UMWA Miners (Update)

 I discovered a much better copy of the UMWA Miners photo I posted a few years ago.

(Click on the photo to view it in Full Size in a new window.)

More UMWA Miners

 Here is another photo of a UMWA gathering at the Fish Ponds on Elkhorn Creek.  There are a couple of familiar faces in this one...

Clyde

Easter Morning 1960?

 Sherry sent me this photo that was shared with her recently...

I can recognize Grandma Angeline, Becky and Nell Anderson.  Can someone name any of the others?

Republic Steel Workers

Here is another of the old photos I found…

This is a gathering of men who worked for the Republic Steel Mine on Road Creek.  They are at the fish ponds on Elkhorn Creek.  Dad is easy to find, he is in the dark shirt, fourth from the right in the row of men standing.  Uncle Teet is in there too.  He is also standing, fourth from the left. 
I can recognize a coupe of the other men.  I’m pretty sure that is Vinton Thacker ( Roger, Butch and Tina’s dad ) standing on the left end.  Lee Robinson is kneeling in the front, right above the word ‘Workers’.
We need to get Dad to identify the rest of them for us.

Clyde

More Old Photos

While killing time at the Pikeville Public Library recently I came across a big collection of old photos on one of the computers there.  I copied several of them to share here.  I don’t think this first one needs any introduction…
  
I’ll try to post more of them in a day or two.
Clyde

Old Photo: The Wards

I was looking through Russell Fork River Basin Area – Pictorial History with Mom a while back and we came across this old photograph:


Mom looked at it intently, pointed to the lady on the right and said excitedly, “Why that’s Ginny!  She was a midwife, she delivered me!”  The Wards lived near the mouth of Road Creek and Ginny apparently delivered many of the babies born there, including Mom.

The other woman in the photo, Melvina, was a relative of our Grandma Angeline.  I’m not sure if she was a half-sister or first cousin or maybe both.  (Get Mom to explain it to you.)

Clyde

Mommy’s Memories

When Luci was here in March she got Mom to talking about how things were when she and Dad first got married.  Here are a couple of memories that Mom shared;

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When Mom and Dad first married, Uncle Miles and Aunt Ida lived across the river near where the old swinging bridge was.  In the summer they would get in a small row boat and go visit them and fish a while on the way.  When Clyde was a baby they took him along. Click on photo to view full size.

Once they went to church and left Clyde with Uncle Jennings and Maw’line.  Mom had put the little stoppers under the nipples of the bottles she left for him. Maw’line didn’t know about them. Clyde screamed for three hours while sucking on those bottles.  That was the only time that Maw’line ever kept Clyde.

Mary (Farmer) Stalker Obituary 1949

An Uncle I Didn't Know About

While searching through the genealogy information available on the Internet recently, I ran across this document...

CLICK on the document to view it full size.

The database that led me to it listed the name as "Harsed Stalker" and I can see how the handwritten name could be interpreted that way.  This was, of course, a name I had never heard before.  The names of the father and mother were familiar to me though, Grandpa John Stalker and Grandma Angeline Bailey.  That made Harsed a brother to Dad and my uncle.

Looking at the document a little closer, it tells a sad story.  John and Angeline's third baby boy was born February 19, 1927 and died a few days later on February 28th.  That's nine days the way I count them but the certificate lists his age as 11 days.  Doc Deskins from Elkhorn City (Praise at that time) recorded 'Pneumonia' as the cause and didn't elaborate farther.  I can't help but wonder if the cold February weather wasn't a contributing factor.

Dad had just turned two years old at this time and I wasn't sure he would know or remember anything about it.  As we drove to Prestonsburg the other day I asked him if he knew anything about Grandpa John and Grandma Angeline losing a baby that was just a few days old.

"Oh yeah, that was Harold", he replied. "When he died that made me the baby again.  Maggie and Homer used to say I was spoiled 'cause I was the baby twice.  He's buried up there on the Wilson Cemetery right near old man George Stalker."

Dad indicated he had thought about having a headstone made but he wasn't sure which of the several rocks that marked burial sites of Stalker children there was the one for baby Harold, so he never had.

Cosby Bailey Cavins

I ran across this document this week at the local library...

This is the Certificate of Death for Cosby Cavins (Dad's Grandmother). It lists her parents as George Bailey and Martha Hawkins, both born in Virginia. It indicates that she died of TB on Feb. 5, 1915, at the age of 35.

The Elisha Hawkins who provided the information on the certificate and served as 'Undertaker' was probably a cousin. The certificate lists her 'Place of Burial or Removal' as Jesses Br. This would be the little cemetery that Dad, Luci, Jeff and others visited a few years ago. Dad says that both Cosby and her mother, Martha are buried there, along with several more Hawkins relatives.

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UPDATE: Due to the construction on US 460, the gravesites in that little cemetery have since been moved to the Dow Brooks cemetery.

Census Data 1910

I'm still tinkering with the genealogy of our family. I've actually been able to find a lot more about Jennie's ancestors than I have about ours. I need to get with Willie one of these days and see what he has gathered.

I did run across something interesting today. Here is part of a page from the 1910 Census for Pike County, Magisterial District 8 Precinct 13. (NOTE: It will soon be a hundred years since it was written.)

It's difficult to read but the census taker has recorded the members of what he listed as family number 297. It included:

 

Name	Relation	Sex	Race	Age	MaritalStatus
Bailey Martha	Head of Household	F	W	70	Wd
Cavins Cosby	Daughter	F	W	29	Wd
Bailey Angeline	Granddaughter	F	W	12	S
Bailey Ardaline	Granddaughter	F	W	9	S
Bailey Delia	Granddaughter	F	W	7	S
Bailey Mary	Granddaughter	F	W	5	S
Cavins Rachel	Granddaughter	F	W	2	S
Cavins Eunice	Granddaughter	F	W	1/12	S

I can't imagine what it must have been like for Martha Bailey, 70 years old, widowed, living with her daughter, also a widow, and six granddaughters, and trying to survive in rural Kentucky in 1910. I'm sure young 12-year-old Angeline had her childhood cut short, having to help with all those little sisters.

Part of what I found interesting is that immediately following is family number 298 ...

 

Name	Relation	Sex	Race	Age	Marital Status
Stalker George	Head of Household	M	W	33	M1
-------- Mary	Wife	F	W	27	M1
-------- Malissa	Daughter	F	W	13	S
-------- Rissie	Daughter	F	W	11	S
-------- Frank	Son	M	W	10	S
-------- Jane	Daughter	F	W	8	S
-------- John	Son	M	W	7	S
-------- Clarence	Son	M	W	5	S
-------- Lilburn	Son	M	W	4	S
-------- Liza	Daughter	F	W	2	S
-------- Walter	Son	M	W	1+	S

I am embarrassed to admit that I had no idea Grandma Angeline and Grandpa John Stalker had grown up living close if not side by side. The census doesn't indicate how far apart their two households were.

I also hadn't realized she was older than him. The ages in these census records have to be taken with a grain of salt though. Great Grandpa Joseph Looney is shown as being 25 years old in the 1880 census but, 20 years later he has aged 25 years and is recorded as being 50 in the 1900 census.

George Stalker 1872

( Clyde's Great Grandfather )

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George STALKER                                                     

Born:  Aug 7 1872, North Carolina
Died:   Sept. 16, 1963, Pike Co. KY  [Cemetery]
Father:  John Thomas STALKER
Mother:  Matilda Adams

George married
Mary FARMER
Born:   October, 29, 1880
Died:       April 15, 1949  [COD]  [Cemetery]
Father:  John A. Farmer
Mother:  Mary Mullins (Bryant)
George and Mary had the following children:

• Frank STALKER
• John STALKER b. ~ 1903, married Angeline BAILEY
• Clarence STALKER of Draffin, KY
• Lilburn STALKER b. ~ 1908 of Rockhouse, KY
• Walter STALKER b. ~ 1911 of Salyersville, KY
• Icy STALKER (Coleman)
• Beunah STALKER (Swiney)
• Alpha STALKER b. October 8, 1911; d. July 18, 1981, married Ver Compton of Draffin, KY
• Rissie STALKER (Hogston), Belcher, KY
• Lissie STALKER (Ratliff), Regina, KY
• Tom STALKER
• Harrison STALKER  [COD]
• Emily Jane STALKER (Owens) [COD]
• Liza STALKER (Morton)
• Bulie STALKER
  

Notes:
Pike County News Clippings

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If you have additional information or find a correction that needs to be made,
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