William Henry Duke

 WILLIAM HENRY DUKE 

        Please note that there were several men named William Henry Duke from Ohio County - but they were from different generations so they are fairly easy to research.  In fact, that name was a popular throughout the country - perhaps because there was a British member of the royal family named William Henry and he was a Duke, so he was called William Henry Duke.  At least that's my theory about the popularity of the name.

        William Henry Duke was born 18 March 1869 in Hartford, the son of Thomas Sallinger Duke (1838 – 1898) and Eliza C. Miller (1841 – 1913).  William Henry was the one of five children – his siblings were Alva Georgia (1871-1945); Wilbur Thomas (1869-1912), twin of William Henry; Josephine B “Josie” (1867-1948); and Ida May (1874-1910).  Here is the obit of William Henry's mother, Eliza, who died in 1913:

          William Henry left Ohio County when he was in his late teens (approximately 1886) and moved to Montana.  I found a biography of William Henry in “The History of Montana” by Helen Fitzgerald Sanders, published 1913.  Here is a copy of the biography (note there is an error regarding his siblings, i.e. his twin brother is listed twice):

          William Henry married Anna Belle Martin in 1889 and they had four children: Hayden Olin “Harry” Duke, 1891-1937; Letha Duke, 1894- 1976; and William Henry, Jr., 1912-1980; the fourth child (name unknown) died as an infant.  I found two birth certificates of the children, Letha and William Henry, Jr.:

          William Henry died 3 Jul 1955 in Mission, Hidalgo County, Texas and his wife, Anna Belle, died in 1957.  Here is William Henry's obituary:

Hinton Taylor Leach

 Hinton Taylor Leach 

       Born 28 Aug 1899, OC   d. 26 Feb 1988 Muhlenberg County, son of James Henry Leach (1870-1945) and Susan Mary Jones (1873-1917); attended the University of Kentucky.

       Hartford Herald December 22, 1920:

       Hinton married Gladys T. Bennett July 1921; Gladys was born 24 Jun 1904, Muhlenberg County and died 26 Jan 1991.

       Hinton & Gladys had 3 children: James Hinton, born 1928 (md Patsy Bruce); Susan Lois, born 1936  (md James Robert Bullock) (Sue Lois Reed mentioned in brother's obit 2012); and Judith Ann, born 1946 (md Robert England).

WWII Draft Registration:

          Gladys Leach Obituary: Died 26 Jan 1991; service at Oakwood Cemetery, Hartford.  Husband, Hinton Leach, predeceased her.  Survivors include son, James Hinton, daughter Sue Lois Ahuja and Judith Ann England; 14 grandchildren; 8 great-grandchildren.

Holbrook and Smith

 Holbrook and Smith 

          I found this photo of a young girl from Fordsville that was travelling to the Philippines to get married.  I decided to see if I could find a wedding announcement or any additional information. I found an interesting but sad story.

Here is a better photo of Miss Smith from about the same time. This was from her passport.

          Mary Carroll Smith was born 1 Nov 1893 in Fordsville, the daughter of John Thomas Smith (1852-1929) and Anne Eliza Ford (1856-1953). 

          She married McHenry Holbrook in the Philippines (or maybe in Japan) in 1918 and her parents and his parents attended the wedding. Here is a photo of McHenry Holbrook from his passport.

          McHenry Holbrook was the son of Rowan Holbrook (1868-1928) and Bettie Lee Taylor (1868-1946); the family was in the banking business.  McHenry was employed by the National City Bank of New York and was first based in the Philippines and was later transferred to Japan.  The only child of McHenry and Mary, a son named John Rowan Holbrook, was born in 1919 in Japan.  

          Here's the sad part. On 1 September 1923 there was an massive earthquake in Yokohama, Japan, and the office building where McHenry worked collapsed and he was killed. 

          Following the earthquake, Mary (Smith) Holbrook returned home to Ohio County with her son and remained there until her death in 1981 at age 87.  She is buried in the Oakbrook Cemetery in Hartford. 

          The Findagrave page for McHenry Holbrook says that his ashes were buried in Negishi Foreign Cemetery in Negishi, a suburb of Yokohama, Japan.  Their son, John Rowan, who was called “Jack,” served in the Navy during WWII and died in Florida in 1986 at age 66.

          I found the following article, an interview with Mary Holbrook, in the Owensboro Messenger dated a few weeks after she returned to Fordsville.  I had a hard time copying this article and parts of the paper were missing, but I did the best I could.  If you have further interest I suggest you go to the library in Owensboro and try to get a better copy.  The date of the newspaper is October 7, 1923 and the article is in Section Two.

Report of Death of McHenry Holbrook

James Thomas Hoops

       James Thomas Hoops, son of Charles Hoops and Sarah Ann Strother, was born 29 Apr 1829 in Barren County.  James moved with his parents to Ohio County; his father died in Cromwell in 1870 and his mother died in Ohio County in 1875.  James married Mary A. Brown 12 Sep 1852, in Ohio County.  Mary was born about 1834, Ohio County.  James and Mary had five children: William Haydon Hoops (1854-1935), Letitia Anna Hoops (1855-1941),  Charles A. Hoops (1858-  ), Nancy Jane Hoops (1859-  ), and Henry N. Hoops (1861-1936). 

       Note: It is reported that Mary died in 1864 in Ohio County at the age of thirty. Note that, if Mary A. (Brown) Hoops died in 1864, James might have remarried because the 1870 census for Ohio County shows James living with Mary C. Hoops, age 24 (probably a second wife) and also shows several children born after 1864, (the reported year of Mary A. (Brown) Hoops' death), i. e. James S. Hoops, age 4 (born abt 1866), Martha C., age 3 (born abt 1867), and Lee, age four months.  I did not find James Thomas in the 1880 or 1890 census and I do not know when he moved to Texas.

      James T. Hoops died on December 9, 1896, in Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas, at the age of 67, and was buried there. 

Note:  Some researchers spell the surname Hoopes.

Thomas H. French

Source:  The Longhunter, Vol XXIX, Issue 3, Summer 2006, Page 106

Note:  Thomas H. French was born in Bells Run, Ohio County and died in a house fire (Allen County) trying to save his neighbor.

DROWNED BY A CATFISH

 

DROWNED BY A CATFISH

Hartford Herald News Paper, January 1892

Ohio County, KY

A Correspondent from Calhoon, Kentucky,

writing to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat... tells the following story.

 

The Sad and Strange Fate of a Kentucky Fisherman

           There is a lonely deserted graveyard in the hills above Green River, fifteen miles south of here. It was once well kept, but that was long, long age, before the little white church was built a few miles further on. There is a graveyard now near the white church. It is well kept and has a more modern appearance than the old burying-place in the hills above the river. There is a sunken grave near. the center of the old grave yard, above which there is a plain limestone slab upon is rudely written the quaint inscription:

 William Henry Larkin, 36 years old "He was killed by a catfish"

           A native of the hills was found who had known William Henry Larkin in life, who also knew well the circumstances that caused his death. The aforesaid native's re-collection of the dates is very faulty, but as nearly as he could make it out, it was directly after the war between the states that William Henry Larkin, his esteemed friend and neighbor,' met a tragic death. Bill Larkin, as he was known in the country around, kept the ferry over the green River known as Larkin's Ferry. Besides the business of ferryman, he followed the humble avocation of fisherman, and' supplied the county folks with choice fresh fish. There was a big Baptist association in session a few miles away from the ferry, and Bill's fish trade was unusually large. He put out ever trotline' he had, and was doing a flourishing business. Business on the ferry was also good, and Bill was, to use the native language, "making money hand over fist." One evening he left home to "run" his trotlines, and he was not seen again until his body was found cold in death. Bill's spirit had joined the great majority on the other shore. His body was found by a searching party on the following day, hanging to one of his trotlines.

           A large fish-hook firmly fastened in the unfortunate man's clothing, and a few feet from him on the same trotline there was a large catfish. The supposition was that Bill was running the trotline when the big fish jerked the line catching a hook in Bill's clothing and pulled him out of the boat into the water. The fish weighted thirty six pounds and Bill was thirty six years of age. Those single facts were looked upon by the simple country people was thereabouts a positive evidence that Bill's taking was the Devine will of Providence. Bill's funeral was the largest ever held in that community and his remains were laid to rest in the old churchyard beside his ancestors, with the simple ceremony of the primitive church which he belonged in his life. The grass and briars have grown over Bill's grave for a quarter a century or more, his widow still lives in the old fashioned house near the river, and carries on the business just the same as before Bill was drowned by the fish.

          Thanks to Norma Williams who sent this to me, and thanks to Helen McKeown who sent it to her.

Source:  Kentucky Family Records, Volume 38. No. 4, Winter 2014.

 Note:  On Ancestry I found a William Larkin born abt 1856 living with his parents and siblings in Boston, Daviess County (1870 census). His parents were William, age 47 and wife Mary, age 33; the siblings were William, age 14, Sarah E., age 12; and Robert L., age 6.   The 1880 census shows the parents, William, Sarah, and Lee (probably Robert Lee).

Letter from New Mexico - Ed Massie

Source:  Hartford Republican 24 July 1908:

          Edmund (Ed) Massie was born in Ohio County, 16 April 1866/67, the son of Edmund D. Massie and Sarah Frances Westerfield; he died in Carrizozo, Lincoln County, New Mexico 21 Dec 1916.  Ed married Nora Ellen Clark about July 1905 in Ohio County.  The 1910 census says Nora is from Kentucky and was born about 1880.  I think that she was from Daviess County, KY, possibly Utica. The 1920 census says she is a teacher.  I think she stayed in New Mexico after Edmund’s death.  I did not find that they had any children.  There is data that shows a marriage between Nora E. Massie and Mr. Shirley Phipps in 1922 in El Paso, Texas. Social Security records affirm this marriage.  Mr. Phipps died in 1942 in Lincoln County, New Mexico and Nora died as Nora Ellen Phipps Oct 1963 in Clovis, New Mexico.

Heritage Farm Program - Part 7 of 7

          A  Centennial Farm is a farm or ranch in the United States that has been officially recognized by a state documenting the farm has been continuously owned by a single family for 100 years or more. Sesquicentennial Farms (150 years) and Bicentennial Farms (200 years) are also recognized.

          During the Kentucky Bicentennial (1992) Kentucky started a “Heritage Farm Program” that recognized historic farms and ranches. The Kentucky legislature passed a law in 1980, revised July 15, 1982, titled “Kentucky Register of Heritage Farms” (Ky. Rev. Stat. 171.388)  stating that to qualify a farm must comprise at least 40 acres, shall have been owned by the same family at least 100 years, be an active farm, and contain a structure more than 50 years old.  Farms are certified by the Kentucky Heritage Council, in conjunction with the State Preservation Office. An official certificate is issued and signed by the Governor and various officials.

          Ohio County is blessed with two Sesquicentennial Farms and five Centennial Farms.  The following information is “as of” the year  2000 and taken from a book titled: Kentucky’s Historic Farms: 200 years Of Kentucky Agriculture, Turner Publishing, Inc. Paducah, published 1994, 1996, and 2000.  Authors were Clark Ph.D., Thomas; Beatty, Durwood W; Jarratt, C. Ardell; Amos, Christine; Hudson, Karen E.

OHIO COUNTY CENTENNIAL FARMS  

          7. W. T. STEVENS FARM:  The W. T. Stevens Farm, located in Beaver dam, Kentucky, is owned by Lester Stevens.

          The farm was originally purchased on October 7, 1889 by W. T. Stevens, grandfather. Hubert Stevens, uncle, inherited the farm on June 18, 1945. On October 13, 1950 Clarence Stevens, father, inherited the farm. Vera Stevens, mother, inherited the farm on March 8, 1952.  On December 22, 1964 Lester inherited the farm.

          The original purchase included 57 acres. Of the original purchase all 57 acres are presently retained. The farm now consists of those 57 acres with 45 acres being actively farmed. They raise corn, beans and hay.