We've had another delightful visit from Margaret Hall Sturdivant, the daughter of the late Dr. Lloyd M. Hall. Margaret has made several whirlwind visits from California to Magoffin County and her presence is always a pleasure. She usually brings a book or something of historic value to the historical society. This time she brought clippings from the San Diego Union Tribune concerning missing grave markers and flower vases which have been taken from cemeteries and sold as scrap metal because of the rising cost of bronze. The 10 pound vases which originally cost about $200 brought the perpetrators from 8 to 10 dollars. One cemetery lost over 100 vases. Now, why should we be concerned about something that happened way out west? Do you remember that only a few months ago we had an outbreak of such thefts which was nipped in the bud by some concerned citizens and law enforcement officials? We were shocked that something like that could happen in our area. I commented at the time that we should be cautious about obtaining bronze foot markers when granite ones were available. Sometime in the future, thieves may try this again in our community.
I agree that it is unthinkable that we would have people who would stoop so low as to steal from cemeteries but it has already happened in our county. A footnote: San Diego isn't a pauper city, on the back of the news clippings was a story relating that their council members received $850,000 to manage each of their offices in the current fiscal year. Their mayor signed a 2.6 million dollar budget for the fiscal year.
I photographed over 500 veteran's foot markers in preparation for printing our veteran's book, not all out there were bronze and not all veterans have markers. Some are buried in unmarked graves. The potential problem of loss of the installed markers should be of concern to all of us.
On Saturday evening I went to Middle Fork as Larry Carty had been telling me of an old cemetery located behind his house. I didn't find Larry but his neighbors, the Arnett's, told me of an old cemetery so after climbing to the top of the hill I came across the David and Letty (Arnett) Carty cemetery which is located under a monster white oak tree and has right good tombstones. The cemetery is kept in fair shape and I could have picked a few blackberries if they had been in season (smile).
I don't think the above cemetery is the one that Larry Carty was referring to but I'm thankful to get to visit the David Carty Cemetery (N-37- 41.785, W -083-07.076, elevation 1101). I went on up Carty Branch and near the head found the Will Carty Cemetery (N-37- 41.44, W -083-06.597, elevation 1058).
I stopped at the Reuben Patrick-Charlotte Wilson Cemetery (N-37- 42.326, W -083-06.834) and found it in much better condition than when I copied it in 1978 when it was literally a jungle.
I suspect Edison McCarty has cleaned it up and fenced it in so anyone with kinsmen buried there should be extra thankful to this young man. There are a lot more graves there than I had thought, most of them with unreadable headstones, but I did find William Keeton b. 1908 d. 1958, Haley Jones b. 1903 d. 1967 and B. Ross b. & d. 1958. It was sprinkling rain so I had to cut my visit short. If you know about these Keetons, Jones, or Ross, let us know.
Hugh A. Smith, 23712 7 th Pl. West , Bothell , WA 98021 visited Monday. Hugh is the son of James Smith and Julia Arnett. Julia was born in 1892, the 3 rd gr/granddaughter of Stephen Arnett and Elizabeth Howard. After a session of tracing his family tree, we took him and his wife to the Stephen Arnett Memorial near Swampton. Charles D. Arnett accompanied us as he and Hugh turned out to be 5 th cousins, Charles D. descends from Reuben Arnett of Middle Fork. All were greatly impressed with the Stephen Arnett and Patsy Whitaker memorials.
When we got back to the home twenty, Charles and I went on over to the Sow Branch area of Middle Fork, looking for any clues for the burial site of Reuben Arnett and his wife Susan Kilgore. Mrs. Hager Patrick had told me in 1977 that is where Reuben was buried and I found some evidence of graves that bore surnames of Arnett and Carty. We searched to find Arnett and Carty graves up on the point but to no avail. There is a “ Stephen Arnett Cemetery ” located up on the hill and there is a Reuben Arnett b. 1887, son of Phillip and Elizabeth, among others buried there.
On top of the hill is the Reuben Arnett Cemetery that I copied in 1977 when I listed 11 graves with tombstones and 9 unmarked. Reuben Arnett Jr. b. 1821, wife Emily Patrick Arnett b. 1833, Merdia Poe b. 1848, Robert Jordan b. 1844 (Civil War marker), wife Oma (Hughes) Jordan and six more Jordans are found there. I've included the above info to whet the minds of our older people to see what might be brought to light.
Charles and I traveled on up Middle Fork to find the lone grave of Jim Stuart Fletcher. We found evidence of a fenced-in gravesite but due to the brush, weeds and briars, we admitted defeat until wintertime. The GPS coordinates at the gate were N-37- 41.364, W -083 07.950, elevation 889, just in case we don't actually get back to this location.
Donald and Treva Diane (Kennard) Dyer, 24 E. Jefferson Ave., Shelby, OH and Terry and Jeanette Hintz, 541 Ash St., Willard, OH 44890 visited Tuesday. After researching their ancestors, I took them to the Darius Kennard Cemetery on upper Rt. 30 of Middle Fork. We then visited Mrs. Ollie J. (Jewel) Arnett for nearly a two-hour visit. Believe me; we all left with a lot more knowledge of the Kennards, McGuires, and most other families in that area. We then came back down the creek and I thought I was taking them to where their Dyers were buried but after crawling through fences, briars, etc, we ended up at the Jeff D. and Rebecca Arnett Cemetery (N-37-42.498, W-083-07.171, elevation 991). Talk about a red face and not only from sweating, but from over confidence on my part, I ate crow!
We then went back to Charles D. Arnett's for directions and found Skaggs Jackson had another farm on “fer” Middle Fork so Charles D. and his wife escorted us across the Lark Arnett Hill to the Dyer Cemetery. I was pleased to find this cemetery well fenced and in excellent condition as we had no space for any more cockle burrs and “hitch-hikers” on our clothing (smile).
We also visited the Leander Roark (b. 1920 d. 2004) Cemetery on the adjoining point which is a new cemetery (N-37-42.355, W-083-08.672) with a double monument with wife Luna.
David Scott Holiday, 1970 Skinner Road, Plymouth, OH 44865, a son of Raymond Holiday, a grandson of Oscar Holiday, a gr/grandson of Leander Holiday b. 1859. Leander was a son of William Holiday b. 1836 and 1st wife Mary visited us. William was a son of Martha (Whitely) Holiday and Jilson Holiday so we suspect Martha was a dau of Alexander Whitely b. 1785 VA and Elizabeth Easterling b. 1790 VA.
This leaves the question of finding the names of Martha Whitely's husband and/or William's father. Some of this family is buried at Holiday, off Rt. 1000 between Caney and White Oak of Morgan Co. KY.
Leander Holiday is said to have been killed. He was married in 1878 to Eliza Prater b.1859 Morgan Co. KY, the dau of John Prater b. 1840 VA. He had married on 8 Aug 1858 to Perlina Hammons b. 1842, dau of Andrew J. Hammons b. 1819 and Jane Prater b. 1823. John Prater b. 1840 was a son of Robert Prater b.1909. Robert m. 1st to Mary Henry and m. 2nd to Cynthia Rice.
We have been putting a scrapbook together on the recent Founder's Days honoring our Veterans. We thank Madge Davis and Laura Wireman for sharing their pictures. They added some terrific pictures to our collection! If you have any to share, we would appreciate them.
We were greatly saddened this week to learn that the scythe of time has taken another of our staunch members with the passing of Imogene Conley (1923-2006). She, along with her sister Mollie Conley who passed less than a year ago, were supporters of the Magoffin County Historical Society from our beginnings down through the years.
Imogene and Mollie financially helped procure the memorial marker for “Aunt” Sally Reed which has been set in the Penix Cemetery on Mash Fork. The dedication of this marker is still pending, awaiting a time when some descendants can be present. Imogene and her sister have aided us on many occasions down through the years and especially enjoyed welcoming and signing in visitors to Founder's Days. Their presence among us will be greatly missed. Their kind deeds, for which they desired no recognition, have helped record and save the history and genealogy of our area.
The Magoffin County Historical Society is located at 191 South Church Street in Salyersville (mailing address: Box 222, Salyersville, KY 41465). You may also email
[email protected]
or telephone 606-349-1607.
Magoffin County Historical
Society
This
article, written by Todd Preston, the president of the
Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the
October 12 , 2006
issue of