Most of the later arrivals in Harlan County had family ties to already established settlers. One such family was that of Benjamin Lankford. Lankford's wife was Temperance Posey, daughter of Benjamin and Susannah Chadwell Posey. Temperance's sister, Nancy, was the second wife of George Brittain, one of Harlan County's earliest and most prominent citizens. In the early 1820's, Benjamin Lankford had come to Claiborne County, Tenn., from Virginia or North Carolina. Alexander Moore Cloud in his articles on Old Time Tazewell relates several anecdotes about Lankford.

Cloud describes Lankford as having a very good education for his day and goes on to say he "was by far the wittiest man around Tazewell at that time. He was capable of making a political speech, composing humorous poetry, acting the clown, or preaching a funeral with equally as much ease. However, with his many talented gifts he did not resist alcoholic drinks and soon was a slave to their evil effects."

One of Cloud's stories about Benjamin relates how one of the many young couple who "ran away" to Tazewell to marry were directed towards the proper official in a town not far distant. Along the way they met Lankford near a big pond. They naturally enquired as to their destination. Lankford skillfully evaded the answer until he found out what they wanted and then replied that he was the man they were looking for.

"He then took the license and married the couple with a bombastic ceremony and charged a dollar for his trouble. The newlyweds went happily on their way back to Kentucky and doubtless died without knowing that they were not lawfully married. Lankford went into town and spent his dollar for whiskey. When he was sufficiently tanked up he told the boys how he had gotten the money, but as all the prominent men in Tazewell were his friends nothing was ever said about lawing him for the offense."

According to Cloud, not long after his marriage Benjamin bought a small farm and built his home in a hollow near a cave. He used the cave as a place in which to store his meat. Years later, when only a heap of stones stood to mark the place where the chimney of his house had stood, many younger people visited Lankford Hollow in pawpaw season and amused themselves by throwing rocks into the old cave.

"While Lankford lived in the hollow he cut a corner tree that marked the line between his farm and that of his neighbor, notwithstanding the fact that his neighbor had warned him not to do it," Cloud goes on, "As soon as the tree was cut his neighbor took out a warrant for him but before the warrant could be served Lankford went to North Carolina.

"About a year after that time he and his neighbor compromised the case and he came home. When he returned to Tazewell he was well dressed, had a gold watch, an excellent team of horses and two bull dogs. One of the dogs he called Hell Fire and the other Brimstone."

The above incident appears to have occurred about 1841 as his son David's birthplace is recorded as North Carolina in that year although most of the other children were born in Tennessee. About 1848, Benjamin and Temperance moved their 10 children to a farm on lower Martins Fork near her sister Nancy Brittain.

Cloud states that Lankford returned to Claiborne County for a few years in the 1850's before settling in Harlan for the remainder of his life. "He worked at the barber trade and ran was he called a pocket barber shop, so called because he carried his supplies in his pocket and accommodated his customers anywhere he found one. Cloud adds that he has since learned that he quit drinking and lived to be nearly 100 years old.

Benjamin and Temperance had five daughters and five sons. Virtually nothing is known about two of their daughters, Eliza and Jane. Their daughter Nancy was Benjamin Irvin's first wife. Her sister Mary married John Sturdivant. They moved to Owsley County. Their youngest sister, Susan, married right after the Civil War to John L. Jones.

The oldest of the five boys was John C. Lankford, known to some as `Johnnie Bull.' The youngest of the boys was David who married Marian Howard. The other three boys all served together in the 47th Kentucky, Company f, captained by Henry Skidmore. Robert, who has married in December of 1863 at Camp Nelson. His brother William was transferred from Company F to Company K early that same month. With one brother dead and the other serving elsewhere, Benjamin B. Lankford deserted his unit and never returned late in January of 1864.