Sarah Jane Mullins & Samuel Pee Collier

I was searching for my grandmother Rebecca Hays Mullins Adams death certificate. I look for it off and on, thinking one of these times I will find it. I also was searching for her father's death certificate. Many people have him dying in Wisconsin which makes no sense to me, but I can't find him. I also don't know the last name of his second wife. So at times I just do another search hoping I will come across something that will open up the little mysteries for me.

I was making a census file for Rebecca, well for James, really, I had started with a question in my head about old Booker. I made a second file for the Hays since Rebecca lived with her father and his second wife after James died.

When I added in the census records for the children of James and Rebecca, I got kind of into their daughter, Sarah. She was born January 29, 1866. She married Samuel Pee Collier who the son of William Dee "Willie" Collier and Rebecca Meade. He was a brother to Willis Kirk Collier who was the father of Sadie. So my great aunt Sarah was an aunt by marriage to Sadie Collier.

Samuel and Sarah had 9 children that I am aware of. They married about 1891 and in the 1900 census they were in Millstone with 3 children: Nancy J age 9, Rebecca M, age 7 and John A. age 4. Rebecca had had two other children who died before this census was taken. I don't know their names yet.

In 1910 they were still in Millstone. Samuel P 37, Sarah 43, John A. 14, Martha Ann 9, Willie J. 4, Elijah B 2, and Ollie a baby not even a month old. Also living with them was Jane Short, who was listed as a step daughter. I stopped when I read that and wondered if i had the wrong census. I know there is another Samuel P Collier who was married to Martha Roark. I couldn't find where either Samuel had but one wife. I searched for a while trying to figure out who Jane was, but I didn't figure it out tonight. Maybe Janice will know.

In 1920 the transcribers had them as Calliers, but the writing looked like Collier to me. Samuel was 49, Sarah M. 54, John A. 23, Elijah B. 13. Living with them was their son in law, William M. Craft, 30 and his children Samuel P, 9 and Sabrina, 3. I assume either Nancy or Martha was the wife of William, but I don't have any details on either of the girls so I don't know which one it was. Again, maybe Janice has figured this one out. Lastly, living with them is Elizabeth Ratliff and her son James and daughter Etta. Elizabeth is listed as a servant.

I spent a long time searching for the family in 1930. I tried Collier and Callier and drew a blank. Maybe next search they will pop right out at me, but I couldn't find them.

Samuel died on December 8, 1956 at Millstone and was buried in the Dave Collier cemetery there. Sarah died on March 17, 1945.

This picture came from cousin Janice. It is Samuel P. Collier and her dad, Willie Bentley. I don't have a picture of Sarah or for that matter either of her brothers, John or Booker. I am surely glad to have this one.

Samuel Pee Collier & Sarah Jane Mullins

Samuel Pee Collier was the brother of Willis K. Collier. He married my great-great aunt, Sarah Jane Mullins. Sarah was the older sister of Joshua Mullins, my great grandfather.

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In the back row are their children, Rebecca, John and Martha Ann. Row 2 is Samuel Pee, Sarah Jane and their daughter, Nancy. In front sitting by himself is their son, Elijah.

Nancy was the oldest born in 1891.

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Rebecca was was born July 27 1892 and died November 28, 1987. She married Wilburn Hall, son of Richard Reuben "Dick" Hall and Mary Elizabeth "Polly" "Pop" Fleming. Richard was out of Granny's Hall line. Mary was a sister to my great grandmother, Elizabeth "Betsy" Fleming Houston.

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Sarah had two children beteen 1892 and 1895 who died.

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John was born March 8, 1896 and died April 6, 1970. He married Rinda M. Hall the daughter of Marion John Hall and Maxaline Hall. Both Rinda and Marion were out of Granny's Hall line.

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Martha Ann was born in 1901.

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Willie J. Collier was born in 1906. He died as a child.

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Elijah Booker was born November 23, 1907. He died October 26, 1964.

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Ollie Collier was born in 1910. I don't know if she died very young or if she just wasn't in the picture.

Willis Kirk Collier & Elizabeth "Lizzie" Vanover

I came across this picture of Willis Kirk Collier and his second wife, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Vanover. Willis is one of the folks who was buried at the cemetery in Goose Creek. I gave a short outline of his family a few days ago.

John Quiller & Sarah Collier Yonts

With a name like John Quiller, I knew that he had to have a Bentley line in his background. This is John's lines.

He was the son of Solomon "Sollie" Yonts and Virginia Jane "Jennie" Quillen.

Sollie was the son of Charles Yonts and Hannah Houston. He was a half brother to Nathaniel "Thaney" Houston. Charles was the son of William & Levisa Yonts. I can't go back further on William yet. I thought I had his line figured out, but after corresponding with another cousin and then going back to look at some original records, I don't believe his line goes back the way I had it connected. Remember this William, though.

Jane Quillen was the daughter of Richard Teague Quillen and Catherine "Katie" Yonts. Katie was the daughter of William Yonts and Nancy F. Rhea. This William was the son of William and Margaret Bentley Yonts. This is the same William I told you to remember. He was married twice. Margaret Bentley was his first wife. Margaret was the daughter of Thomas & Hannah Bentley. John Quiller or Queller was one of her nephews.

John Quiller Yonts' wife was Sarah Collier. She was the daughter of Robert Collier and Martha Yonts. Her Yonts line goes back to Solomon Yonts & Frances Whitaker. Solomon is the son of William Yonts and Nancy F. Rhea. So here again William's parents were William Yonts and Margaret Bentley.

Now for Sarah's Collier line, Robert was the son of William Dee Collier and Rebecca Meade. Robert was a brother to Willis Kirk Collier who is also buried in this Houston Cemetery.

That being said, let me tell you what I know about this couple.

John was born on April 26, 1881 in Letcher County. He had ten siblings: McCreary, Holly P Nickel, Charles, Catherine, Hannah, William H., Judge S., Richard, Pharas and a child who died between census records that I have not been able to name yet.

Sarah was born on August 6, 1886 at Neon. I haven't worked on her parents much so the siblings I am aware of so far were twins, Solomon and Henderson, Willie K, Mandy, William H., James F., Timothy, Sheridan, and Myra.

Both Sarah and John Q. are with their parents in the 1900 census records. I can't find them yet in 1910 or 1920. I did find John's World War I draft registration. It said he was a tippleman for Elkhorn Coal. It also described him as short with a medium build having black eyes and black hair.

In 1930 Sarah and John Q. are in Neon. John was 47 and listed a plumber for the coal mines. It says he married at 21 and Sarah at 16. This would put their marriage at about 1902. Listed with them are

Luther, 23, a chauffeur for a garage,

Marcus, 21

Marths 21, the twin of Marcus

Gladys 19.

There is another daughter that I have found, Quilva, but she is not in their household in 1930.

John died of myocardial failure on January 20, 1950. He was buried in the Houston cemetery on January 21st.

Sarah died on July 21, 1967. She was buried in the row behind John directly behind his grave.

The Colliers

The blog is acting up. It is doubling pictures and adding lots of spaces between paragraphs. I am going to once more remove them, but I cannot guarantee that they won't be there when I push the publish button.

This is a nutshell view of the Colliers as I have them.

The oldest Collier I have is Isaac who was born about 1718 and married Mary Gaines who was born in 1720. They had a son named Michael who was born about 1738 and married an Elizabeth. Michael and Elizabeth had a son on January 8, 1764 named Daniel.

Daniel married Elizabeth Prather born December 9, 1769. She was the daughter of James Prather. They had a son Richard on May 9, 1789. He married Matthew Caudill and Sarah Webb's daughter, Mary Caudill.

Richard and Mary married on August 30, 1832. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, in 1833.

In the 1850 census for Letcher county they are listed as:

Collier, Richard, 53

Mary 49

Stephen 16

William 15

Samuel 12

Sally 11.

Stephen married Elizabeth "Betsy Ann" Roark. They had these children: Richard (married Mary Bell Cook), James, Martha and Jamie.

William Dee "Willie" Collier married twice. First, he married Rebecca Meade, daughter of Thomas Kronis Meade and Mary "Polly" Hall. In the 1860 census he and Rebecca are living with his parents Richard and Mary:

Colier, Richard, 68, farm laborer

Mary 58

William 25, farm laborer

Rebecca 22 (William's wife Rebecca Meade)

Mary 5, grandchild

Robert 3, grandchild

Willis 1, grandchild

Meade, Catherine 24 (Rebecca Meade's sister)

Christener 4 (Catherine's child)

Martha 1 (Catherine's child)

Mary the 5 year old is Mary Matilda "Polly" Collier who was born April 30, 1855. She married Andrew "Little Andy" Wright who was killed in a shootout when he and other Wright relatives and William Pardue went to arrest Elijah Wright. After Little Andy's death she married Alexander Wright and then Wilburn Reedy.

The grandchild Robert who was 3 was born May 15,1858. He married Martha Yonts.

The grandchild Willis who was 1 was born April 22, 1859 as Willis Kirk Collier. He first married on September 18, 1885 to Mary Ellen Adams daughter of William Green Adams and Mary "Polly" Webb. She died in April of 1889. On May 5, 1890 Willis took Elizabeth "Lizzie" Vanover daughter of William and Elizabeth Vanover as his second wife.

Willis had three children with Mary: Wilburn "Wibby", Sadie and James Harrison. Sadie was Otho Bentley's first wife.

Willis had ten children with Elizabeth: Arnettie "Nettie", Mazie Frances, Milton M., Florence, Ireland Drew, Carrie, Ira F., Howard M., William and Delphia Jane.

I can't find Richard and Mary in the 1870 census yet. William Dee and Rebecca are there under a spelling of Colier.

Going on with Richard and Mary's children Samuel P. Collier married Martha Roark, probably a sister to Stephen's wife Elizabeth Roark. I haven't done any work on the Roarks to confirm this. Samuel and Martha had 8 children: William Wesley "Bill", Lizzie, Mary, Peter, Richard, James, Martha and Enoch Irvin.

Richard and Mary's youngest child, Sarah "Sally" married Robert C. Meade. They had 8 children: Mary "Polly", Nancy, Siletha, Riley, Rebecca, Samuel, Arminda and Martha.

The reason I wanted to try to sketch out the Colliers is because so many of them are in the Houston Cemetery at Goose Creek.

W. D. Collier

I don't know if this is William Dee Collier. It says W. D. Collier. It was clear at the graveyard. I can't make it out clearly on film. I should have chalked it so it would have read clearly.

Willis Kirk Collier 1859 - 1943

It says Rev. W. K. Collier July 23, 1859 May 8 1943. At the bottom that says "In Memory of Howard Collier." His son, Howard, did not die until 1971, so it is probable that this marker was not placed until after that time.

Florence Collier Hall 1898 - 1922

Florence was the daughter of Willis Kirk Collier and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Vanover, She was the half-sister of Sadie Collier Bentley. She was born on July 22, 1898 in Letcher County. She married John Henry Hall on February 21, 1916. They had two children: Rhoda and Ford. John Henry died on March 17, 1924. In the 1930 census the two children are living with their grandparents: Rhoda with Willis Kirk & Lizzie Vanover Collier and Ford with is widowed grandmother, Nancy Elizabeth Anderson Hall. Jim Hall had died in 1929.

Carrie Collier 1903 - 1920

Carrie was the daughter of Willis Kirk Collier and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Vanover. She was a half-sister to Sadie Collier Bentley. I could not find a death certificate for Carrie.

Sarah Collier Yonts 1886 - 1967

Robert Collier was Willis Kirk Collier's older brother. He married Martha Yonts, daughter of Solomon & Frances Whitaker Yonts. This is the grave of Robert and Martha's daughter, Sarah. Sarah was born August 6, 1886 at Neon. She married John Quiller Yonts, the son of Solomon "Sollie" Yonts and Virginia "Jennie" Quillen. They had five children: Luther, Quilva, Marcus, Martha and Gladys. John died in 1950 and was buried at Goose Creek. If Sarah lies beside him, he is in a grave marked only with a rock and the head and foot.

Arthur Denton Collier 1909-1909

I can't figure this one out. I have no birth or death record for him. I don't know who he belongs to.


Robert Collier 1899 - 1926

Again I can't figure this one out.

Rinda Mae Houston & Jonathan A. "Twig" Collier

Rinda Mae Houston was born on October 15, 1879. When she was 19 she married Jonathan A. "Twig" Collier who was 24. Twig was the son of Stephen Collier and Mary Meade. H was the grandson of Richard Collier and Mary Caudill. Richard was the son of Daniel Collier and Elizabeth Prather. Richard was also the brother of William Dee Collier who was the father of Willis Kirk Collier who was the father of Sadie Collier who married Otho Bentley.
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Mary Caudill was the daughter of Matthew Caudill and Sarah Webb who are my fourth great grandparents. Mary's sister, Susannah Caudill married Joseph Hampton. Their daughter Nancy married Enoch Mahlon Hall. Their son Joe married Lettie Craft. Their daughtre Nancy married Otho Bentley.

Rinda was my great grand aunt through the Houstons and Twig was my 2nd cousin three times removed through Granny.

In the 1900 Letcher County Census Twig and Rindy had been married for two years and had one son, William H, who was 1 year old.

Ten years later the family had grown. Now married 12 years Rindy reported she had had six children and all six were living: William H. 11, Ballard 9, Delpha E. 7, Marcellus 5, Stepher E. 3 and Thomas Luther 1year and 2 months. Twig was farming out a living for his family.

Visiting the Houston Cemetery at Goose Creek I found the following

If you look at this picture closely it says she was born on October 15, 1879 and died on June 8, 1915.


I always try to look for official records. I found a death certificate for a Renda M. Collier who died in 1917. She was in Pike County. At first I only found it in the Kentucky Death Index. It only gives the certificate number, volume and year that it was filed. Then I went to looking for it so I could let it go out of my mind. It said in the index for the ancestry that this was for an "Unnamed Collier". Someone sent in a correction to ancestry so there is a second note that it is for an "Unnamed Huston". I had to look at this one. I thought maybe the name of the person who died had been left off. The cause of death was blank, but the name was Renda M. Collier as supplied by J. A. Collier and listed her parents as Nathanual Huston and a Fleming. It is not marked as delayed. It shows her home at that time was Myra, Pike County, Kentucky.

Cousin Alma said she had the dates of death written down for Nathaniel and Betsy. Now I hope that list includes Rinda Mae, too. I have it on my list of things to talk to her about when we talke again. I also am interested in what her cause of death was.

Next to Rindy in the cemetery is her husband, Twig.

Their son, Thomas Luther Collier, who was born February 23, 1908 died on March 18, 1941.

Betsy & Thaney's Children

Thaney and Betsy Houston had nine children that I know of: Mary, Preston, Joseph, Hannah, Annie, Lavina, Rinda Mae, Aulden "Olvin and James Denton. They married into many of my related families:

Mary , the oldest was born in 1867. She never married though she had several children with a Bentley and a Potter.

Preston was born in 1869 and died before 1880.

Joseph was born about 1870 and died on May 20, 1976 of dropsy.

Hannah was born on December 29, 1971. She died September 29, 1960. She married three times: Alexander Wright and William Milton "Milt" Meade. She had a child by Israel Jesse Adams.

Annie married only once to Joshua Mullins.

Lavina "Vina" married Rhodes Meade.

Rinda Mae married Jonathan A. "Twig" Collier.

Aulden G. "Olvin" married Susannah Wright. He also had a daughter with Mary Collier.

Oliver Denton married twice: Eliza Jane Wright and Mattie Wright.

I want to concentrate on the Colliers because of the graves I found at Goose Creek.

1937 Bentley Reunion at Greenup, Kentucky

I already know that some of you will disagree with me on the way I have identified these pictures.  Some I could be persuaded to change because they are guesses or only things that someone told me and I do not have any other knowledge to say yeah or nay.  Others I know because I knew the person personally, there is another picture which was taken the same day and confirms who the person is.  I wish everyone could be identified and known 100%. 

Mildred Green has been identified in the picture.  I met her at the Bentley reunion this summer.  I showed her the picture wanting to get a confirmation that it was she who is standing beside Pauline Caudill.  She told me she couldn't recognize anyone in the picture even herself.

Identifying the baby that Poppy is holding was our biggest clue to dating the picure.  We went from Anna Sue to John Vint to finally who we really think it is, Teddy Bentley.  The biggest help in confirming this was Janice Bentley Norman and her family.  It looks as if Uncle Willie brought his whole family to this gathering.

Today  my granddaughter, Claire, is seven months old. I am arbitrarily deciding that Teddy looks like he is about the same age and thus am putting the gathering to be August 1937, seven months after Teddy was born.

Someone brought this picture to one of the Bentley reunions in Millstone.  I don't remember who brought it, but I was thinking it was one of the Bentleys from Greenup.  I copied it with an old 35 mm camera.  It was one of those tiny old pictures.  When I got back into working on the family tree last year, I was at Uncle John Vint's visiting with him and Nancy and Lisa.  I went through their pictures and copied a bunch of them with my digital camera.  They had this one, too, and not knowing where my copy was, I just reshot it.

When I was checking it on the computer to see how clear it was, I saw that the computer said the picture was only 27% of its size on the screen.  I had the whole picture on the screen so I began bringing it up to 100% and found that I could see the real detail.  I made this crop of the picture.

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Once we could see who the people were, Uncle John, Lisa, Nancy and I set about trying to figure out who was who.  Some were obvious.  We knew Granny, Poppy, John Martin, Aunt Atha, Uncle Willie and Aunt Stella.  Uncle John Vint identified some more.  As we went around meeting with other family that weekend -- Ernestene, Candy, Otho and Pat Holcomb, we asked them for input, too.  I eventually sent the picture to our Greenup cousins via Joe Bentley.  I talked on the phone with different members of the family that he had shared it with.  I know I don't agree with everyone, but here is what I have decided and put on the index version.  You can right click any of these photos and you should get a larger version of the picture. I saved them in the largest format that the software would allow.

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Now see the little girl beside Aunt Atha -- not the little blond -- the other one.  She has been identified as Lola Boggs.  She is Poppy's sister, Cora's daughter.  I ran across another picture of what I first thought was another gathering.  Then I realized that this same girl was in that picture.  I started comparing and now believe that it was taken at the same reunion.  I loved looking at this one to see how they had just spread things out on the ground like a real old fashioned picnic. Again, I copied it digitally and blew it up and cropped it.

There is Lola right in the center of the picture.  And guess what?  There is Pauline and Mildred down the line to her left.  I have indexed it, too, but only have four people identified.  I think that the baby beside Laura Belle Bentley might be Teddy in his mother's arms, but I can't really see enough of that to say for sure.

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I have copied this picture many times from other people, but none of them was very good.  Janice sent me her copy which I think is a very clear one.  She scanned hers from an original.

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This was taken the same day.  Altough I knew Stella, Willie and Atha, I did not recognize Aunt Nettie or Laura Jane in the big group picture.  From this picture of Poppy's children standing in birth order, I knew Stella, Willie, Nettie, Atha and Laura Jane.  I was able to look from this picture to the other to identify Nettie and Laura Jane. 

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I then took it and used Photoshop on it to try to get a few more details.  I then cropped it.

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.

May Bentley 1914

I had found a reference to a birth of May Bentley in 1914.  The mother was listed as Sadie Collier.  The records only gave the name of the mother and the date.  I could not find another Sadie Collier in Letcher county except for our Sadie. 

I had asked some other family members who had done research if they had ever come across this birth certificate or heard about another child of Otho and Sadie.  None had.  I had thought about ordering the birth certificate, but having just gotten a copy of my own last week, they don't give you the original with all the information on it.  It would have given me the father's name maybe, but I decided I didn't want to pay for a copy just to learn that.  I decided to just not say anything.

Today I was working on Martin Bentley for Johnny Fulton.  I was filling in some information on his connection to the Bentleys through Tabitha Bentley and Creed McFall.  I came across a death record.

May Bentley was the daughter of Otho and Sadie.  She was stillborn on July 30, 1914 and was buried at the Chunk Craft Cemetery. This means there were 22 children instead of 21.