Otho & Sadie's Children

I have had several people write and tell me that I am confusing May Bentley with Mary Bentley.

I grew up hearing that Sadie and Otho had six children, the last, Mary, who died at birth.

Otho and Sadie had seven children:

• Stella Elizabath born January 14, 1904 in Letcher County, Kentucky
• Willie D. born March 3, 1906 in  Letcher County, Kentucky
• Nettie born December 27, 1907 in Letitia, Greenup County, Kentucky
• Atha D. born January 23, 1910 in Greenup County, Kentucky
• Laura Jane Bentley born January 19, 1912 in Letcher County, Kentucky.
• May Bentley stillborn on July 30, 1914 Millstone, Letcher County, Kentucky.
• Mary Bentley born February 3, 1915 in Letcher County.

Willie, Nettie, Laura Jane, Atha and Stella

Stella, Willie, Nettie, Atha and Laura Jane

Otho and Sadie lived in Jenkins and managed the boarding house for Consolidated Coal Company.  Sadie did the cooking, cleaning and laundry.  Otho had first one team of horses and later, a second team and carried in most of the lumber that was used to build many of the houses in the coal camps.

Boarding House, Jenkins, KY

They moved to Greenup county.  Sadie did not like living in Greenup.  One day Otho was up working on a roof.  A man came by asking about land and farms that were for sale.  Sadie told him their land was for sale and sold it.  She told Otho she had sold it.  They packed up their belongings and went back to Letcher county with a wagon pulled by a team of horses.

I have heard that story over and over.  I find it hard to believe that Sadie would sell the farm without Otho being involved but one version said  that they had already made the decision and it was up for sale when the man came by which makes a little more sense to me than when I first heard it said that a man had come by looking for directions and information about land which might be for sale and Sadie just on her own sold the farm.

When they moved back to Letcher county they had a home up behind where Uncle D. V. lives now.  Jerry took me up there and I took a picture of where the house used to be.  They had Laura Jane in 1912.

Where the house was that Otho & Sadie lived in at Millstone

I was trying to add the birth certificate numbers to the birthdates I had for the children.  I did a search for all children born in Kentucky whose mother's name was Sadie Collier.  Little May first came up on that search.  There were only the children I knew and then this one who was a mystery to me.  She had a birth certificate and a death certificate.  The death certificate which confirmed that Otho Bentley was the father and had supplied the information about her death, I printed in an earlier blog. That was in 1914.

Lastly, in 1915 was little Mary.  Sadie was pregnant.  She went out to milk the cows.  One of them kicked her in the stomach.  She went into labor and had Mary on February 3rd.  They both had problems.  Sadie died on February 8th.  Little Mary lived until July 31st.  I grew up thinking that Sadie had died in childbirth and Mary at that same time.  Actually, Sadie lived for five days after Mary was born and little Mary lived for five months.

Sadie Collier & Otho Bentley

The death date for Mary was in a ledger that Granny had.  I started asking around and Uncle Joe said, yes, it was right that Mary did not die at the time of her birth.  We walked up to the Chunk Craft cemetery and he tried to find where her little grave had been.  He said it was near where the gate used to be.  The gate is long since gone and he could not pinpoit where the actual grave was.  Bengy Craft has put markers for many of the little ones who were buried and no formal stones were erected.  I hope that one of them is where Mary lays now.