We have many requests about our progress in printing a Fletcher family book. Col. Morris Fletcher was very generous in helping us with the family of George "Old George" and Louise (Marshall) Fletcher. We are still collecting material for that book. We got some help from a recent visitor William Fletcher of Moody, TX. William descends from Old George Fletcher through George’s son Reuben Fletcher who was born in 1823 Gun Creek, Floyd Co. KY (the area became a part of Magoffin County in 1860).

Reuben died after 1901 in Wolfe Co. KY. He had married on 6 May 1842 to Martha Peerless "Patsy" Puckett b. 1825 Floyd Co. KY d. 1882 Morgan Co. KY, a daughter of Morgan Puckett and Susan Whitaker. Bob Whittaker of SC helped us with researching this family and he reports there is a Martha Fletcher with those dates buried in the Cope Cemetery, Breathitt Co. KY.

Next in the line of descent of our visitor is Reuben’s son Meredith "Merdy" Fletcher and his wife Louisa Buckhart. Meredith was born in 1855 and died in 1893. Louisa was born in 1855 and died in 1918 Morgan Co. KY, dau of John and Elizabeth Buckhart. Merdy, wife Louisa and her parents are in the 1880 Lee Co. KY census.

Our visitor’s grandfather William Alford Fletcher, son of Meredith Fletcher, was born in 1882 West Liberty, KY. He and his first wife Lanie Myrtle Allen (b. 1886-d. 1922 TX - tombstone dates) left Kentucky for Oklahoma about 1910. She has been said to be the daughter of D. B. Allen and Angeline Roberts but their daughter Lanie was born in 1896 and shows as age 4 in the 1900 Morgan Co. KY census and as age 14 in the 1910 Morgan Co. KY census. Morgan Co. KY marriages list a marriage for William Fletcher and Laney Allen on 9 Apr 1901. The parentage of Lanie/Laney who married William "Willie" Fletcher is not known at this time.

After Lanie’s death, William Alford Fletcher married Jennie Rosalie Naylor (1900-1984) and they were the parents of Eugene Fletcher, father of our visitor William Fletcher.

Another visitor was Dena Howard-Wilson of Bakersfield, CA who was especially interested in our local Civil War battlegrounds as well as info on the Borders and Howard generations of her family.

Her paternal great grandparents were Proctor Howard and Delphia Lacy. Proctor was a son of Nathaniel Howard and Martha Arnett. Nathaniel or Nathan was a son of Benjamin Howard and Nancy Adams. Benjamin was a son of William Howard and Mary "Polly" Salyer. Nancy was a dau of William Adams and Fanny Meacham of the Oakley Creek area of Magoffin Co. KY. Proctor’s wife Delphia was a dau of James H. Lacy and Susanna Easterling of Morgan Co. KY.

Visitor Dena’s other set of great grandparents were James Pentacost Wheatley and his wife Valeria Octavia Purkey. Both were born in Virginia; James in 1873 and Valeria in 1880. Valeria died there in 1935. James P. died on 26 Dec 1963 at age 90 in Salyersville, KY. Both are buried in the Wise Cemetery, Wise County, VA. James P. was a son of William Morgan Wheatley and Mary Jane "Jennie" Gardner.

Dena’s maternal grandparents are Vanzel Borders and the late Hazel Crace. Vanzel is a son of Dewey Borders b. 1899 d. 1983 Falcon, KY and Dora Penix b. 1902 d. 1950. Dewey was a son of Jesse Franklin Borders and Frances Crace. Jesse Borders’ death certificate gives info that he was born in 1876 and died 31 Aug 1952, buried at Cyrus, Magoffin Co. KY. He was a farmer and a member of the school board as his grandson Vanzel would later become. Frances was a daughter of Nehemiah Crace.

Vanzel’s wife Hazel was a dau of Lloyd Crace who was born in 1903 and died in 1948 in Morgan Co. KY. He was married to June Jenkins, a dau of Armilda Jenkins. Lloyd was a son of William P. Crace b. 1873 d. 1940 and wife Arlene Frances Love b. 1879 d. 1949.

We always appreciate our readers who take some time to let us know of any additions and/or corrections to material presented in our columns. We thank Donna Miller for alerting us that in our June 4th column we left out the youngest child of Leander Miller and his wife Jennie Miller. Apparently we failed to look in the next census year in our search as we see in the 1930 Floyd County, KY census that Leander and Jennie lived on Spurlock Road of Floyd County and they had another son, 10 year-old Warnie Miller. This is Warren Miller who married Zella Ousley b. 26 Apr 1918 d. 26 Dec 1995 (buried Maple Grove Cem., New Haven, OH). Zella m. Warren Miller b. 1920 d. 18 Mar 1963 Willard, OH, son of Leander Miller and Jennie Miller.

We had done some research earlier on Zella who was a daughter of Edward Ousley b. 1848 d. 1933. Edward "Ned" Ousley was first married to Malisha Rudd, a daughter of Archibald and Nancy Rudd. Zella was a daughter of Edward Ousley and his 3^rd wife Martha Bradford-Howard, a daughter of William "Doc Bill" Howard. Ned and Martha had 6 children, they were (1) Cecil Ousley b. 1911, (2) Tutle Ousley b. 1912, (3) Cephus Ousley b. 1914 d. 1990, (4) Theodore "Thee" Ousley b. 1916 d. 1957, (5) Zella Mae Ousley Miller and (6) George Ousley b. 1923.