Boyd County 1905 deaths, in the attic of the Courthouse. “Make” Rucker, age 22, single, dress maker June 22^nd, cause, consumption of bowels.  The death occurred on Chadwick Creek with parents J.L. and Emma Rucker cited.  By retracing that day 42 years ago, before writing this article, I believe that Light House Point is, just before the intersection of Alley Branch with Silver Run.  Today, 2020 there are large satellite towers located on the point.

Katie Wilcox had one more story to share with Elsie and I.  She told how James Rucker’s two eldest children, David Leander (Elsie’s father) and Margaret, would help work and clean.  But on another day, sister “Middie” (Amanda) was helping to clear brush.  After stacking only a few sticks she climbed on the brush pile to nap.  Margaret and David set fire to the pile waking “Middie” “in short order.”

The spirit of family stories and memories should be kept alive for future generations.  One year later, Katherine B. “Katie” Wilcox died, 25 July 1979.  She was laid to rest in Ashland Cemetery.

Many years later, my husband and I returned to our beloved Boyd County and we found ourselves once again at the Wilcox Farm, then owned by the Gute family.  We purchased a mother goat and her kid.  As we headed to my fathers to get them checked, he a veterinarian, I turned to hubby and asked “Do you suppose Katie would be upset if we named the mamma goat for her.” I also asked my father who had mentioned her in one of his books[xii].  He laughed and said he felt she would have loved the idea.  The 2^nd Katie brought us great joy during her years with us.

I have returned to Alley Branch with other Rucker cousins to visit Alley Cemetery. Hubby and I drive through Laurel Gap just to honor the Rucker family and my mother-in-law.  Elsie Ellis Rucker Klaiber died 24 November 1987.  She touched many county children as a teacher in Boyd County.  She fed me well not only at the dinner table with her wonderful bread & butter pickles, but with love of family.  She kept note pads by her chair and scribbled every shred of information she could glean from family members to help me build a wonderful genealogy for her grandchildren and now great grandchildren. 

One simple outing, so memorable that I felt the need to write it down for future generations.  Heed this dear reader. Take up your pencil, pen, or keyboard and write.  Fear not those critics of misplaced punctuation. Write to preserve our history for genealogists and story tellers alike. 

 

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[i] CSI = Cemetery Sleuthing Investigation kit – included gloves, trowel, corn cobs, etc needed to read tombstones and rod for probing for sunken stones

[ii] KY, Boyd, WBK  1. [age 216

[iii] KY Confederate Pension Records, #980

[iv] Of Mormon faith

[v] Elsie Rucker would have walked from her father’s home, David Leander Rucker, on Laurel in the 1930’s.

[vi] The left side appears to be the where the 1978 Wright’s property would be.

[vii] Amanda and John Brown’s property, depending on acreage may have extended toward the Isham Brown holdings.

[viii] KY, Boyd Dbk 78 p 312

[ix] Ike Hiks aka Isaac Hicks married Nancy Jane Fuller.  The census for this time frame list her as Jane.

[x] KY, Boyd Dbk 19 p 218

[xi] In her death record her occupation is recorded as dress maker. Possibly where she got her nickname?

[xii] Martin, John G. Never a Ho Hum Day

Little Children - Our Ancestors' Lives

 Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2020

 

Genealogists build the life story of their ancestors utilizing family stories, court records and more.  The children of the household may be counted in the family census records or even a guardianship.  But they rarely show up in other court records until they attain the age of consent.  Did our ancestorial children have happy childhoods? Were they well fed and properly clothed?  Genealogists can assume religious upbringing and possible wealth through their parents records but personality and other factors in life may be harder to ascertain.

Julina McCormack was born on Christmas Day, 1836 in Lawrence County, Kentucky. By looking at calendars we know that day was also the Sabbath, Sunday.  In early December, prior to her birth, Martin Van Buren was elected the 8^th President of the United States.

Julina McCormack

Julina was the daughter of Lorenzo Dow and Emily “Emma” Brumfield McCormack.  Her father was born 11 October 1804 in Bedford County, Virginia and named for itinerant preacher, Lorenzo Dow.  An article, while Lorenzo’s mother, Mary, was pregnant, gives a clue as to why so many in Bedford county were named Lorenzo. “A brief account of the remarkable work of God, in Virginia, Bedford County, which originated at a Camp Meeting, held by the Rev’d Lorenzo Dow, in conjunction with eighteen Methodist Preachers … souls were …converted – with innumerable awakenings… …June 5, 1804[i].

Julina’s parents married 2 March 1826 in Giles County, Virginia.  Lorenzo Dow McCormack’s father-in-law to be, Micager Brumfield witnessed the marriage bond.  Lorenzo Dow and Emma Brumfield McCormack were married by Landon Duncan, a Baptist minister who the next year united with the Disciples of Christ Church.  Their first child, Ellen was born 25 December 1827, their first Christmas baby, in Giles County, Virginia.

There are several family stories handed down about Julina’s mother, Emma.  Some family members were told that Emma and sister Lucinda were Cherokee and either adopted or raised by the Brumfield Family. This is a fallacy, disproved by DNA.  This compiler’s husband has no native blood and over 100 dna matches showing that Micager Brumfield is the father of Emma. 

Another family story told this compiler says Emma was killed in a corn crib by Creek Indians in North Carolina and her husband (Lorenzo Dow McCormack) then brought the children to Kentucky after her death.  This also is a fallacy.  Emma/Emily is accounted for on her husband’s census in Giles County in 1830 along with a female child under five (Ellen) and a new son Micajah (named for his grandfather Micajah and called Cager).  There is a published story in the History of Tazewell County about the capture of the Andrew Davidson family along with a bound boy and girl “orphans whose parents were Broomfields.”  However, this incident occurred in the Spring of 1791 and both Lorenzo and his wife were not born until the early 1800’s. While this story may be connected to the Brumfield family it does not directly involve Julina’s mother.

Lorenzo and Emma did not own property and they may have been in financial trouble when an indenture was drawn up to Charles and Daniel Hale in September 1831, in Giles County, Virginia.  The other possibility is the McCormack’s were preparing to migrate to Kentucky and needed money, not material items. The indenture involved a debt of $45.75, Lorenzo, signing by mark. McCormack put up 44 shocks of hemp, one cow and calf, a two year old heifer, 12 hogs, two beds, furniture and all household and kitchen furniture.  Charles Hale was infirm and exempted from working the public roads the same year.   

What is clear is that early in 1832 Emma had another baby boy James Madison McCormack born in Giles County, Virginia and Lorenzo’s father also had a debt. Father Dennit McCormack signed an agreement, in September, with David and Andrew Johnston for $30.00.  Among the articles in the debt indenture was a “little wheel” (spinning). 

Lorenzo’s father, Dennit McCormack, died sometime before August 26, 1833 in Giles County. Among his inventory is a flax wheel, one loom and one set of spools.  Lorenzo’s mother, Mary/Polly retained the spinning wheel from the sale.  Lorenzo, Emma and the children had already begun their roughly 218 mile trek to Kentucky.  Lorenzo Dow McCormack appears on the 1833 tax list in Lawrence County, Kentucky, where they have another baby boy in March 1833, named Lorenzo Dow McCormack Jr.

Settled in Lawrence County, Kentucky, after three years, 25 December 1836, Julina McCormack was born.  The second Christmas baby born to the family.   There is no further record for Emma/Emily Brumfield McCormack after the birth of Julina. 

Emma’s parents had also migrated from Tazewell County, Virginia to Lawrence County, Kentucky.  Julina’s grandfather, Micajah Brumfield, died just a month short of Julina’s first birthday, 28 November 1837.  This is also the last appearance of her father, Lorenzo Dow McCormack, on Lawrence County tax rolls. 

Julina’s sister, Ellen, nine years her senior, was bound out to learn the trade of spinstress in February 1839.  She was bound out to uncle, James Brumfield.   This hints that her mother was not around to guide her.

Julina, a toddler, was 2 ½ years old, when father, Lorenzo Dow McCormack married a second time to Winna Bolling, across the river, in Lawrence County, Ohio, 26 September 1839.  I do not locate L.D. in 1840. But this compiler believes that Ellen, Julina, and Lorenzo are among the children listed in their grandmother Eleanor Clay Brumfield’s household during the census in Lawrence County, Kentucky.  She was probably under Eleanor’s care since the death of her mother. The family resided on the East Fork of Bolts Fork.    A court order in March 1839 describes the Widow Brumfield’s property in a county road order: “Widow Brumfield’s up the fork to the Carter County line.” Other records indicate the property very near Sandy Furnace.  This is all beautiful bottomland until it reaches the hill approaching Carter County.

Julina’s grandmother, Eleanor Clay Brumfield,  was cited as owner of cattle that family herded to Wabash, Illinois in 1842[ii].  Among other family members involved in a suit against Eleanor Brumfield was William McCormack, Julina’s uncle.  While the suit does not mention Julina’s father a lot of family was involved.  I usually think of cattle drives out west, but an excellent and informative read appears in Agricultural History, April 1954 titled Cattle driving from the Ohio Country, 1800-1850.  I now visualize them taking the cattle across to the Vincennes Trail, earlier known as the Buffalo Trail, to Wabash where cattle were bringing top dollar during this timeframe.

Sister Ellen again appears in a court record citing Peres Randall as her guardian 26 January 1846 stating that father Lorenzo Dow McCormack is deceased. Ellen is 18 and can chose her own guardian. Randall was a well- known physician in Lawrence and later Boyd County. Julina had lost both her parents by the time she turned nine years old.  Her life during this period is a mystery. I have not located a guardianship or apprenticeship for her or her other siblings. 

Step-mother, Winna Bolling McCormack, remarries 14 December 1845 to, German immigrant, Henry Osendott, in Lawrence County, Ohio. This suggests that Julina’s father died before December 1845. The Osendott’s are living in Vernon Township of Scioto County, Ohio in 1850. Julina’s  brother, James Madison McCormack, is residing with Ellen now married to Harvey Slusher, in Lawrence County, Kentucky.  Brother, Lorenzo Dow Jr. is residing with grandmother Eleanor Clay Brumfield along with cousin Malinda McCormack[iii], in Lawrence County, Kentucky. Neither Julina, now 14 years of age nor her brother “Cager”, age 20, is accounted for in 1850.  Either the census taker has slaughtered the spelling of names or they were not counted as members in a household which presents a conundrum.

The Osendotts had son Pleasant Osendott in 1851, in Ohio. He moves to Twin Branch, Lawrence County, Kentucky and dies in 1914 in Carter County, Kentucky.  Winna also has a daughter, Nancy, in 1852 in Kentucky.  By 1870 she is back in Lawrence County, Ohio.

Julina married Henry Powell Sexton in Carter County, Kentucky 2 March 1854.  She was 17 years old.  She like other members of the family learned and loved to spin. 

Julina McCormack Sexton spinning, Sophia Francis Crum[iv]and Henry Powell Sexton carding wool.

She would bare ten children all born in the portion of Carter that became Boyd County.  Her youngest child, a daughter, Julina Leota Sexton Horton Klaiber gave me her mother’s old spinning wheel which I cherish.

 

Julina McCormack Sexton developed pneumonia and died January 14, 1914. She is buried in Sexton Cemetery on Pigeon Roost, Boyd County, Kentucky.[v]

I often think of Julina McCormack Sexton's childhood. Especially those years between the age of 4 and 17. Formative years.  She taught daughter Julina all the things needed keep a household sufficiently.   The children of our ancestors had to be resilient, able to adapt to changes in circumstances and self-sustaining.

 

 

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[i] Carlisle Weekly Herald, 20 Jun 1804

[ii] Phoebe Anne Hale Webb, Lawrence County, Kentucky Annotates Abstracts Of Circuit Court Records 1821-1873 (McDowell Publications: n.p., 1984), Page 17.

[iii] d/o Wm and Lucinda Brumfield McCormack

[iv] Sophia Francis Crum b c 1892 d/o Henry Wiser Crum and Maggie Klaiber.  Sophia d c. 1894 and is buried in unm grave Klaiber Cem.

[v] KY, Boyd D Cert 311, 1914. Age 77.1.20

Secrets & Clues From the Smokehouse

 

Compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber October 2020

 

The “mansion house” was built in the 1860’s, in Boyd County, Kentucky, similar to another house on the road that was utilized as the Poor House. The name is derived from a cemetery deed that called it by that name.

 

The “mansion house” 1922

 “mansion house” about 1970

 

The “mansion house” last breath 1996

     

You step out of the kitchen with a slam of the screen door to a small porch. Just steps away is the well. You pull up the bucket and dip the metal ladle to get the coldest, clearest, best drink of water in the world. So cold your front teeth ache from the tin.  By the time I “married in”[i] the Sexton/Klaiber house was empty and sagging.  But when I walked through, I still felt the energy of family and history. That water is still the clearest and best water I have ever tasted.

 

Julina Sexton Klaiber and daughter Martha at the well. #2  Julina and unknown

James David Klaiber getting a drink from the well 2006

Behind the well is the two-story smokehouse.  It is all that remains at this writing. The plat map simply called that portion of the land where the smokehouse sits as the “widow’s portion,” when Henry Powell Sexton died in 1912.[ii] The bottom made of hand-hewn stone from the rock quarry on the property has a heavy wooden door.  While technically not underground, as a cellar would be, it was used for cold storage of canned items.  Shelves lined the walls and even after being abandoned blue Ball fruit jars were discovered on the shelves.  It was not pleasant salvaging the jars, emptying the old contents.

You climb the narrow steps to enter the smoke house where meats hung to be cured.  When I first started exploring the farm, the smokehouse was locked.  I asked my father-in-law what was in there.  With his distinct laugh he said “not to worry, Missy”.  I quickly translated that as off-limits.

After John Henry Powell Sexton Klaiber (yes, his official name) died in 1995 we inherited the farm.   We dubbed our beautiful gift Deliverance Farm and built our dream log home utilizing square logs to honor the tradition of both the “mansion house” and the one room log “parlor” that was a part of the house hubby grew up in.[iii]  Concerned that the old mansion house would be dangerous the remains of the home were burnt and dozed in 1996.  It was time for the lock to come off to discover what had been the secret at the smokehouse.

My imagination wondered if there were valuable antiques, jars of money or a farm treasure.  As a genealogist, and cemetery advocate, I was already giddy with pleasure at having the privilege of becoming a trustee of Klaiber Cemetery.  My hubby pried off the rusted lock and I clapped with glee as my husband rolled his eyes.  Once several snakes were shooed away, we were looking at huge piles and large fruit baskets filled with papers.  I dove in elbow deep ignoring silver fish and pesky paper mites.  I quickly ordered him to not throw a single thing away.  I think he already knew that.

It took several days to salvage the paper items, placing them on a wagon so I could look at each individual piece.  There were holiday cards, letters, clippings, calendars, you name it.  Some were beyond salvage. Many had bug holes or corners missing. When a cousin visited, we made one last trip and hubby took a shovel and scrapped across the dirt that had accumulated on the floor uncovering one last treasure – one of the earliest documents, a “Resolution of Decease” for Marcus Sexton dated 16 November 1877.

The next task was to “debug” and rid the items of the musty smell.  Several archivists suggested putting items in a plastic bag with baking soda and placing them in the freezer.  It was a time-consuming task which we had to repeat several times.  But it worked.  The salvaged items are now in acid free sleeves to prevent further damage.

Among the treasured items was a group picture. I held my breath until I found the bottom half.  Once I found that the pieces fit together perfectly, I did another happy dance.  A small string is threaded in the center top of the backing as though it had been displayed on a wall at one point.

 

 

The last resident of the “mansion house,” was “mamaw”, Julina Leota Sexton Horton Klaiber.  We quickly identified her as the tiny lady, sitting on a chair with dotted dress, on the far-left front.  For as long as we can remember she wore “ear bobs,” her word for pierced earrings.  She does not have them on in this picture.   She appears to be a teenager.  To her right, this compiler believes, is Lorain Klaiber born in 1872 sister of Julina’s future 2nd husband, James Matthew Klaiber.

 Julina Leota Sexton Horton Klaiber with her “ear bobs.”

 

A study of the photograph leads this compiler to believe it is a church gathering with children holding up certificates and books or bibles on their laps. It would not be a school picture because of the diverse ages of participants.

Both Baptist and Methodist held quarterly meetings.  Julina was a member of Second Baptist Church later in life.  While, her husband James Matthew Klaiber’s family were Methodist.  Usually a presiding elder would visit four times a year for quarterly meetings.  The Baptist in our area were part of the West Virginia Association while the Methodist were part of the West Virginia Conference. 

Armed only with the old proverb “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” I plunged on going through the chronology of citations I have on “mamaw.” 

A newspaper article dated 27 April 1893 practically slapped me in the face.  The Ashland Republican[iv] [v]published long social articles.  I believe the smokehouse picture may have been taken in April 1893 and correlates with the picture. There are exactly five other ladies gathered with Julina, on the far right, for a total of six young ladies.

“Garner, Ky. Misses Sude Ross, Olive Hazlett, Ramy Klaiber, Demmie Mayhew, Lade Sextone and Gracie Davis attended quarterly meeting at no 11 last Sunday.”[vi]

The paper was published on Thursday and “last Sunday” would have been April 23^nd, 1893. 

The article references “no 11” which would be the county district number 11 at Grassland on Bear Creek.  The Methodist Episcopal Church South bought property on Bear Creek at Grassland to build a school and a chapel in 1872 known as Fannin Chapel.[vii] [viii]  By 1890 Mattie Colbert French was the teacher at Bear Creek School. 

These social articles were usually submitted by someone in the neighborhood who would sometimes using pseudonyms.  The article Garner, Ky. was written in two parts. The first unsigned and the second signed simply “By Another Correspondent.  

Several of the girls are mentioned in part two of the Garner Article as well.

“Misses Gracie Davis and Belle Banfield are both suffering with an attack of fever, which Dr. B. Banfield and his assistant, are trying to check.”

“Miss Lade Sexton was the guest of Miss Kate Selbee Saturday evening.” 

The William Selbee family also lived on what today is Long Branch Road, Boyd County, Kentucky along with the Sexton, Klaiber, Mayhew and other families.

“Miss Olive Hazlett, Gracie Davis, Ramy and Miriam Klaiber have returned from Ironton, and peanuts and candy will find no favor in their eyes for a long time.”  

Miriam is Miriam Frances Klaiber daughter of John Andrew and Mary Ann McBrayer Klaiber.

Ramy could only be Lorain “Rany” Klaiber daughter of John Andrew Klaiber and Mary Ann McBrayer Klaiber. She crossed the river to Ohio to marry ,15 June 1893, James Oscar Cornwell in Lawrence County, Ohio.  Her marriage was just two months after her visit to the quarterly meeting.  The Klaiber’s resided on the same road as the Sexton’s and Mayhew families.

Demmie Mayhew was born 2 June 1867 and would be 25 if she is one of the ladies behind Julina in the picture.  The Big Sandy News copied an article from The Smokey Valley News 16 June 1893 stating that Miss Dimma Mayhew and Sude Ross of Boyd county had been visiting their aunt Mrs. Dimma Riffe (of Smokey Valley).[ix]  Dimmie’s mother was Mary Elizabeth Ross who married William Mayhew 19 June 1854.  Dimma Ross Riffe was sister to Mary Elizabeth Ross Mayhew. Mayhew’s  farm laid just east of the Sexton/Klaiber farm on the road.  Dimmie died just two years after she attended that Quarterly Meeting, 9 April 1895, and is buried in Klaiber Cemetery. 

“Sude” Ross was Susan Elizabeth Ross, daughter of William Isaac Ross and wife Mary Francis Riffe. Sude was born July 1874 and would be 18 years old when the girls attended meeting together.  In November 1893 she and James Franklin Leslie crossed the river to marry in Lawrence County, Ohio.

“Lade” was the nickname that Julina Leota Sexton had all her life.  Julina was born 30 June 1877, in Boyd County, daughter of Henry Powell and Julina McCormack Sexton. She was 15 years old when the article appears.  Three years later on 28 October 1896 she married William Harry Horton, Jr. After he blew up, in 1902, in an accident in the saloon he owned, in Ironton, Ohio she returned to Boyd county and married James Matthew Klaiber on 2 April 1905. She lived in the “mansion house” as long as able and in her later years lived with John and Elsie Klaiber on the portion of the farm that I write from.  She would also spend time with daughter Martha on Valley Street in Catlettsburg, KY.  Julina aka Lade was 100 years old when she died 20 May 1978.  She is laid to rest in Klaiber Cemetery.

Olive Hazlett may be the nickname for one of eight daughters born to John Hazlett and wife Hannah Hensley Hazlett. James Matthew Klaiber sold John Hazlett land on Garner in 1895.[x] James Matthew’s first wife Kathryn Stewart Klaiber sold a piece of property on Jacks Fork to John Hazlett in 1896.  The Klaiber’s officially divorced 7 May 1897.  Further research is needed to determine more about the family of “Olive Hazlett”.

Like Olive, I have not been able to pinpoint which of the various Boyd County Davis branch’s Gracie is from.  Leaving this post a bit more of a fishing expedition hoping others can verify the other ladies in the picture and possibly identify the Elder and others gathered.  Feel free to email me at deliverancefarm@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[i] 1968

[ii] KY, Boyd deed book  57, 482

[iii] The one room cabin still stands and is marked as a Kentucky Historical Building.

[iv] A huge Thank you to Judy Fleming for correcting my handwritten extraction and providing the proper newspaper microfilm (UK).

[v] Library of Congress, Chronicling America Newspaper list. Ashland Republican, publisher JM Huff

[vi] Copied as originally spelled in paper. Sextone should be Sexton and Ramy should be Rany

[vii] Klaiber, Teresa. Monographs II. Boyd County Kentucky Genealogy, Stories, Articles & Research. 2006 p 67.

[viii] KY, Boyd deed book 12 p. 54

[ix] Cora Meek Newman, Big Sandy News. Page 82. 2000.

[x] KY, Boyd deed book 26 p 70