John Vint Bentley & Annie Potter

This is Annie Potter and John Vint Bentley. I never thought to find a picture of them. It was taken on the porch of the home of their son, James Monroe Bentley.

Here is how I came across the picture.

I was in Kentucky a few years ago at Memorial Day. I went to go along with my Wright cousins who have a tradition of meeting on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend to visit the graves of their loved ones to clear them off and 'decorate' them. We used to call Memorial Day Decoration Day. On Monday, Memorial Day, I went to McRoberts to attend the Memorial Day services there. It was held in front of the church of Christ building at the Military Memorial for the soldiers from the are who lost their lives in various wars. The VFW post from Pound was doing the honors.

It was pouring rain that day. There was a room at the senior center next to the church which was being used to meet and sign in. I was with my Uncle D. V. . He was talking to folks he knew and I was standing by the sign in. One of the fellows in the VFW group came up to sign in and noticing his name tag said Bentley, I said, "Hello, Cousin". He grinned and we talked a bit. He said his family was from Virginia and he didn't believe we were related. I said, well, if you want to tell me your parents and grandparents, I sure will try to check it out. He just grinned.

After the service, we went in for cake and more chat. Jack Bentley came up to me and asked if I were serious about looking into his family. I said sure, got his parents and grandparents names and his email. I asked if he had any pictures and he said no.

I went to my files and he his grandfather was a son of James Monroe Bentley. I worked on this line and sent Jack a file giving him all the pictures, stories and info I had starting with him.

About a year later he wrote me and said he had lost the file, could I send him another since he wanted to print one. I said, sure, but give me a day or so to check just in case there is something more I can find. And I found this picture. I couldn't believe it. It was on an ancestry file and said it was used at a family reunion. The picture was so good, I just couldn't imagine it being the parents of James Monroe and John Martin because the picture of John Martin and Malinda Addington is awful quality wise. So I wrote the lady and asked her who identified it and how they had come across it.

In the meantime I took the name off the picture and emailed it to Jack and asked if he knew who it was. He wrote back right away -- it was one of his grandparents and it was on his wall. It seems when I asked if he had any family pictures and he said no, he meant none in an album or box, and hadn't thought about what was on his wall. The lady wrote me back and all matched. She said it was taken when they were in Virginia visiting James Monroe and all the Virginia Bentleys had the photo. I guess none of us still in Kentucky had gotten it.

So that is how I got the picture of John Martin and James Monroe Bentley's parents.

William Thomas "Old Billy" Johnson married Sarah Greenfield. They had about thirteen children, many of them well known Johnsons in Pike and Letcher counties. One of them was Anna/Amy Johnson who married Elder William "Preacher Billy" Tackett. William and Sarah were my 5th great grandparents. Anna and Billy were my fourth great grandparents. Anna & Billy's daughter Sarah Tackett married Richard Hall. Their son was Enoch Mahlon Hall, then Joe Hall, then Nancy Alice Hall who married Otho Bentley.

Another of Old Billy and Sarah's children was William Payne "Mander" Johnson. He married Lucy Ann Akers. Their son, Robert "Bob" Johnson, married Easter Frances Branham. Their son Winfield Scott Johnson married Lovene Sarah "Viney" Fleming. She was he daughter of Fightin' Fred Fleming and Nancy Ann Wright. Nancy Ann was one of the daughters of Joel & Susannah Wright. Viney was the sister of Elizabeth "Betsy" Fleming who married Thaney Houston.

Winfield Scott Johnson and Viney had a son named John Henry Jefferson Clay Johnson. He married Oma Lou Potter.

Oma Lou Potter was the daughter of Isaac Potter and Elizabeth Emeline Bentley. Isaac was the son of Benjamin Potter and Mary Lunce. Elizabeth was the daughter of James Martin Bentley and Sarah E Lunsford Tucker. James Martin was the son of Benjamin & Jane Bentley. Benjamin was the brother of old Daniel Bentley.

John Henry Jefferson Clay Johnson was born on April 8, 1878 in Pike County. Oma Lou Potter was born on March 18, 1889. Their thirteen children were Mander, Bessie, Bertha Gay, Levi Frank, Morgan Festus, James Conway, Rozzie Emiline, John H., Ellis Gad, Elihu Penilton, Daniel Van and Nettie Hazel.

Mander Johnson was born in 1897 and died in 1923.

Bessie Johnson was bron in 1899 and died in 1985.

Bertha Gay was born on March 8, 1902. She died on September 8, 1917.

Levi Frank Johnson was born in 1904 and died in 1985.

Morgan Festus was born in 1906 and died in 1980.

James Conway was born May 7 1908 and died August 14, 1917.

Rozzie Emiline was born in 1910 and died in 1999.

John H. was born in 1911.

Ellis Gad was born in 1913 and died in 1991.

Elihu Penilton Johnson was born January 18, 1916 and died August 21, 1917.

Daniel Van was born in 1918 and died in 2007.

Nettie Hazel was born in 1920 and died in 2002.

In 1917 John Henry was 39 years old. Oma Lou was 37. They lost three of their children in 1917. Those three are buried at the Houston Cemetery at Goose Creek.

On August 14, 1917 James Conway Johnson died.

On August 21, 1917 Elihu Penilton Johnson died.

On September 8, 1917 Bertha Gay Johnson died.

Murder or Self Defense?

If we go back to Masias Hall and Unisiah Branham Smith, they are my fourth great grandparents. Their son Richard married Sarah Tackett. Their son Enoch Mahlon married Nancy Hampton. Their son Joseph married Lettie Craft. Their daughter, Nancy, married Otho Bentley.

If we go back to Elder William "Preacher Billy" Tackett and Anna/Amy Johnson they are also my fourth great grandparents, too. Their daughter is the Sarah Tackett listed above.

Richard Hall's sister Pherina married Jesse Hamilton. They had a daughter named Elizabeth.

Sarah Tackett's brother, George Washington Tackett married Hannah Osborne. Hannah's Osborne line is also related to the Wheatley and Kilgores who are Poppy's family through his mother. George and Hannah had a son named Tapley.

Elizabeth Hamilton and Tapley Tackett married. They had eleven children that I know about.

1860 Pike Co Kentucky Census
Tackett, Tapley, 34, farmer
Elizabeth, 32
Ireeny 13
William S, 12
Greenville, 10
Freelan, 7
Jessy, 5
Permety, 4
George, 1
All born in Kentucky.

1870 Floyd Co KY census
Tacket, Tapley, 45, farmer
Elizabeth, 43, keeping house
Irena 23, at home
Green, 20, at home
Jessie, 14, at home
Perneta, 13, at home
Hannah, 8
Preston 6
Nelson, 4
All born in Kentucky.

1880 Floyd County KY census
Tackett, Tapley, 55, farmer, KY KY VA
Elizabeth, 58, keeping house
Hirena, 32, at home
Hannah, 18, at home
Preston, 15, farm hand
Nelson, 13, farm hand.
All KY KY KY except Tapley.

George Tackett born November 5, 1859 in Pike county married Martha Casebolt. She was born in 1860. They had 13 children.

1900 Pike County KY Census
Tackett, George W, 41, head, Feb 1859, married 22 years, farmer
Marthy, 40, wife, Apr 1860, had 12 children, 12 living
Harlin, 19, son
Spurlock, 18, son
Lee, 17, son
Charley 13, son
Nancy 12, daughter
Elizabeth, 11, daughter
Willie 6, son
Faney, 5, daughter
Stellie, 3 daughter
Anjeline 1, daughter

1910 Caney, Pike County KY Census
Tackitt, George, 52, head, 1st marriage, 30 years, farmer, general farm
Martha, 52, 1st marriage, had 13 children 12 living
Betty, 18, daughter, farm laborer, home farm
Willey, 16, son, farm laborer, home farm
Fanny, 14, daughter, farm laborer, home farm
Stelli, 12, daughter
Angeline, 10, daughter
Gracie, 8 daughter

Pretty ho-hum, hun? George and his wife by marriage (2nd cousins 3 times removed) and his children by blood are our cousins (3rd cousins twice removed) through Granny and Poppy. I wouldn't be suprised to find a connection through the Mullins because of the Hamilton family, but this is all I have so far. They appear to be simple mountain folks farming out an existence.

In the story below from the Washington Post on May 14, 1911 just after the Census was taken in 1910, George, his wife, and his children Charley, Fannie and Betty are the family listed in the census records above. Here is the story:

Mountain Girls Shot To Kill

Daughters of Kentucky Moonshiner Gave
Battle To and Defeated a Revenue Posse

Sergent, KY. Bor. New York World

When the Circuit Court convenes in June to hear the pleadings of such offenders against the law of the sovereign stat of Kentucky as Pike County has produced ‘tween sessions, two girls from the mountains will be put on trial for murder. They are Fannie Tackitt, aged 15, and Bettie Tackitt, aged 18 – sisters.

A new-made mound in the burying ground back of town marks the place
where lies he body of Charlie Smith, the Deputy Marshall – with a bullet still
embedded in the muscles of his heart. The sisters are charged with killing
him. One or both may admit it, which is different from confessing, and one
or both will tell the story of a tragedy such as even Pike county, schooled
alike to civic and official quick trigger, has not seen since the last feudist
slid from his horse in the shadows and died like a snake in the first warmth of
the dawn.

There’s no harm in being strictly fair to the Tackitts.

Revenue nostrils which catch the scent of stewing mash, even as a cow finds a
salt lick, discovered a still on the side hill in which corn was being converted
into whisky in violation of at least seven pages of Government statuettes, and
of course it had to be raided. The job was assigned to Deputy Marshall J.
Mart Potter, who picked Levi Smallwood and Charlie Smith for such moral support and physical participation as the occasion might require – a trio of men with nerve. They crept up the gulch while the scrub oak and walnuts were still
dripping with dew, and came to a mountainside (sic) clearing at midday.
“Uncle George” Tackitt, head of the family, was away from home –unimportant where. Charlie Tackitt, who learned how to coil a worm for a still and vaporize spirits before he could bound Kentucky, was carrying water from the spring, and in the direction of the mashtub. Mother Tackitt was in the kitchen. Fannie sat in a swing screeching a song about someone who loves me ever true, and Bettie was busy working a yellow cupid on a red tidy on the porch.

In an instant this domestic scene shifted. Charlie Tackitt, down in the gulch, cried, “They’re coming.” And the three revenue men emerged from the roadside brush. Two of them grappled with young Tackitt, who at 20 was as strong as a bull, and as unmoved by fear as the mountain pines. Three to one is losin odds, and the nippers were snapped on Tackitt's wrists. Smallwood and Smith ran around to the rear of the house, expecting to capture Uncle George. They came face to face with Mother Tackitt, who was carrying an armful of stove-size wood in from the shed. They laid hand on her and she defended herself well and ably with a bullet. Much occurs in an incredibly short time on occasions of this kind – action is swift.
Intermission brief, there was a pistol shot, and Mother Tackitt’s gray hair became crimson. A bullet had coursed along her temple, just breaking the skin. Then another bored its way into her shoulder and she sank on the threshold. Kentucky history wouldn’t be what it is if more than two shots were to be fired by one side in a controversy without a formal reply in kind. Pike County folk know the rules –men and women alike –and, all thing considered, it’s well that they do. The next puff of smoke came from a rifle, the muzzle of which showed under the kitchen window sash. Fannie Tucker finger pressed the trigger. The bullet opened an airhole in the crown, of Deputy Smallwood’s hat one inch under the kitchen window sash. Fannie Tackitt’s finger pressed the trigger. The bullet opened an airhole in the crown, of Deputy Smallwood’s hat one inch above his thinking machinery, which he ducked naturally, knowing the revenue method.
Charlie Tackitt had been thrown on the grass by the deputies after he had been handcuffed. They expected him to lie there, but he didn’t. As the conflict became warmer, the deputies, recognizing in him a noncombatant, massed for the larger
struggle. Then Charlie crawled to a protected place behind a rock where he
could make signs for his fighting party. Two shots cut finger-sized holes in the
window pane, and Smallwood, backing away toward a tree, was reloading when a bullet from another window entered his left arm, which supported his rifle. He knotted his handkerchief above the wound and returned the fire. Mother Tackitt was at this moment at the back door yelling for help. Charlie pointed with double fingers in the direction where a good aim would count. Deputy Smith was the target. Bettie Tackitt now took her place at the port-hole in the fortress, armed with a late model shotgun. She fired at Deputy Smith, but the window falling threw the gun out of line and the shot simply riddle his loose blouse. Mother Tackitt had by this time crawled into the house. Her hand was gashed in half a dozen places. Marshal (sic) Smith had beaten her with the butt of his revolver,
she moaned. There was no time to dress her wounds, no time to carry her to
bed. She lay upon the floor feebly trying to stop the flow of blood with the crumpled folds of her apron. Ant the fight went on.

All three of the deputies now had positions affording some protection. Marshal (sic) Potter was at the edge of the winter cut of cordwood. Smith with a tree between him and danger, and Smallwood, from a point to the left, blazed away over a stump.

There’s no earthly use of being a mountaineer if you haven’t guns aplenty and no use having guns without ammunition. Pike County knows his rule, too. The Tackitt home was an arsenal. Three shots to the minute were the average of fire from both sides. Smallwood was not in good shape, the deep wound in his arm trickling blood at his finger tips each time he raised his gun.

Growing bitter as the fight advanced, Bettie Tackitt threw open the door to the end that her aim might be direct. A bullet from without passed over her shoulder and plunked into the cupboard. Bettie’s gun was at her shoulder in an instant. Before Smallwood could lower his weapon she pressed the trigger. The show went true. It tore the finger from the hand that held the gun. A man twice shot has the status of a dead man, so far as warfare effectiveness is concerned. So Smallwood’s rifle became silent and the fight was now one wounded on each side, a man and a woman.

And so, for a full half hour, shots from the open were answered by shot from the house. Marshall Smith was inclined to belittle the bravery of the mountainside garrison. He wanted to take it by storm. Creeping out from his sheltered spot he advanced with gun muzzle moving like a side-playing pendulum to cover both windows. He saw a girl at one window and momentarily forgot the other. A spit of fire was the answer. Smith Dropped and never moved.

Marshal Mart Potter didn’t wait for that. He hurried down the gulch and the fight was over. Later in the day, when the shadows had settled on the mountain, he came back for Charlie Smith, who was lying open-eyed and unconscious where he had fallen. Potter dragged him on a pine bough along the bank of the laughing brook and into valley civilization. The county doctor did what he could for Smith, which was nothing at all. The rifle bullet had cut into the muscles of his heart and
there was no hope and no need of drugs or advice. The riddled heart pumped
on slower and slower for four days, and stopped happily on Sunday.

Mountain folk have an abiding hatred for “revenues” and strange to say, a sort of respect for peace officers of a county’s choosing. Deputy Sheriff Osborne and a
posse went later on to the Tackitt home. Charlie Tackitt was not there. A sharp tile had cut the steel bands that held his wrists together and he had become a fugitive. But the girls were there and ready to give themselves up. They were taken to Pikeville and arraigned before County Judge Fud. The town and country side turned out to see them; some to applaud, not to condemn; for Pike County admires bravery and has rude respect for women. The girls were found in bonds of $20 each for appearance at Court. Freeholders stood ready to become surety for them. The gals rode out of town through the line s of interested folk and back to their home hanging on the cliffside. There, in the very setting of the tragedy, your correspondent saw and talked with them.

Fannie, whose sixteenth birthday will come on June 12 while she is on trial for her life is a mere child buoyant and happy. She doesn’t understand how the law views what she is accused of doing. Possibly she doesn’t care.

“I don’t suppose any one could much blame us for what we did,” she said, sitting in the swing and with little toe kicks swaying back and forth. “We fought for our poor old mother who is lying in the house now, and fought bravely as girls or their mothers should under the circumstances. The revenues treated her brutally. They beat her. Think of it. Men beating a poor old woman. Why don’t the revenues deal with men? We want to live under the law like other people, but if the law puts us in prison, I don’t know what we might do next."

And these things said as a girl might say them – innocently and without boldness or bravado. "Because I could shoot and shoot to the spot,” she continued as she led the way to the house, “I lost no time. Some one had to come to mother’s rescue. I was nearest. We killed the officer; that we don’t deny. We will outlive and outgrow the charge that the Tackitt girls are murderers."

The elder girl was spreading the table for dinner, and your correspondent was asked to sit by. He did, with a girl at either elbow. The meal was plain, well cooked, well served. After dinner the girls went into the open and photographer posed them just as they were, in simple frocks.

Marshal Potter says he was lucky to escape with his life at the mountain fight.
“I escaped without a scratch, “ he said, “but shots flew thick and fast around my head, and more than once it seemed that I would have to retreat. However, after my best man, Charlie Smith, was shot down I thought it best to get out. I did so, and after everything calmed down I went back and carried the wounded man to the home of a physician and had his wounds dressed. Smallwood was hurt but little. Charlie Tackitt escaped, and I have not heard from him since. The Tackitt girls are certainly brave.”

J. Mart Potter is considered one of the bravest officers in the South. For seven years he has been in the service of Uncle Sam, and more than twice he has shot off moonshiners who fired upon him. Today he is baffled at the thought of Kentucky’s brave girlhood; of having to fight them in a battle as he did the Tackitt girls – and yet he says, like almost every one else he admires the bravery of the Tackit sisters.
“I will never stand and fight them again,” said Potter to your correspondent. He meant it, too. It is said that Uncle Sam will offer a liberal reward for the arrest
of Charlie Tackitt, brother of the Tackitt sister, who is yet at large.

Potter says he will not want the reward.

J. Mart Potter is one of our relatives, too. I will detail him in another story that involves moonshining in another article.

I went on to search out the girls and Charley. In the 1920 Census Charley had married and had children. He was still in Pike County but now in Marrowbone. In the 1930 census he was in Williamson, West Virginia where he died. Betty I havn't found yet. Fannie evades me in the 1920 Census, but she is living with her widowed sister, Angeline "Annie" in Pikeville helping to care for Annie's children in 1930. There are no children of her own listed and she is shown as single.

I have searched the Washington Post and other online newspaper archives trying to find the outcome of the trial of the girls. So far I have come up empty. I will keep searching and add an update if I find more details.

So was it murder or self defense?

Reuben Potter and Hulda Wright

While visiting the cemeteries at Beefhide I came across the grave of Reuben Potter.

Reuben was the son of Benjamin Potter and Susannah Hollingsworth.  He was the brother of Annie Potter, our great great grandmother who married John Vint Bentley.  He was my great great uncle.  That connects him to me through the Potters and the Bentleys.

He married Hulda Wright.  She was the daughter of James H. Wright and Mary "Polly" Ingle.  James was the son of Joel Martin and Susannah Wright.  That connects them through the Wrights.

The story I had always heard about Reuben was that he joined the Confederate army.  While serving he heard that his children were in need.  They were  

Tandy, age 10

James, 9

Benjamin 6

Mahala "Hala" 4

Hulda was pregnant .  He left his company and went home.  The army sent men after him.  When they came upon him he was making shoes for the children.  He looked up and saw John Wright and his gang coming. He started to run and tried to climb a fence, but was shot by John Wright, Hulda's first cousin.  John was about 18.  Later, he would be called Bad or Devil John Wright.

Samuel Wright cut down a poplar tree from the Board Hollow, hewed it out and made the coffin for Reuben.  He buried him there..

I started to run through the records to see what I could find about this family as backup records.

I found Reuben and his family in Letcher County of 1860.  He was 31 and listed as a farmer.  Hulda was 26.  Tandy was 8 and attending school.  James was 6, Benjamin 5 and Hala 1.

From the U. S. Soldiers and Sailors web site I found that Reuben had enlised as a  private in Comapny D of the 13th Regiment, Kentucky Calvary on October 4, 1862 in Whitesburg, Kentucky.

Those same records show that he deserted on October 5, 1862.

On May 16, 1863 John Douglas Potter was born to Hulda.

I haven't been able to find the family in the 1870 census yet.

I have seen a Joel Potter who was born in 1871 listed for Hulda.  Most of those listings also put Reuben as the father and have his date of death as 1880, but I don't believe that is true.  I think Hulda had a child by another man.

In 1880 she is living with her son, James and his wife, Cynthia Ann Allen in Floyd County, Kentucky. The listing is:

• James Potter, 25, farmer
• Cynthia Ann, 20, wife, keeping house
• Benjamin 2, son
• George, 1 month,son
• Hulda, 46, mother
• John 14, brother
• Joel, 9, brother

All of them are listed as being born in Kentucky and their parents born in Kentucky.  This would verify that there was another son after John and his name was Joel.

In 1880 Hulda is still living in Floyd County, but now she is living with her son, Tandy and his wife, Malinda J. Frasure.  Here is the listing:

• Tandy Potter, head, July 1854, 45, married 20 years, farmer
• Malinda J., wife, July 1861, 38, had 7 children, 6 living
• Elizabeth, daughter, July 1880, 19
• James, son, February 1882, 18
• Hulda, daughter, Janurary 1884, 16
• Holy, daughter, April 1886, 14
• Gracie B., March 1888,  12
• Julia, daughter, June 1891, 8
• Hulda, mother, May 1833, 67, widow, had 6 children 5 living

James Potter and Cynthia are living next door.

From death certificates I found that:

• James died in 1920 at age 66.
• Tandy died in 1936 at age 83
• John Douglas died in 1941 at age 77

Mahala married and moved to West Virginia.
Benjamin married Lunda and went to California.

Joel "Buck" Potter was 9 in the 1880 census when he was with Hulda at James and Cynthia's home.  He would have been 29 in the 1900 census.

The reason that I am searching for Joel is because of another story I heard about Hulda's children.  The story goes that one day John Wright came by his cousin's home and told her that he had left her a goose down by the creek.  He told her she should go get it so her family could eat it.  She went to the creek and  found her mentally retarded child who had been playing there shot and killed.  If I could find a death certificate or other evidence that Buck grew up and had a family, it would negate this story, but it was told by several members of the family as a true story.

It may have accounted for why Hulda and her children left Letcher County.

I haven't found a death certificate for Hulda nor have I found her in the 1910 census, so I am thinking right now that she died before 1910.

I will keep looking and following her children.  James and Tandy ended up in Greenup county.  I will try to find Mahala and Benjamin in the census records, too.  If any of you know more about Reuben or Hulda, I would appreciate knowing and will update this story.

Annie Potter - born May 1, 1830

I have attended the Potter Reunion with Uncle D V and Aunt Mary Evelyn. Uncle D. V. went because of Aunt Josephine's connection to the Potters after she married Enoch Potter. I went because of our direct connection to the Potters thru Annie Potter, John Vint Bentley's wife and Otho & Josephine's grandmother. I did take pictures that day. They are in my pictures I haven't copied yet. When I figure out Abraham Potter I will post them or put them in their own blog if there are enough to identify.

I didn't know a lot about the Potters when I went. I knew a cousin who had done extensive work on the family tree and planned on writing a book, but I never knew that he finished or put one out. He may have.

Annie Potter was born May 1st, 1830 in Pike County, Kentucky. Her parents were Benjamin and Susannah Hollingsworth Potter. Her grandfather was Abraham Potter. I have seen Abraham married to Alice Goodell and to Lydia Stewart. I don’t know whether this Abraham was married to both ladies or if there are two Abrahams. When I have looked at family trees done by others I never find them both listed as two wives, but each claims the same children. I need to work on this line to decide what I think.

The Potter are directs on the Mullins and on the Bentley sides. Nathaniel Houston’s father was an Abraham Potter, but he falls into the confusion of Abrahams that I haven’t figured out yet. Nathaniel’s mother, Hannah Houston, married Charles Yonts. He is often listed as Nathaniel’s father, but he is not. I just have to work more on this family.

Annie married John Vint Bentley when she was about 20 years old. Together they had nine children: Mary L., John Martin (Otho Bentley’s father), Benjamin J., Virginia Caroline, Delaney Elizabeth, William Alexander, Rhodicia, Surilda Jane and James Monroe.

Mary married Isaac Whitaker.

John Martin married Malinda Addington.

Benjamin married Elizabeth Rose.

Virginia Caroline married Alexander “Alex” Ison.

Delaney Elizabeth married Morgan Martin Killen.

Rhodicia married David A. J. Mullins, the son of Andrew Jackson “Brandy Jack” Mullins and Mary Lucy “Polly Ann” Mullins.

Surilda Jane married John Hughes.

James Monroe married Cordelia Hall

What this all means is I don’t know much about Annie as a person except that she was our connection to the Potter family and today is her birthday.

I tried to find stories about her, but I just struck out. No pictures either.

I did come across some information that I gathered on her daughter, Delaney Elizabeth “Betty” Bentley. Betty married Morgan Martin Killen, the son of Alf and Lucy Whitaker Killen. She had nine children with Morgan. She died of uteran cancer in 1913. Morgan married again to Mary Jane Belcher. She had several children with Morgan. I didn’t find them all today or found some but didn’t document them all. At least two of the babies died of “bold hives” one at 12 days old and one at a month’s age. (I searched and found that in one word bold hives would equal the croup. I found a website that said around that time in Wise County that 50 percent of their deaths were for children, and it was rare for someone to live into their 90s. This was a very common cause of death for infants at that time.)

In the census Morgan lived next door to his son, Alexander. Alexander was married to Nora Bell Wright making Alexander and Nora's children my cousins through the Bentleys and through the Wrights. Next to Alexander lived another son, Columbus.

On July 1st, 1925 Morgan Killen was killed. His death certificate said that he was “shot and killed by Alex Killen (son) with no doctor.” I don’t know if that means if he had had a doctor close by he could have survived the wounds or not. The death certificate was marked as a homicide, not an accident , and Alex went to prison for the death. He was later pardoned. When I saw this I googled and searched to try to find more. The only thing I came up with was a woman who posted that she had “proof” that it was an accident and not a homicide and to write her for details. I did write, but the reply I got said she had a copy of the pardon somewhere and she would send it when she came across it. I never got anything. I wrote again today to others who have posted that they know about the killing, but don’t expect to hear anything more. I just found this sad. It’s bad enough to lose someone in your family but by the hand of a family member makes it worse even if it is an accident. This is not the first time this has happened in the family, but that is another story.