This article, written by Todd Preston, President of the Magoffin County Historical Society, was taken from the May 24, 2012 issue of THE SALYERSVILLE INDEPENDENT newspaper.

            It has been another busy week around here and that’s the way we like it!  We are beginning to see some “light” at the end of the tunnel.  The last year has been a hard one for many of us what with many illnesses, deaths and other tragedies within our families and we have gotten behind with the work that we usually do. 

Sometimes we reflect back on that April of 1978 when we first began on this journey to “preserve the past for the future” with amazement.  We recall the energy and enthusiasm among those who gathered to help with the genealogical and historical projects we worked on.  During the last 34 years we have met and worked with hundreds of fine people who shared their information so that we could gather the collection of material on Magoffin County that we now have.  You would think in this much time that we would have all the work done but no, there is much yet to be done.  Unfortunately we have lost a good many of those along the way who worked so diligently to help the historical society become what it is today but we continue working in their memory.   

            For the 34^th Magoffin County Founders Days activities we are concentrating on the Marshall family of our area.  We have a Marshall family inquiry that we have done quite a bit of work on and now we are sending it out to you in hopes that you might be able to help more.

            Jacqueline Marshall ([email protected]) emailed that her great-grandfather Greeley Marshal was born in Magoffin County on 14 February 1890.  He married Pearl Marshall who was born in KY and they had a son Jack Maynard Marshall.  Jack Maynard’s son John Marshall is Jacqueline Marshall’s father.  Jacqueline believes Greeley Marshall to be the son of John Rallen Marshall b. ca. 1868 and Sarah Ellen Craft b. ca. 1874.

            In our material we have “John Rallen” listed as Roland “Dee” Marshall.  He was born 17 Sep 1868 and died while cutting timber around 1896/97.  His wife was Sarah Ellen Craft who went by the nickname of “Bunny”.  Some researchers believe her father was Preston Craft. Her mother was Hulda Young Howard.  Mahulda “Hulda” Young was born in 1836 in Logan County, VA and was first married to Russell Howard b. 1835 Perry Co. KY.  This Russell was the son of Preston Howard and Sally McDonald.  Preston Howard was a son of James Howard and Elizabeth Green.

            We found Preston and Sally Howard in the 1850 census of Breathitt Co. KY with children Russell, Miles, S. (male, age 10), Elizabeth, Eliza, Esther and John.  By 1860 (also in Breathitt County) Russell was married to Hulda and their children were Asberry, Julia Ann, John C. B. and Preston.  They had a 21-year old Larkin Young in their household, born in Virginia, who was probably a relative (perhaps brother) to Hulda.

            By 1870 Hulda was head of household, her son Asberry “Berry” was age 18.  She had additional children Lucy, Lourany and Rebecca. 

Now, back to the Marshall side of the family; after Roland Dee Marshall died, Sarah Ellen “Bunny” Craft married Meredith Risner and had several other children, among them Hobert, Dona, Ollie, Green, Nancy, Myrtle, and Caner.

            We find that Greeley Marshall was the second child born to Roland “Dee” Marshall.  The first child was (1) Doshie Marshall who married Wiley G. Coffee.  Roland’s other siblings were (3) Julia “Dollie” Marshall who married Amos Dotson and (4) Odie Marshall who married Sam Stone.  We do not have much material on Doshie’s or Odie’s families and we only have the names of Greeley’s children so if anyone can add later info to this it would be helpful.

            Greeley Marshall married in 1912 to Pearlie Patrick, the daughter of Asberry Patrick and Louisa Risner.  They were the parents of 11 children: (1) Vedna Marshall m. Dave Walters; (2) Helen Marshall m. Chet Walters, (3) Clodus Marshall, (4) Irene Marshall, (5) Rebecca Marshall, (6) Florence Marshall, (7) Greeley Marshall, Jr., (8) Frances Marshall, (9) Jeraldine “Jerry” Marshall, (10) Jack Marshall and (11) Grace Marshall. 

            We had a visitor Gail Woodcum and her husband visiting from Florida while we were researching this family.  By coincidence she was related to this family through Amos and Julia “Dollie” Dotson.  We hope Gail, Jacqueline and others can get together and work on completing this family lineage.

            We will look forward to receiving some help on the Greeley Marshall family.  And now on to another query: Grover Howard, Jr. and his wife of Medaryville, IN visited recently.  Grover is the son of Grover Howard, Sr. and Malta Whitaker.  Malta was the daughter of Alex “Elec” Whitaker and Parrott Shepherd.  Alex was the son of Thomas Benton Whitaker and Cynthia Shepherd.  Thomas B. was the son of William R. Whitaker (Civil War soldier) and Sophia Spry.  Cynthia was the daughter of Bryson R. Shepherd and Elizabeth Crager.

            The puzzle in this family is the ancestry of Grover Howard, Sr. b. 1921 Magoffin Co. KY d. 2003 (buried Independence Cemetery, Medaryville, IN).  His father was Harrison (or Harris) Howard b. about 1898 and his mother was Sabra -?-.  We found Harrison and “Saba” Howard as newlyweds in the 1920 Breathitt County KY census, next door to Ballard and Easter Howard.  Ballard and Easter are listed in the 1910 Knott Co. KY census with the information that they had been married 13 years and had 5 children.  This census gave this marriage as the second for Easter.  In 1910 they had these children in their household (1) Walter Howard b. 1898, (2) Sophia Howard b. 1900, (3) Irvin b. 1903, (4) Tony b. 1906 and (5) Chester b. 1908. 

            Grover, Jr. tells us that Grover Howard, Sr. was raised by his grandparents, Ballard Howard and Easter Salyer.  We did not find a census listing with Harris given as the son of Ballard but perhaps they lived in a different county than where we searched.

            We did find a French Howard (b. ca. 1876) with wife Missouri who lived at Lambric, KY in 1910 and they had a son Harris Howard who would be the right age for the above.  The other children in French’s family were Lillie, Lark, Barnett, Blanton and Mort.