Curwood Blair
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Sabrina Bentley Blair 1918-1997
Curwood Blair
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Millstone School 1926
I am dating this picture of the Millstone School in Letcher County, Kentucky as 1926. The teachers are Henry Taylor and James M. Caudill. Two daughters of Otho & Nancy Alice Bentley are in the front row: Sabrina who married Curwood Blair number 4 and Lake who married Berry Pass is number 9. In the fourth row number 5 is Ida Mullins, the daughter of Joshua and Rosie Adams Mullins. She married Joshua Wright.
My reasons for dating it as 1926 is that would make Sabrina 8, Lake 7 and Ida 12. Aunt Lettie would only have been 10, so it is possible she is there.
I was told Aunt Edna was in this picture, but then she couldn't be pointed out to me. I don't think she is in this picture. She was married in 1923. Assuming she would not have gone to school after that time, it would make the picture have to be 1922 or before. If that were so, Aunt Sabrina would be 4 and Lake 3 and they don't look in the age bracket. I am discounting that information.
See if you can identify anyone else from around that time period. You should be able to click on the picture, and it will be bigger. This picture is from D. V. and Mary Bentley.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Dinner at Granny's Picture Updates
These are index pictures. I have written the names of folks on them. If you want the pictures without the names, go back to the first blog I did and download them. These are with the ID's we have so far. Thanks Janice Bentley Norman for reminding me to put the names on the ones I did know and for identifying the ones I did not know.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Troy Chid Wright
I was in Letcher County, Kentucky visiting relatives. I went over to Clintwood to vist with Leonard and Madeline Pratt Salyers. Madeline is the sister to Nina Pratt who married my dad's brother Jesse. Leonard and Madeline were like family to me. We called them Aunt and Uncle. We were talking family tree and Bad John Wright's name came up. He was my great grandfather William Jesse Wright's brother. Leonard said John's son, Chid, lived near. We got the telephone number and called to see if it was all right to come visit. They said "come on over". So off Jason and I went to find thier home.
It was up a hill and Chid was sitting on a chair on the front porch. His wife, Belle, was in and out with us. I always brought things for Jason to do while we visited. On this trip he got out a box of matchbox cars.
A car came up and a lady got out. She was a reporter from the Coalfield Progress who had come to interview Chid. I sat through the interview while she asked a lot of the questions I was going to, so I got to take a lot of notes.
In the meantime Chid's wife, Belle, went down the steps from the porch and went over and got a board which she leaned up against the porch so Jason could race his cars down the board.
The reported took my picture with Chid. I am hardly ever in any of the pictures, so this was unusual. She also took my name and address and promised to send me copies of her article which she did. She left and Chid and I continued to talk.
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By now Belle was not just watching Jason play, she was racing the cars down the board with him.
Chid showed me the hat his father always wore while doing Pinkerton work (which he is wearing in the picture). He showed me a gun that Jesse James had given Bad John. He brought out a book that he had written about his father. I bought four of them: one for me, and one for my Dad, Aunt Vera and Uncle Jesse. He signed all the books. We had a great visit. I talked to them several times on the phone after that visit when I had questions or just to see how they were.
We left feeling like we had spent the time with family. When we were almost back into Letcher County, Jason asked when were we going back to see "that little old girl". For once, he had enjoyed the visit as much as I did. When Lana visited Cleveland and called Uncle John Vent that "little old boy" it made me think of that visit.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Boys Will Be Boys
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I think that these are the first pictures where I saw Poppy and Granny's children as kids. I think they are what inspired me to look for more pictures and collect them. It looks like someone took a whole roll of film on them. My first film rolls were in 12's. There may be a few more shots that were taken that day that are floating around. If anyone has others, I would like to have them.
Aunt Ernestene says that the way to tell the twins apart is to look at their shoes. Can had a hole in his shoe. On the left side, the picture is Can on the left, Jimmy in the center and the little guy on the right is Otho Bentley, Jr. We think that is Granny on the porch and maybe Aunt Wilma.
The picture on the right is again Can, Jimmy and Otho, Jr., but look in the background. They guy standing back there is Leonard Bentley.
Here Can is standing back by Poppy and Jimmy is going to venture out on his own.
John Vint did get in some of the pictures, but not before his temper got the best of him, I guess.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Keziah Campbell
Finding Joshua Mullins
Ten or twelve years ago I asked for some help in finding this cemetery. Uncle D. V. said he could find it. We set out and ended up at Steve Bentley's home, the old Elbert Bentley homeplace, where we got some more directions. We turned around and went back past Lucky Fulton's place and ended up at a cemetery where Meades, Bakers, my Great Aunts Nan and Rebecca Coette, and other family members were, but not Grandpa Joshua. We went back to Lucky's and he told Uncle D V a few more twists and turns to follow, and we went back. We parked at the cemetery we had just left. Lucky had said the one we wanted was up above that one.
On the way back down I was picking my way down carefully afraid of snakes when suddenly something moved and I froze. About 200 butterflies surrounded me. I was so shocked I didn't even think to try to take a picture. They were beautiful. When I did move, they disappeared. I have never seen anything like that before.
Jerry and I talked about who might have other pictures or information that we hadn't tapped already like any of Poppy's brother or sisters' families or who he might know on my Mullins side. I planned a trip down, and Jerry and I worked for a week on the family tree. We visited all the cemeteries we could find and took pictures of the graves. We met Lucky ourselves because Aunt Ernestene had told me to talk to Lucky's wife, Gaynelle, to find out about my grandmother, Cora Wright Mullins. Gaynelle's mother had stayed with my grandmother for several years. Jerry thought about the postmaster at Millstone who might know some contacts. He took me to her home. She was Patty Craft McHone, the granddaughter of A. C. Craft and great grandchild of Chunk & Polly Craft. She was wonderful to meet. She let me borrow pictures to copy and a book her grandfather had put together on the family. She also showed me a story that had been written by her aunt Drusilla Craft. Things I found out from Patty are a story to themselves. We talked to Bengy Franklin who lives at the site of the old Craft homeplace. This is the trip where Uncle Joe gave me the pictures from Uncle Willie's mines. It was a wonderful trip.
With my new successes with the digital camera I thought I would like to take new pictures of the cemetery where Joshua Mullins was buried. I told Jerry that I thought the cemetery was out past Lucky Fulton's house. I had told him that I had taken pictures of Uncle Elbert's grave that day. He said he thought it was blocked off the road at Steve Bentley's home. We made a bet for dinner about which direction it was in. We started driving and found a small cemetery on the left. We pulled off and walked up. Next, we came to the cemetery where Aunt Nan was. There was a gravel road which went up the mountain, but not in the direction that I remembered walking.
I know that it looks like you are looking down, but this is the gate at the bottom of the cemetery where you enter.
See the very green tree at the top of the picture? That is the same tree at the bottom in the picture above.
They are neighbors here, too. This is Johnny Fulton's grave. He, too, was born in 1869 and died in 1946. He and his third wife, Verdie, are buried here.
This is a closeup of the picture that is on S/Sgt. Profitt's tombstone.
This is a beautiful, serene cemetery unlike some others I have seen, but that is another story.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Working in a Coal Mine
I copied some old pictures I had. I started editing them on the computer and found that not only could I cut out the green lawn chair I might have used to place the picture on to copy it, but I could blow up the pictures and see much greater detail. I started copying a lot of the printed pictures that I had over into this format. I have over 8,000 pictures in digital now. Think about those tiny little 2x3 shots you have. I found one of my mom that I absolutely love. In it I always thought she was giving that kind of shy look that I often saw. When I blew it up she was smiling and happily looking at someone off camera. She was wearing jewelry and dressed very prettily. It just gave a whole new meaning to that picture. OK, now I have you curious, so here:
That's my dad's sister, Vera Edith Mullins Murphy, my dad, J. D. Mullins and my mom, Cora Bentley Mullins. Aunt Vera was in nursing school and my grandparents, Mom and Dad had gone down to visit her in Knoxville, Tennessee. When I had scanned a picture and blew it up, I got fuzzy pictures. When I take them with the digital I get so much detail.
Anyway, back to collecting and taking pictures. I decided that I wanted to retake some of the pictures that I had collected. I was in Millstone last October. I went to Uncle Joe to see if I could go thru his pictures. He said that he had given all the pictures to Kris, but he did have a few that he had come across. He said it was taken when he was working a mine that Uncle Willie owned. I forgot to ask him if he remembered who took the pictures.
I went online to the University of Kentucky's site called the Kentucky Virtual Library. I went through 50,000 pictures there and downloaded about 700 of them. A very few were actually family members, but the majority were places and things that I wanted my grandkids to be able to see. A good number of them had to do with mining and came from the Consolidated Coal Company's collection of pictures taken at Jenkins. I lost them all when my computer crashed in November. I had made copies on CD and given them out to family at our Mullins Reunion, but I haven't borrowed anyone's copy back yet to replace my own loss.
These are the pictures of Uncle Joe in the mines and are much better than any that were in the Kentucky Virtual Library:
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Willis Kirk Collier
Bentleys & Passes & Coles! OH MY!
I have been told that this was taken at Poppy and Granny's home. I do not believe it. That is not her couch or her lamp or her curtains. I was guessing Aunt Wilma's. Maybe Judy or Bobby Joe can tell for sure whether it was at their home. I don't remember their home being this way. I figured maybe Aunt Wilma's because I don't ever remember being there to have anything to compare to. Her home to me was in Charlestown, Indiana at 1295 Market Street. I always remember that address because she would say, "My address is easy. It's 1295 Market Street. It's a bargain." Let me know if you know for sure. But those of you that say it is at Granny's, I already don't believe you.
GROUP PICTURE
- Back Row: Jimmy Pass and Joe Bentley.
- Seated on the couch: Otho Bentley, Nancy Hall Bentley, Lake Bentley Pass & Berry Pass holding Becky Pass.
- Front Row: Wilma Bentley Cole (she told me she crossed through her eyes), Alma Bentley holding Kris Bentley, Judy Pass Robinson, and Bobby Joe Pass.
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For those of you not part of the family or on the Mullins side this is my Grandparents and three of their children's families:
- Daughter Wilma who married Jimmy Cole and probably is the one who is taking this picture
- Son, Joe Bentley who married Alma (help me Kris, I don't remember her last name and it's in the part of the family tree notebooks that I still have in storage) Also, you look about 2 so is this maybe 1953?
- Daughter, Lake who married Berry Pass
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Drew Cilla
Archelous Columbus Craft married Lettie Webb. They had nine children. Two of them, Nelson and Enoch Arden "Chunk" Craft both had daughters named Druscilla.
Nelson's Druscilla was born December 19, 1861. Chunk's Druscilla B. Craft was also born in December on the 4th in 1874. These girls were first cousins. On September 12, 1878 when Druscilla B. was only 4 years old, Nelson's Druscilla married Miles Mayo Adams. They had two daughters, Eliza Jane and Lettie Adams.
Chunk's Druscilla didn't marry until August 4th, 1893. She married Ison Sergent. Together they had nine children: Enoch Andrew, Sarah Elizabeth, Samuel Calvin, Benjamin Emory, Archie Columbus, William Hiram, Joseph, an unknown baby, and a month before Isom died their last child Isom Sergent, Jr.
1880 Census
Nelson's Drusilla is with Miles M Adams as follows: Miles 24 works on a farm, Drusiler 19 is keeping house and Louisa J is 9 months old born in September 1879.
They are living next door to her grandparents Arch & Letty Webb Craft. Arch & Letty's son, Wiley is listed as 24 and married, but in their household. I noticed, too, that he dies five years later so now I will be hunting to see what happened to him. A few houses down is another Druscilla Craft. This one is the daughter of Arch & Letty Craft who has married Ephraim Thomas Hammons. She is a sister to both Nelson and Chunk Craft.
Meanwhile, just down a few more houses in Chunk's household it reads: Enoch A. 38, Polly Ann 33, Rachel 12, Arch 10, Lettie 9 (our grandmother Lettie Craft who married Joe Hall), Drusilla 5, Watson G. 3 and Benjamin 7 months born in September 1879.
Since the 1890 census was destroyed by fire, we have to move 20 years ahead to 1900.
1900 Census
Nelson's Druscilla has moved to Rockhouse. Druscilla has had a second child, a girl named Letty in 1881. Neither child is living in their household in 1900. It is only Miles Adams 45 and Drewcilla 31.
The Sergents are also in Rockhouse. Isham Sergent 36 married 6 years, Drewciller 22 has had 3 children all three living, Enoch A. 4, Sarah J. 3 and Samuel C. 3 months.
Druscilla Craft Sergent's sister, Lettie Craft has married a widower, Joe Hall, and is found in the census as Joseph Hall 36, Lettie E. 28. His children by Sarah Caudill listed as: Minnie 18, Anzie 16, Isabella 14 and Alven 12. Then their children are listed as Polly A. 9, Leonard B. 8, Rachel V. 5, Enoch M. 3, and our grandmother Nancy A. 1.
Miles Mayo Adams dies in 1905.
Lettie Craft Hall dies on March 27, 1905.
1910 Census
Joe Hall has married his wife's cousin, Druscilla Craft Adams, the widow of Miles Mayo Adams.
They are living in Camp Branch, Letcher County, Kentucky. It shows Joe Hall married a second time this one five years (though we know it is Joe's third marriage). Cillar is also shown in a second marriage and that she has had two children, both living. (Remember how many children Druscilla and Isom Sergent had?) Living with them are Joe's children Enoch Maylen 13, Nancy Alice 11 and Basil 8.
Lettie Craft Hall's sister, Druscilla, who married Isom Sergent is listed as: Isom Sergent 45, married 17 years, Drew Cilla 36, had six children all six living. Enoch Andrew 15, Sarah Elizabeth 13, Samuel 10, Bennie 8, Archie 5, and William 2.
We know that Joe was a marrying man. Sarah and Lettie, his first two wives, both die. But after that his wives outlive him.
1920 Census
Isom Sergent, 56 with Drusciller 46, Samuel C. 19, Benjamin 16, Archie 14, Willie 12 and Joseph 8.
Living with Chunk and Polly Ann is his sister, Druscilla Craft Hammons (Picture 1 above). Next door to Chunk and Polly is a widow, Druscilla Adams, age 58. This is Chunk's niece, the daughter of Nelson Craft.
Joe Hall has married Dianah Webb in 1916, Martha Tackett in 1918, and remarried Dianah in 1919.
The census that year was taken in January. Isom Sergent has a son, Isom born in April of that year and a month later, father Isom dies of pneumonia. Isom's widow, Druscilla Craft, daugher of Chunk & Polly Craft and sister to Lettie Craft, never remarries. In 1930 she is living next door to Chunk and Polly.
Druscilla Craft Adams Hall remains alone, too. Though she went by the Adams name in 1920, she goes to her grave as Siller Hall.
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Joe Hall did marry a relative of Lettie Craft, but it was not her sister. It was her first cousin.