Dedication to My Son Robbie

 I dedicate this book to my son Rob who between 1997 and 2000 fought for his life and beat A.L.L, by having a bone marrow transplant. This confirmed to me that there really is a God and I have seen him perform a miracle.  Life cannot get any better than this.

 Acknowledgments

   To Edna Cumming, Joe McClure, Ellwyn Worley and George Honts for being friends, helping me with the research and prodding me on.

To Wayne Carlisle who taught me to finish what I start.

To Vera Rae Dahlke thank you for getting me interested and for all the research and hard work you did before me.

To my mom and dad for bringing me into an uncertain world in 1944 and making life magnificent. For teaching me about the value of family, and giving me the passion to care.  

To my wife Bonnie and my Daughter Jennifer, for helping and putting up with me during the research and writing of this book.  

To my son Brian, who worked by my side week after week cleaning up Lebanon Cemetery. The many hundreds of miles walking cemeteries near and far in the rain, snow and heat, the many trips to libraries and court houses, in search of answers, all this when he could have been playing with his friends. I am truly grateful for the help, love and companionship. It was during this period that Brian went from being a child to being a man. This was an amazing time for me to be part of and I will cherish it forever.  

 To the many people who helped steer me in the right direction and contributed to this work, I could never remember you all, Thank You.

Foreword

     You are about to take a journey into the past lets just say on my magic carpet. You are going to meet quite a few people during your trip. They are the pioneers of Grant and Boone County Kentucky, the ones that were willing to take a chance. They chose to take the gamble to go to a new place to live a new life, all in a time when moving meant that you probably never would see or hear from your parents, family and friends again. A time when going a hundred miles would sometimes take a month or more. A time when friends and neighbors, might make the difference between life and death, a time when community meant survival, a time when church and God, meant hope and faith.

    We will visit Lebanon church cemetery where a number of the occupants are in graves marked only by a field stone, names that were carved into the rocks long since have disappeared, leaving the person buried only a memory and in most cases a memory for only a short while as family members moved or died, but each stone must be treated with dignity and respect because they too walked the earth as do you and I.

    As I worked on the cemetery what was once strange and foreign to me became familiar, as the brush disappeared and the scrub trees came down the sun was able to cover ground it hadn’t in years. I got to the point of looking forward to the drive there and walking through a uncluttered cemetery. It was almost like the cemetery was becoming friendly; it seemed to take on a individuality of its own.

    I begin to learn where each of the tombstones was and as I researched for this book, they started to have significance and sort of took on the personality of the person it memorialized. The one section of the cemetery that disturbed me was the area where almost all the graves are marked with fieldstones, where the headstone is a few feet from a fieldstone marking the foot of the grave. These were children, who we will never know, how old they were was apparent by the distance between the two stones.

     In the early eighteen hundreds money was sparse and when a small child died, the parents would take the body to the cemetery and bury it themselves. They would use field stones to mark the grave sometimes scratching the child’s name or initials on its surface. How hard this must have been especially for the mother who had nurtured and cared for the baby through out her pregnancy. I have raised six children and I cannot imagine how life would be without even one of them.

    Here in Lebanon there are families that lost twins who died just a day apart and others who lost whole families to different epidemics that ravaged the area. Whooping cough, diphtheria, measles, pneumonia, and polio, Diseases that today we rarely hear about made their sweep of the county like a macabre cloud.

Doctors were few and far apart; medicines were mediocre compared to the ones used today. Most children were treated at home without the benefit of a doctor or medications. The families did the best they could with what they had. As you look through the list of people buried in Lebanon in the appendices of this book look at the death dates in some of the families and it’s easy to see when there was an epidemic. Another fact that becomes apparent is the number of children and their mothers dying at or soon after childbirth.

     The Lebanon Church building still stands today, defiant of its season. The beautiful hand hued beams that the church members so carefully labored over, with love and devotion one hundred and seventy five years ago are sagging; neglect is taking its toll on the structures soul. Now only a solitary dog stands protector of the front door preserving its present master’s belongings. By-gone are the wooden pews and its pulpit. The windows are boarded up and its beautiful wooden siding long ago relinquished its proud white coat.  By-gone are the voices of the preachers their voices raised high in sermon and prayer, Gone are the voices of it’s congregation praising god and singing hymns, gone are the members who joyfully declared their wedding vows in the holy hall, gone are the social events that were played out under the giant spreading oaks, the laughter, the friendship and love stories untold. But when the wind blows through the loosened siding and voids, and the towering oaks join in, it sings a hymn loud and clear, a hymn that only the pioneers of Lebanon Cemetery hear.

    As I sat   there and wondered, a plane went overhead one of the older noisy ones, you think are never going to go away. I then realized that the pioneers of Lebanon had never seen a plane or for that matter a car, or light bulb, or some small things that we take for granted. They came over the mountains in wagons, loaded with all their worldly belongings, they had to force their way to their destination, sometimes making only a few miles as day, They couldn’t jump on an interstate highway and get there in a few minutes. The plane started to fade in the clear October skies leaving a vapor trail that was rapidly dissipating and I realized what had just been a very moving moment for me was of no concern to the passengers on the plane. The world didn’t stop, or even pause, nor would these courageous pioneers have wanted it to.

    I vowed that day that I would get Lebanon back to its original condition, so that if someone like me happened by they could visit their ancestor with pride and most important the cemetery wouldn’t disappear as it almost had. My hope is that it will go on perpetually to remind us of the sacrifices these people made for all of us. There is a poem its author is unknown but it is very fitting for Lebanon it’s called Dear Ancestor.

   “Dear Ancestor Your tombstone stands among the rest; neglected and alone.  The name and date are chiseled out on polished, marbled stone. It reaches out to all who care; it is too late to morn.  You did not know that I exist you died and I was born. Yet each of us is cells of you, in flesh and blood and bone.  Our heart contracts and beats a pulse entirely not our own.  Dear Ancestor, the place you filled more than one hundred years ago, spreads out among the ones you left, who would have loved you so. I wonder if you lived and loved, I wonder if you knew that someday I would find this spot, and come and visit you”.

(NOTE: In the winter of 2003 a heavy wet snow finally brought an end to the Lebanon Presbyterian Church collapsing the roof and the rest of the building. I'm glad it was able to research and see it as it stood, sitting in the church in silence and hearing all the sounds if founders heard, I have tried to pass this passion on to you to enjoy too, for our links to the past are evaporating rapidly )

Memories

     This all started about twenty years ago, 1n 1983, at the Webb family reunion . My cousin Vera Rae Webb Dahlke handed me a large brown envelope, which contained the research she had labored over for many years. It contained information about our ancestors. She told me, “Try to finish this”. I looked at all the pages; put it back in the envelope, and put away to do later.

    Later came in fourteen years, when my daughter Jennifer arrived home and exclaimed, “I have to do a family tree, it’s for a school project, I only have two weeks”. I sat there smugly for about a week, knowing that the envelope was here this would be easy.  I’ll just pull out the envelope, we’ve got it made, and on the other hand, where was the envelope, as the great brown envelope expedition began. We only moved once it ought to be right in this box. Now were in trouble it is not here, well I am sure it is in the desk. No, it is not there either as alarm started to set in. Finally, my wife came waving the missing envelope and I started to inhale in again, although I think my hair was grayer.

    The next mistake, I mean undertaking was to open the envelope and pull the worksheets; out they kept coming there must have been a hundred of them. They were all neatly hand written and thankfully numbered. “Who were all these people” I call out, little did I know I was getting ready for the adventure of a lifetime. It would take me to Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Germany, Ireland and Scotland and span three hundred years, without ever leaving my home.

     Vera Rae was a first cousin to my mom. Her father Alive Webb was my grandmother’s brother. One of the things I remember about him was he would take an old wood saw and a violin bow and make the most beautiful music. Uncle Alive and my Aunt Wanda lived in Paulding Ohio. They had a huge back yard and a big creek that flowed near the back yard. What a wonderful place for a six year old to visit in the summer. I would barely get out of the car and I was skipping rocks on the water, and looking for that big old bullfrog that always slipped off a sunny rock and out of my grasp. It was like he waited on me to every year to see if I was faster than the year before. Yes, I always managed to fall in, since Mom hated mud and dirt, and it took a lot of planning on my part to make sure it was an accident.  I might as well tell you now how mom hated dirt, since we will cover this topic later on. Mom loved to putter with flowers, my dad and I would wait to see how she was dressed when she came out of the house. Her casual was most peoples formal.

     Vera Rae had a sister Virginia who was married to Leonard Shields they also lived in Paulding where Leonard owned the local ESSO Gas station. Their son Jimmy was my best friend, even though I lived in Knoxville, Tennessee 400 miles away. Each summer Mom would make the rounds of her family. Most lived in Van Wert, Paulding and Bowling Green Ohio.

     I would get to stay with Jimmy for a week.  I always thought he was lucky to be living in a small Midwest farm town. There you got to walk everywhere. If you were thirsty, the Esso station was only two blocks away on US 127. Ice cream cones were at the drug store in the center of the town square.  They had this long marble counter with stools that you could really spin fast on. If we got hot we could sit under one of the giant Elm trees that lined every street or head for the swimming hole at the creek. Everybody knew each other and most significantly, they were friends, they were a community. Life could not get any better than this.

   Jimmy and I grew apart around1967 he got married first and had two children. He was divorced a few years later and contact was rare, he died in 2001 from heart problems at the age of fifty-seven. He had been living in Arizona and returned to Fort Wayne Indiana, to be near his family.  I wish now I had called him instead of putting it off to do later.  We had planned many things in our childhood for our adult years that we will never get to do.

    Vera Rae was a teacher in Cincinnati. She was always our first stop on the summer journey north. She and mom would always sit and talk about the family; they often made notes as they chatted. Little did I know that in latter years I would receive the notes in a big brown envelope.

The other place I got to stay for a few days was at the Mohr’s; they lived on a big farm between Van Wert and Paulding. Dorothy Webb Mohr’s dad was George Nathaniel Webb my grandmother’s brother.  He married Ina Reed in 1910, Dorothy Lucille Webb was born September 22 1911.  Mom and Dorothy were very close as long as I can remember. They were constantly together through out their childhoods. Dorothy married Carl Mohr in 1929; she and Carl had seven children.

1.  Byron in 1930

2.  Joan in 1933

3.  Gloria in 1935

4.  Janice in 1937

5.  Gary in 1941

6.  Beverly in 1943

     7.  David in 1946

    Carl always had sheep dogs they might have been Border collie’s I do not remember, I was always amazed at the ability of these dogs to work stock, I would sit on a big old tub in the farm yard and he would have them roundup the ducks or chickens and put them right in their coop’s. Occasionally a duck would get brave and run off to the side of the flock. Then like an idiot he would quack as if to say hey guys look at me, only to turn around and find a dog looking at him. I have many fond memories of my visits to the Mohr’s, Gary and I were the closest in age although he has always been older than me. (I had to say that) He, David and I would go to the creek and swim or go fishing; I do not think there were ever any fish in this creek but we had fun just being together. There were always so many neat things to do on a farm, Dorothy would always tell me you can get real dirty your mom’s not here. I remember being in the fields with Carl and the boys but I do not remember what we were doing. There were many times when I wished I lived closer to the family, which was so important to us, instead of in Tennessee where there weren’t any relatives. I wonder how much richer my life would have been.                                         

I loved the summer trips especially the one to Chief Lake in the UP of Michigan with The McDowell's and the family reunions in Van Wert, the earliest reunion I can remember was at the Van Wert County Fair grounds in a little white building. Here I would get to see the people I knew and loved in a big group. Then there was also the bonus everybody brought food, and my family could cook. I always ate pie first and if there was any room left I would dig in to the real food as Mom called it, almost everything present came from the farm or the gardens of the family. It just tasted better than store bought stuff.

   I was born in1944 which was late in my parent’s life. Mom was thirty-seven my dad was thirty-nine. She had a real hard     time at my birth and almost died. I never knew mom’s mother Leotia Faye she died when she was twenty-nine in 1917. Mom went to live with my great grandmother Rosella and her son Paul Webb on the family farm in Union Township Van    Wert County Ohio. My great grand father Henry Morgan Webb built the new farm but never lived there, he died in 1866 before they moved in. Mom lived there until she was sixteen, Rosella taught mom to be a lady, to be moral and to love God, lessons she remembered until her death in 1997. With the death of Rosella mom went to live with Rosella’s daughter Cloe who had married Daryl Prior, they had a large farm and family south of Van Wert near Ohio City, It was located on US-127.

     When we were driving there from the south I would wait to cross the second set of railroad tracks after we passed their church, I knew we were there. When Mom turned eighteen she went to live with her Uncle Paul, who had married and was living in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was here fate intervened and she met my dad.

    Dad came from the big city, Cincinnati Ohio his dad Conrad John was a machinist with Allis Chalmers, and My Grandmother Alice came from the Bossie clan. She worked at Procter & Gambles Ivorydale plant on the Ivory Soap line. Dad like me was an only child. His family background was as different from my mom’s as night and day. Do not take this wrong he had a great childhood; he just grew up in industrial Cincinnati. There had been a disagreement between Conrad John and his brothers and they did not speak. Dad knew his Uncles but never associated with them. Conrad John died from cancer before I was born, Grandmother Alice died in 1976 at the age of 83,  she loved my grandfather so much that she never re-married. Her sister Laura who was never married lived with her after Conrad’s death March 30 1927 at the age of 36.

    Dad loved Moms family, he loved to get out of the city and share the companionship of a tight knit family, Something both he and I missed as youth. He would help with the farm work and at harvesting time you could find him in the fields with the other family members cutting the ears of corn off the stalks and pitching them into a wagon. He was so close to Paul Webb that when Paul died in 1967 it was worse on him than his own dad’s death.

    As a child I knew everybody was there you do not exactly know how he or she is related but you know you belong, there is a feeling that you have that is hard to describe when you were with them. I guess warm and fuzzy is the best I can do, I still get that feeling today when I look back on my childhood and see everybody’s faces and smiles.

     I think as you progress in age these things are still important, but not as much as when you were a child. For me I discovered football, basketball, swimming and baseball and of course girls. Amazing how much of your concentration the latter can take. When you start a family of your own, you are a little insecure, but you can draw from what you learned about family valves as a child. Then for the first time in your life you try to remember what your parents told you. Gosh maybe they did know something after all. As you get older you return to the farm so your children can have the experiences you had, in my case by getting a late start, most of the farms were gone. My older children were fortunate enough to get in on some of it. My two younger ones did not, it’s hard to relay warm and fuzzy to a child. Nobody can replace a grandmother or grandfather, Aunt or Uncle’s hug you just cannot duplicate that ancestors love.

I did not have any favorites I liked each one for a different reason, although Uncle Daryl would let me drive the tractor and milk the cows, I even got to drive the team of horses pulling the hay wagon through the field before he got his first  tractor.  I remember the first time I got to milk the cows, Uncle Daryl would sit on     this little wooden stool and squeeze two tits and milk would flow. I on the other hand at age five could almost stand under the cow and squeeze like crazy; nothing would happen. Daryl would laugh and show me how to pull, squeeze, and slide and all of a sudden, the milk would come out, it was magic. I was really disappointed when he bought milking machines. The magic was gone.

    Now you think mom was a little zealous about just plain dirt you should have been there for this act. She would stand outside the barnyard, with a bucket of cold well water, a bar of Aunt Cleo’s homemade lye soap and a pile of clean clothes. Uncle Daryl would stand there and say “Erma its only cow manure” Then he would start chuckling. Dad told me sometime later that Daryl knew how to push Moms buttons.  Sometimes I wished he would not push the overdrive button because the scrub brush would go faster and harder. What the heck I could grow new skin. Yep life could not be any better than this.

     When Vera Rae retired she started tracing the family, this was in the days before computers and the information highway. She made trips to Virginia, England, Scotland and Ireland. She was a meticulous researcher always backing up her findings with fact. If it looked like a duck it had better quack. The sheets she had done were up to her standards.

     The first thing we did was to buy a family tree program, and load it in the computer. Now all we will do, is type all this data in the little boxes, how hard can that be? Name after name date after date family after family you can surely tell they did not have television, in the seventeen hundreds. They had kids’ one right after another. Then the kids grew up, and yep you guessed it, still no television. One ancestor married three times, He had twenty-five children, and he was still having them when he was sixty. It is no wonder he had three wives. There were McClure’s, Weis’s, Webb’s Smith’s, and then they got married, and we had a new set of names. Lesson number one do not buy a Genealogy program based on how cheap it is.  I suddenly realized I am not getting anywhere, by the end of the first day I only had six pages entered in the computer. I got on the internet and researched the different programs and what they offered. Most made a big task of inputting data. The one I decided on this time was Family Tree Maker. So far it has been a great program.

How I Fit In

My last name is Weis,

My mom’s maiden last name was Smith,

Her mom my grandmother was a Webb.   

My Grandmother’s mom was a McClure.  She was born April 8, 1861 in Van Wert County Ohio.  Rosella Arabella McClure, her father was Nathaniel A. McClure who was born Jan 29, 1820 at Champaign Co. Ohio.  Her mother was Mary Ann McClain she was born March 2, 1822 in Fairfield Co. Ohio. They were married March 24, 1844 in Allen County Ohio.

,                                                                      

 Rosella had nine brothers and sisters

1.  Margaret,

2.  John M.,

3.  Mary Jane,

4.  Samuel A,

5.  Minerva,

6.  Sarah Elizabeth,

7.  Nathaniel,

8.  William,

9.  Mary F, and

10.Thomas Major Moore McClure.

This was a very substantial group to turn loose on rural Ohio.   Nevertheless, this group only had sixteen offspring among them.  Their children had twenty-eight offspring so at least we probably have a radio by then.

   Rosella’s  grandparents were Samuel McClure b. November 7, 1793 in Harrison County Kentucky and Margaret Watt who was also born in Kentucky July 6, 1800.   They were married in Champaign County Ohio August 14, 1817.  There has not been a lot learned about Margaret Watt’s parents.  Her father was Thomas Watt and her mother’s name was Mary.   She and Samuel had 12 Children.   Margaret died September 21.1844.  She was forty-four years old.   Samuel remarried in September 30 1845 to Elizabeth Patterson. She gives birth to eleven more children, before his death in 1875 at the age of eighty-two

   Samuels Parents were Moses McClure b.1760 Virginia and Sarah “Sally” McCorkle she was born in Virginia.  They had nine children, and Samuel. They were

1.  Alexander,

2.  Nathaniel,

3.  John,

4.  Moses,

5.  Thomas,

6.  Mary “Polly,”

7.  James

8.  Jane

   Moses parents were Nathaniel McClure b. 1712 Raphoe Parish, Donegal, Ireland, and Mary who were born about 1716, we believe in England.   We know nothing else about her or her parents. She and Nathaniel had ten children before her death in 1767 in Virginia.  Nathaniel lived until 1761 and died in Augusta Co., Virginia.

1.  Halbert,

2.  James,

3.  Hannah,

4.  Dorothy,

5.  Mary,

6.  Nathaniel,

7.  Alexander,

8.  Thomas,

9.  Margaret,

10. Moses,

  The parents of Nathaniel were Harbert McClure born 1684 and Agnes born about 1690 both in Raphoe Parish, Donegal Ireland.   Halberts father was James Andrew McClure born about 1660.   Halbert and Agnes had six Children. 

1.  Samuel,

2.  Moses,

3.  Nathaniel,

4.  Alexander,

5.  Hannah,

6.  John.

 Now if I had been smart, I would have been happy with this information and stopped right here. But no I wanted to see more. If you have been following closely, you have probably noticed that the McClure’s were not very creative in the name department.  In the McClure lineage of my branch of family there are twenty-eight William’s, sixty-five, Mary’s, twenty-one Nathaniel’s, thirty three Samuel’s, sixteen Moses’ and seventy two John’s, to mention a few.  I quickly learned that birth and death dates, along with middle initials are very important, especially if you wanted to retain any perceptive at all.  The delete button on the keyboard got a real work out for the first few days. Finally the project was done, I got an A, I mean Jenny got an A from the teacher. Well that was fun, a lot of hard work but fun. Now I could put the sheets back in the envelope, make a backup of the data on the computer, and we were finished, “maybe” or did I want more. 

The Restoration of Lebanon Presbyterian Church Cemetery

During the time, I was entering the data I kept noticing one group of McClure’s showing up that lived in the northern portion of Kentucky, and although they were not my direct ancestors, they were my first cousins six times removed or something like that, most importantly they were family. This really intrigued me since I lived only a short distance away in Boone County Kentucky.

    This was my downfall, I mean the start of my second great adventure; there was not much about them in Donegal to Botetourt the book I was reading. (The history of the McClure’s in Virginia and elsewhere has been acquired from the Book “Following the McClure’s   Donegal to Botetourt written by Joseph W. McClure- George E. Honts III and Ellwyn Worley.  A must book for anyone researching the McClure heritage) but what was there was more than enough to get me thoroughly   intrigued. There seemed to be a common thread that bound all the families together a church called Lebanon Presbyterian. I contacted Joe McClure and ask him if he ever found Lebanon since there was not a church with that name in the phone book. He had but since he lived in Virginia he had only been there once, and  could not give me directions just a general area.    

    I then would make my third and biggest mistake, I got in my truck and went looking for the places these McClure’s had lived.  Who knew I might find one of their descendants, then maybe they would know some family history, the things that are handed down, generation to generation. This would be wonderful history, as we all know anything handed down from one generation to the next is always exact with nothing added or left out to help improve the story, “never”.

    I found the Lebanon church and cemetery on my first day; it had fallen into a state of elevated neglect and had not been maintained probably since the church closed in 1968. The building was now a garage .The cemetery was overgrown with brush and briars so intense that you could not see the tombstones. I checked with some neighbors about who owned Lebanon now and found out that the church had deeded it to the Grant County Preservation Board. I was directed to Edna Cummings who at the time was the owner of the B&E restaurant in Crittenden Kentucky about 5 miles east from the church.

    My first encounter with Edna was the same day I found the cemetery. She was in the kitchen industriously cooking for numerous customers and we talked as she worked.  I had to be careful about where I was in the kitchen because I felt that I would surely be running the dishwasher or clearing tables in a few seconds. What I wanted to be was the pie tester; I found out the enjoyable way, That Edna can bake some awesome pies. Edna explained that they had started renovation of Lebanon a couple years ago, they had made good progress in the upper section, but Lloyd Franks who was helping her had died and the restaurant was really keeping her busy. Edna also told me that people did not seem to care about the old cemeteries and getting help was very hard. Then my biggest mistake, I asked if I could help clean it up. The big grin on Edna’s face told me I might be lucky. She did not blink, just grinned.  and said have at it.

    This was September of 1998, and the weather was pleasantly warm. I recruited my wife Bonnie and my children Brian 10, and Jennifer 11 to help me. We spent the first weekend trying to figure out where the cemetery actually was and the woods started. We took bright orange survey flags and struggled through the overgrowth placing one at each head or footstone we found. The only problem with this was you could not see the flags after we got them in. There could not be another place on earth with briars; they all grew here around each headstone. You would think this could not get any better than this but to my surprise, it did.

   The next weekend we really plunged in chainsaw blazing, weed eaters devouring brush and briars and trees falling to the grasp of the kids, who were trying to see if they could get the biggest brush fire in Grant County history. I used a heavy duty Stihl Weed eater with a brush blade for the brush and a Stil chainsaw with a sixteen-inch bar for the saplings and small trees. By the conclusion of the day, we had cleared an area that was about twenty feet by thirty feet.   We could see the pattern of rows where the flags were, and even read some tombstones McClure, Gibson, Points, Ellis, Barker, Hogsett, and Securest were some. Who were all these people? What did they do? Where did they live? Where did they come from? I should have never asked those questions. In this book you are reading the answers.

    There were tombstones with birth dates in the middle seventeen hundreds, these people came to what is now Kentucky while it was still Virginia, and they lived through the legendary creation of a Commonwealth.  The pioneers who rest in this unkempt cemetery, where were their descendants?  Did they not care that the people, who came before them, cleared the land, built the roads and started to transform the area that would become Grant County, into a community, rested in this dilapidated place? The stones we could read gave us an individuality of the inhabitants of this site. There were the people entombed with just a fieldstone? Someone had carefully inscribed a name or initials by hand with love and heartache on them. Then there were the ones that time has eradicated all vestiges of the person’s existence, the people who are now only known to God.

    Days turned into weeks, weeks into months we continued clearing inch by inch. Brian was following with a probe finding more stones some buried as deep as three feet. The rush you get when you hit a stone with the probe is beyond description.  You wonder who it is going to be. Do you think it is so and so we have been looking for? Carefully we dig around the sides and uncover it with our hands, and stand it back up. The stone looks new; you wonder how long it was buried? This one belonged to Ann Anderson who was born and died in 1851 She was the daughter of Joseph and America Anderson. Lebanon Cemetery got larger and larger an inventory taken by the LDS in the mid 60’s had counted 232 graves we were now up to 266 including fieldstones. We still had one third of the plot to go. One thing that we noticed as we cleaned an area and moved on was the growth that would return. This was especially true when we got some rain.

    The solution we came up with was to use the chemical “Roundup” after a flush of growth. “Roundup” is a non-selective herbicide that will kill every Green thing it touches. It is deadly to undergrowth but neutralizes when it hits dirt, which we liked. There was not any chance of it damaging the environment by washing like some other chemicals. The next chemical we found out about was a chemical called “Sahara.” This chemical needs to be applied by a professional. Like its name it sterilizes the soil and prohibits growth for up to two years.  Sahara will only advance six inches through the soil with rain, the advantage is the time it keeps the ground sterile. This is enough time for millions of seeds to decay or become unfertile. We applied it with the last application of Roundup after the clearing and cleanup was complete.

    During the cleanup, we placed a red survey tag (small red or orange flag on a wire which we bought at Home Depot) at each place we found a tombstone or thought there was a grave. We found out that as we probed for stones that we could find graves also. The probe will not sink in easily if it is virgin ground, but the ground will never pack back as hard once dug for a grave, so the probe will go in easier. Later it became clear that there was some organization to the burials. The rows became very discernible. To help us catalog the graves we identified the rows with a stake at each side and one in the middle placing the row number on it. The next task was to figure out how many graves were in a row. This can be tricky, especially on a steep hillside. The upper section of the site was not as wide as the bottom section. Each cemetery is a little different but it was finally determined there was a grave every seven foot on center. The soil in Lebanon wasn’t very stable and the grave diggers left about two foot of virgin soil between graves. We then stretched bright orange nylon string from left to right and attached it to the row number stakes. We were then able to probe along each side of the string working from one side to the other. This worked well and was a sure way to find the buried stones. The recovered tombstones were cleaned and reset as we found them.

    We used epoxy on the stones that were broken using two kinds of product, but the best and cheapest is what plumbers call a tootsie roll. We found it in most home improvement centers in the plumbing section. (Note: do not ask the salesman for Plumbers Tootsie Roll It is Plumbers Epoxy, which comes in a tube,) The instruction on the tube will call for four to eight hours but they are not holding the weight of some stones. The epoxy was also used to set larger monuments and has worked effectively. To use it take it out of the tube and work it like clay. Be sure the break in the stone is dry and clean work the epoxy into each piece and clamp the pieces together with furniture clamps. Most clamps are four foot long and of course most of the old stones are of course five to six feet. Get the clamps that fit on half of three quarter pipe. Then buy some rigid conduit and cut to the length you need. I also have two pieces of two inch by two inch steel tubing and some 3 inch strips of carpet. This makes a great straight edge table to lay the stone on while working on it.

    Tombstones that were badly broken or had pieces missing were displayed using the following method. We made a slip form that was three feet wide and four foot long. This was made out of pressure treated two by tens. We cut the two four foot pieces on a angle ten inches at one end to eight inches at the other end. The form was placed at the gravesite in an excavation that was dug out to accommodate its size. Rebar fifteen inches long was then driven in the ground leaving five inches exposed in the form. Two pieces of Rebar were wired between the two upright pieces. The broken pieces of the stone were carefully drilled on the back and lag screws placed in them with some epoxy. We then poured concrete in the form and finish it. As it cured and became firm, we start placing the pieces on it carefully working the epoxyed lags into the concrete. When cured (about twenty days) seal the top and sides of the stone to the concrete with Silicone. Do not seal the bottom. This seal will prevent rain and snow from getting between the concrete and stone and freezing. The open bottom will let the area between the concrete and stone breathe.

The Families of Lebanon

Nathaniel and Jane Porter McClure

     The first McClure that I started with was Nathaniel McClure. He, was born February 4th1774, either on the waters of the Susquehanna, or in Botetourt County, Virginia. When his father John McClure Sr., emigrated from Ireland, he spent his younger years there. Nathaniel’s true love was Jane Porter. Her parents were against them getting married, they didn’t want Jane traipsing off into the wilderness... Nathaniel left Virginia with a small caravan consisting of his brother Moses the Andersons, Carlisle’s, Kennedy’s, McPherson’s and the McCulloch’s; at the end of the first day’s of travel Nathaniel was heart sick about leaving Jane.  He decided to return and try and talk her into going with him.  Nathaniel arrived at the Porter house after dark and tapped on her window. Jane climbed out the window. They eloped, got married in Lexington Virginia the next morning, then caught up with the caravan and continued to Kentucky, through the Cumberland Canebrake.

    Research and descriptions of Nathaniel, Jane, and company’s trip have made myself and other authors conclude that the Cumberland Canebrake is now called the Cumberland Gap. Daniel Boone marked this road with a company of men hired by Richard Henderson and his Transylvania Company in 1775.  Boone and his men marked the path that would come to be known as The Wilderness Road. The road started at present day Gate City Virginia and passed near Jonesville, then northward to the foot of the Cumberland Mountains. It then followed the mountains southwest past present day Rose Hill Virginia.  The road then turned northwest through the Cumberland Gap. It then passed near now Middlesboro Kentucky, followed the west side of Yellow Creek, then the east side of the Cumberland River north of Pineville, and just north of Barbourville to Modrel’s Station near present day London Kentucky area.  It then meandered north in the general area of present day US 25 to Crab Orchard. There settlers could leave the road and take country roads to Louisville to the Northwest or continue north on The Wilderness Road to the safety of Fort Boonsboro on the Kentucky River. Estimates I found state that nearly three hundred thousand pioneers used this road from 1796 until 1820 on their trek to the wilderness. The Kentucky Gazette published a story on October15, 1796 that stated: “The Wilderness Road from Cumberland Gap to the settlements in Kentucky is now completed. Wagons with a ton weight may pass with ease, with four good horses.”

George Honts III co-author of the book Donegal to Botetourt made these comments about their research of Nathaniel and Jane’s trip.  “Bob I think you will find that the cane break is on the Kentucky side of the Cumberland Gap. I’m sure you have been through there. We went through the Gap a couple of years ago and studied the terrain on the west side, and frankly, until you break out into Blue Grass Country, had I been a pioneer, I think I’d have turned around and come back. The Cumberland River still has lots of cane breaks along it. Tough country to get around in and dangerous since those breaks made great hiding places.”   

   In another letter George had this comment, “There were two prudent routes west from Virginia, up into the New River Valley, down the Powell Valley (one of the most beautiful spots I’ve ever seen) and through the Cumberland Gap. That was Boone’s route. The other which has been ignored considerably, was up and across the New River Valley, down through the highlands of Virginia thru present day Abingdon and Bristol and down the Holston River and then back up the Cumberland and/or Tennessee Rivers. Directly west from here, or Augusta County I guess could be done, but the front   range of the Appalachians would have been a tremendous challenge. Once over the mountain you would be in the Greenbrier Valley, take the Greenbrier down to the New River at Hinton, and then down through the New River Gorge (about 50 miles long), pass the Gauley and on to the Kanawhat  (which the New River becomes when the Gauley meets it) to Point Pleasant. Two big problems with that route the Front Range and the New River Gorge, it’s still the best white water east of the Mississippi. My guess, and Joe’s, (Joseph McClure) is that the Cumberland Gap route was taken”.

    Nathaniel and Jane must have broken off from the group and settled near Versailles in what is now Woodford County long enough to have their first two children, Mary Polly McClure 1796 and John Allen McClure 1797 The rest of the party continued on north and settled in present day Grant, Boone and Kenton Counties Kentucky. Records found show Carlisle’s settling in Piner in Kenton County around 1795, Mc Coullch’s 1795 in Campbell County which would later become Grant in the area they settled in, Andersons, McPherson’s and Kennedy’s in Boone County 1796.Soon after the birth of John Allen, Nathaniel packed up and started for the rich farmland of northwest Ohio.  This is where Cousin Samuel McClure the one born in Harrison County Kentucky, would eventually end up living near Lima. This was my Samuel; of course, he was five generations before me.

    There are various opinions about where Nathaniel was going. My research makes me think the reason Nathaniel stopped in Boone County, Ky. was to visit his sister Rebecca Anderson and her husband Thomas. He then heard about an epidemic in Ohio from people passing through the area. Nathaniel was quoted in an interview with John D. Shane in later years.  “He intended to go to Ohio, but the sickness was so bad over on the Mill Creek, that there aren’t enough people to take care of them all.” The Mill Creek extends from the northern portion of Hamilton County, Ohio near the city of Sharonville, and flows generally south. It empties into the Ohio River near downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. Today Interstate 75 follows the Mill Creek Valley through Hamilton County. Its predecessors were the rails of the interurban railways and trolley lines.

    Nathaniel was among the earliest settlers in Boone County, Ky. Boone County records show him here in 1798 at the age of twenty-four.  He settled at Lebanon Hills which was on Bullock Pen Creek, about three miles west of the small settlement of Crittenden, and near where Alexander McClure his cousin would settle some ten years later on a two hundred-acre farm on Lebanon Road now known as now the Simpson Farm. There was some controversy, over where Nathaniel built his cabin. Records for his children and some early court documents such as marriages, listing his children as residents, were found in Boone County. Nathaniel’s tombstone also say’s, “lived in Boone County.”  In 1868, Grant County expanded in size, by swapping some land with Boone County. This moved the county line from across the road, from the Lebanon Church site to Bullock Pen Creek.  This would place Nathaniel’s farm in Grant County.

 Life In 1795 was not an easy existence.

    Nathaniel’s first concern after they arrived in Boone County would have been a home to shelter his young family. Nathaniel obtained two hundred acres from John Gay, which he financed. The probate of John Gays Estate in 1824 shows that Gay held notes, on Nathaniel and Alexander. He also held notes on thirty-six other families. Gay had a grant for 4500 acres in the area that he surveyed and parceled out to the new settlers moving in. Nathaniel’s brother Moses, brother-in law Thomas Anderson and neighbors Joseph Meyers who was a carpenter and Alexander McPherson   started to cut trees and fashion them into logs and lumber to build the cabin, this was not an easy task in 1798, everything had to be done by hand with axes and saws. The building of a cabin or a barn in these times was usually a community function, neighbors helped neighbor, and communities were an extension of the family.  When a newcomer arrived, the settler’s living near them would come and help. The men would do the construction; the women and children would keep them supplied with food and water.                                                                                                                         

    Most pioneer homes were usually one large room.  Some had partitions to subdivide the cabin for privacy. These usually came after the family moved in. The main centerpiece was a large fireplace, which served as the only source for heat, a place where they cooked all their food, and heated their water for washing. The food was cooked over the open fire in large cast iron pots using awkward fireplace appliances, such as a pivoting crane, which swung the pots in and out of the fire. They called one such cooking device a Dutch oven, which was a large cast iron kettle with a close-fitting lid; this was used for baking or roasting.  The Introduction of wood burning stoves was not until the 1820’s and this was largely to the rich in large cities. They would not filter down to rural areas until early in the eighteen forty’s.

    Most cabins started with dirt floors, since it was not considered a necessity; usually later, a floor of wood (called Puncheon) or stone was installed. They usually furnished the cabin with a crudely made table and stools.  Beds consisted of straw stuffed into a large bag. Their light was furnished by lantern or by candles made by the housewife. Some excellent examples of pioneer living in this period are the living exhibits at Conner Prairie just north of Indianapolis Indiana, the Museum of Appalachia in Norris Tennessee and Cades Cove in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park near Townsend Tennessee. Each of these exhibits is quite educational. Pictures of farm buildings and gardens in this book were taken at The Museum of Appalachia] The farm would start to take shape, as the land was cleared and a garden planted, usually with vegetable seeds that the pioneers brought with them. The garden was very important to the survival of the family, and was their main food source; they took great care of the planting and fostering of it. This was the mother and children’s responsibility  

     Preserving food was of the up most importance.  There were several methods used. Vegetables and fruits were sliced thin, threaded on strings, and hung to dry in a cool place. Cooking in water brought back the preserved food to the proper moisture and consistency. Some vegetables such as squash and potatoes, kept well in the root cellar with no preservation needed. Simply submerging them in well or spring water might preserve other foods such as butter.  Most food was stored in a root cellar, which was dug into a hillside. Its floor and walls consisted of fieldstones with a wooden roof. They then recovered the entire structure with dirt, leaving only a small door exposed. The ultimate root cellar was a springhouse; it was always near or on a spring. The cool water running through the cellar helped keep the temperatures cool. The water then was channeled to a pond or well to be used in daily life on the farm. Nathaniel’s cabin was near a large spring that still exists today. 

    The life of the pioneer wife was a demanding existence. Truly a woman’s work was never done, here without modern appliances, she did all of her chores by hand, the wash, the preserving, the cooking the cleaning, the sewing.  Imagine making all of your family’s clothes by hand. Other chores included tending to the garden, helping in the fields, all while being pregnant most of the time. The most important thing she did was to tend to and educate her children. Look at the time span of most of these rugged women having children from the age of eighteen until they were well in their forties was common. In 1800, a married couple had an average of slightly more than seven children. By 1850, the number dropped to five and a half.  By 1880, it dropped again to about four and a quarter children per family. As these numbers testify, precious few contraceptive choices existed before the mid 1800’s. This was one of the reasons for the heavy mortality rate among the women. “They were just worn out.” An example is the ages of the women in Lebanon Cemetery.  The average age of their death is forty-six.

    Nathaniel kept busy clearing his land and getting it ready for planting. This was no easy task in these times stumps had to be removed by hand, with some help from the horses, and neighbors. Usually an acre or two was all that could be cleared in a year. For each stump that he removed, he had to haul dirt to fill the hole the stump left.

  Every farmer grew corn, which was nutritious to both man and beast and it was easy to grow. Corn had a harvest rate of bushels to acres that far out distanced wheat.  Not much of the plant went unused.  They saved most of the foliage for food for the livestock in the winter.  The cobs would be used for handles on tools and of course the corncob pipe.  The harvested corn was stored in a crib, until it was needed; the kernels were removed from the cob. The pioneer then ground and stored it to be used in making various items such as cornbread and feed for the animals. After they harvested the corn, the farmer would plow up his field and plant his wheat seeds these would sprout in the early spring. The wheat was harvested in time to plant the corn again.    

    The first grinding mill to be near enough for Nathaniel to get too was the Stephenson Mill it was built on what would later be called Mt. Zion - Verona road. The mill would use Ten Mile Creek for its power. It is not clear when the mill was built but it was probably around 1805.  The Stephenson’s son would later buy a mill in Crittenden that had horses on a treadmill for its power.  Hay was another crop of up most importance on the farm then as it is now. The Hay was harvested by hand with scyes and tied in bundles to dry. Then it was taken to the barn and stored.  Sometimes a large pole was erected in the farmyard and the hay stacked around it, the animals would eat from this

     Boone County was rich in wild game, black bear, deer, turkey, raccoon, squirrel, and rabbits. They reported that fish in Bullock Pen creek were so plentiful that you could easily catch them with your hands.  Nathaniel said in his interview with Shane “Pea vines grew in the heads of the hollows so thick you could track a turkey and run on its trail”

    Almost every settler planted an apple orchard near the house, not only was the apple nutritious but also made fine cider, apple butter and applesauce, which were preserved. The family would transplant wild black and raspberry bushes close to the home and replanted as a food source. They also used bushes as a security screen, not many living things liked to cross through them.

     The early settlers to Grant County raised, cows, hogs, goats, sheep and chickens for their food and clothing value. Fall not only brought harvest time for the crops but it was butchering time, which was usually a community event. They would start early in the morning building large fires and boiling water.  The community drove the animals to this area and slaughtered them. Each family had a different task. One family would make bacon slabs another would get the large intestine and clean it.  They would then pack it with ground pork for sausage. They would assign others the cutting and preserving of hams and roasts. When the job was finished, everything got divided up equally among the families.  They would have a large meal and a dance under the harvest moon. This was the last many of these families would see of each other until spring.                                   

    Salting or smoking accomplished preserving of meat or sometimes both were necessary.  One widely used technique was to pack pieces of meat in a barrel filled with brine solution. The brine had to be strong enough to float an egg; the barrel was stored in the root cellar. Although the meat could be kept for great lengths of time this way, exhaustive rinsing and soaking were necessary to make the meat eatable. They called an alternative to this corning the meat, although it did not keep the meat as long.

   Winter was the time when repairs were made to the farm and equipment, as the weather permitted fences were fixed or constructed, tack was repaired, implements were worked over and made ready for spring. This was the best time to cut trees. If the ground was not frozen they removed stumps.  Logs were cut and drug on the snow to an area where they cut them up for lumber; split for fences and cut for firewood they wasted nothing.  Livestock still had to be fed and protected from the harsh elements of winter.  The cows had to be milked every day. Eggs collected, water and firewood still had to be brought to the house. Ice was cut with saws from the creeks and stored in an ice house, this was a small log building usually covered with dirt for insulation, The Ice was brought to the ice house in large cakes, It was then covered with sawdust, leaves, or straw. The ice lasted until the next winter.  Iceboxes were introduced in 1820 and were in wide spread use by the mid eighteen thirties.

    Nathaniel’s cabin still stands almost two hundred years after he built it, although it has been sided and remodeled.  Now it’s on the Grant County side of Bullock Pen Lake, which was developed as a water supply, for the northern sections of Grant County in the sixties. Bullock Pen derives its name from Nathaniel Bullock who settled there around the same time as Nathaniel. He built livestock pens near the creek.

    Nathaniel died on January 18, 1848 at the age of seventy-four, Jane became reclusive and sickly.  Some reports indicate that Jane’s children moved her from home to home on her bed in a wagon. The court documents we found at the Boone County Courthouse indicate a different story.

John Allen McClure her son went to court and got supervision over Nathaniel’s Estate.  The purpose was to keep the estate for his mother during her old age and infirmities, and not to give up rights, title, and interest with the understanding that at Jane’s death, their rights as heirs were not to be impeached.  John Allen whom the Boone County Court had approved in 1849 never got the papers signed or the title to the farm. Jane who became malcontent would not sign, give up title, leave her home or abide by the court ruling.  Her kids did not want to push her, so they stopped the proceedings. This went on for most of 1849-56. Jane’s children or their spouses who signed the court papers were Robert Gibson, John W Stevenson, David Barker, Nancy A. Barker, Hanna Henderson, Jane Barker and Nathaniel Jr.

    On Sept 28, 1850 John Allen died. The surviving heir’s then named Eliza K. Fish, the administrator of the estate.  He ultimately got the papers signed in 1856. They divided the estate, after Jane’s death on January 19 1859 in the orthodox settings of her home, which she refused to relinquish or leave.  Jane’s children decided that since some of Nathaniel’s children were deceased, that their children would receive the parent’s portion of the estate.

The Founding Of Lebanon Presbyterian Church

    Nathaniel’s family grew and religion that had been a staple in Virginia was hard to come by in frontier Kentucky. Churches in Grant County in 1795-1798 were scarce. The first Church in today’s Grant County was probably the Baptist Church on the Dry Ridge it was organized sometime in 1791. This would have been a long journey for Nathaniel and Jane in 1798.  Nathaniel and Jane taught their children what they had learned in a more colonized situation they had in Virginia. The settlers in the area known as Lebanon Height’s which is one of the oldest community’s in Grant County (Pendleton County at the time) ask the Presbyterian Church in Virginia to commission a church in Lebanon.   The Lebanon Presbyterian Church had its inception in the living rooms of some of the founders, until they built a small log church somewhere near the Lebanon Road (Ky. 491) and Bullock Pen Creek confluence. Shawnee Indian’s burnt this building after they obliterated the Brann family a short distance up the creek in 1805.There is a historical Marker on Ky. 491 it reads

“Three miles west, reputedly one of the last massacres in Ky. McClure’s and Kennedy’s lived on hills above Bullock Penn Creek and the Brann family occupied a cabin on the creek at the foot of hills. Around 1805, a party of Indians burned the Brann home after scalping parents and children.  All died except the mother who crawled to the Kennedy house. She eventually recovered.”

    Nathaniel, Alexander, and Moses McClure along with Andrew Kincaid, Alexander McPherson, Joseph Canady and Alex Meyers rebuild the log church building and a log schoolhouse in 1806 where the present Lebanon cemetery is. This building also burned in 1822 and rebuilt by some of its members in its present location 1824. The burials in Lebanon corroborate this, there are no burials before 1829 in the upper segment, and earlier burials are on the sloping hillside to the west of the old toll road that would have been the west side of the log structure.

    Alexander McClure and Joseph Meyers gave the land to the church on a deed dated 10 August 1824 here are the contents of the deed:

Joseph Meyers and Alexander McClure both of Grant County to Alexander McPherson Sr. and Nathaniel McClure, both of Boone County, Ky. Who were appointed trustees of the Presbyterian Congregation called Lebanon Congregation, for $ 1.00 -a said tract of land part of which is a meeting house, built by said congregation said tract bordering on Joseph Myer’s field consisting of one acre.  7 June 1824    Witness: Robert B Vickers, Joseph Kennedy, and Jacob Meyers.  ack. 22 August 1822 by Joseph Meyers and on 10 Aug. 1824 by Alexander McClure.  Book A Page 255 Grant County Ky.

     The map taken from Thomas H. Hutzelman’s Atlas of Grant County Kentucky 1858 located in Appendix A of this book, shows how Alexander McClure’s and Joseph Meyers land met at the church site with the toll road between them. The toll road is still seen today in the Lebanon Cemetery.

     The members of Lebanon in 1828 were Nathaniel and Jane McClure, Jane Preston, Rev.J.C.Harrison (Pastor), Jos. , Joseph.Jr, Wm. and Anne Canady, Alexander McPherson, Rebecca McPherson, Alexander McPherson Jr., John Canady, Joseph Meyers, Nancy Meyers, Alexander McClure, Jane McClure, Hannah McClure, Betsy McClure, Patsy Meyers, Kitty McClure, Jane McClure, Moses McClure, John McClure Jr., Rebecca McClure, Hannah Finley, Patsy Stevenson, Betsy Gibson, Lewis Rose, Patsy Rose, Lewis Licker, Eunice McClure, Ellen Berkshire, Polly Ratcliff, Thomas Williams, Isabella Williams, Alex Mann, Elizabeth McClure, Mary Brown,  Jane Ratcliff,  Catherine Percival,   Smith McGinnis,  M.J. McGinnes,  Margaret Marrow,  John Gibson,  Polly Gibson,  Sophia Rice Harrison,  Elisha Ratcliff,  Robert B. Vackers,  Melissa Waller, John McClure,  William McClure,  Betsy McClure,  Polly Campbell,  Alex, Campbell, Elizabeth Campbell,  Alex. Campbell Jr., M. Coleman,  Sally Locker,  John Campbell, Rugh Hamilton,  Jane McPherson,  Phoebe Ballard,  Isabell Carr,  Patsy Hudson, Joysey Leonard,  Nancy Ann McClure,  Sallie Kanady,  Jane McClure,  Elisha Hudson, James Canady,  James Gibson,  Margaret Sayers,  Judith Collins,  Cynthia Hudson, Sarah Lacker,  Sally Anderson,  Nancy Wharton,  Betsy McClure,  Halbert McClure, Martha Myers,  Elizabeth Gibson,  Jonah Harrison and Nathaniel McClure Jr.

    In 1828 Nathaniel McClure was the Clerk of Sessions of the church.  He held this position until October 2, 1842 when he and several of his children and friends withdrew and organized a new church at Crittenden.    In 1833-1834 Reverend Joseph C. Harrison served the church. Its membership in 1883 was reported as fifty-six, in 1834 as seventy.  From 1843-1864 Reverend George B. Armstrong was the pastor, and the pastor of the Crittenden Church. He died in 1865 and is buried in Lebanon Cemetery along with his wife and two of his infant children.

    The Church membership grew and by 1879 was reported as one hundred ten. The last minister was Reverend Robert Mc Callester; Lebanon Presbyterian church was evidently the oldest or second oldest church in the county, probably predating the county itself by nearly ten years. Lebanon closed its doors in 1968 the remaining members going to nearby churches in Crittenden and Verona in Grant and Boone County’s.

Nathaniel and Jane’s Children and their Families

The William Griffin and Mary Polly McClure Family

 Nathaniel and Jane’s daughter Mary Polly married William Griffith, October 29, 1812 at the age of sixteen in Boone County Kentucky.  She had two children Jane H. Griffith abt. 1813 and John Griffith abt. 1815.  She died in 1817 at the early age of   twenty-one. In the book Clasping Hands with Generations Past it is noted that after Mary Polly’s death William left the area and was never heard from again. I believe this is a true statement.  Searches of many sources have never turned up a documented clue of his or the children’s whereabouts. I did find a William, Jane and John Griffith in Marion County Indiana abt 1828. I was not able to substantiate them as being the accurate Griffith’s.

  The John Allen McClure and Sarah Hinds Family

     John Allen McClure,  was born 28 Sept 1797, and  died suddenly on 28 Dec.1850.He was a successful farmer 1847 Grant Co. Tax list show’s John Allen as owning 200 Acres Eagle Creek, 500 Acres Eagle Creek, 44 Acres Eagle Creek, 225 Acres Eagle Creek,  140 Acres, Eagle Creek,  also has  a carriage and large herds of cattle. He lived near the community of Mt Zion. He was a magistrate under the old constitution, for many years. Grant county court records show him involved in the following proceedings.

    July of1829: Samuel Gossett and John A McClure are appointed surveyors of the proposed road from the Boone County Line to the fork of Ten Mile Creek.

   Sept 1829: Appointment of John McClure, William McClure, William Franks, and Phillip McBee as commissioners to view a new road from William McClure’s to Fredericksburg road near John Merrill’s on the Boone County Line.( This road would later be known as Mt .Zion Verona Rd.)

    June of 1830: John Allen was appointed as commissioner along with John Franks, William Montgomery, and Allan Waller to view a new road from John Franks to Fords Mill

    14 Mar 1831: John Allen is appointed commissioner along with William C. .Johnson Jacob Meyers and William, Massey to view an alteration in the Two Ranks road.

   Testimony of John Allen McClure along with Addison Beach and William Beach proves that Daniel Cowgill, late a Revolutionary pensioner, from the state of Ohio died 14 June 1843 at his residence in Grant County Ky.

   In March 13 1848: John Allen and W Skirvin are appointed as a committee to go see Amos Evans to determine whether he is fit subject to become a pauper of this county.

    John Allen’s first wife was Sarah “Sallie” Hind’s she was born November 21, 1798 in Boone County Kentucky. They married sometime around 1818. She and John Allen conceived two children, they were

1)  William E. McClure who was born March 25, 1823. William died at home at the age of seventeen the result of an accident with a horse and wagon on the family farm, January 20, 1840.  John and Sarah’s next child was

2)  Hulda J. she was born January 14,1825 and died at the age of two years ten months  October 18, 1828.  Sarah “Sallie” died just seven months after Hulda’s birth. Sarah and Hulda are buried next to each other William a few graves away, in Lebanon Cemetery. 

  The John Allen McClure and Eunice Keeler Fish Family

     Eunice Keeler Fish McClure was John Allen’s second wife. She was a daughter of William Fish, who emigrated from New York to Pendleton County, Ky.  She was born October 24, 1808 in New York State.  She and John Allen were married April 7, 1830 in Grant County.  After John Allen’s death Eunice relinquished administration of his estate,  which they then granted to Ezra K. Fish in June of 1851 John Allen and Eunice’  son’s  John Thomas McClure and Ezra Keeler McClure who were older than fourteen,  could designate their mother guardian. The court then appointed Eunice their mother and their Uncle Ezra K. Fish, guardians to her other children Laura Ann McClure, Nancy Hannah McClure, Mary Jane McClure, Sarah Francis McClure, William Henry McClure, Eunice Alice McClure and Margaret Thompson McClure.    John Stevens, William McClure, Thomas Thompson and Nathaniel McClure Jr signed the security.                  

   Eunice and her brother Ezra K. Fish made the first required statement, on the condition of the estate to the court in June of 1853.  Eunice stated “the farm known as the Johnson farm, was virtually unusable because the fields were over grazed, and exhausted, and would not be much use until they could revitalize them”     The Farm known as the Elam Riddle farm was essentially the same, they had rented these farms to Thomas Thompson and S. Osborn.  The monies taken in for the rentals on all the properties amounted to $3456.23 in 1852. $ 3672.90 in 1853.  They reported the accountings of slaves that belonged to the estate to the court as follows “they hired out Jefferson to Johnson Wood for 1852-1853, Ned was working around the homestead. They hired out Andy to Benjamin Northcutt. They hired out Betty to Thomas S. Fish. Mary had died the previous October, Ann had also died last November from some burns she received in the kitchen.”

     The report to the court for 1855 -1857 on John Allen’s Estate stated that they rented, the Stone tract of land to William Cunningham.  They now rented the Johnson Tract of land, to Harrison Skirvin.  They rented the Levi Webster tract and the Elam Ridge tract of land to John Carnes.   The accounting of the slaves that belonged to the estate, they rented the Negro boy Jefferson to John Wood, and on February 10, 1856.  Andy ran away as did Press and neither boy had been seen nor heard from since.  They then sent Jefferson to Lexington to be sold.  The young woman Bet had been sick and had accumulated many doctor bills, she had a son aged about three months. Ned had been working for Ezra K. Fish.  Harriet, Martha, and Ellen aged 10-12 were living with Ezra and his wife.

    John Allen McClure at the time of his death held in his possession a title bond executed by James O’Hara for a tract of land known as the Johnson farm. After his death they learned that the wife of Edward Ely,   living in Virginia, had an interest for that land also, Mr. O’Hara had not received title; a law suit in Grant county Chancery Court resulted

    Eunice passed away on September 4, 1885.  She was 76 years of age.  Eunice rests in Lebanon Cemetery between son John T. and Grandson Dickerson the children of Eunice and John Allen were

    Nathaniel Fish McClure b. January 18, 1831 he died November 22,1850 at the age of nineteen, they buried him in Lebanon Cemetery

  Mary Jane Porter McClure b. October 24, 1832 died March 7, 1838 at the age of five and is buried in Lebanon Church Cemetery near her father

.

  John Thomas McClure b. Sept 20, 1834 lived on the farm his father left the children after he purchased their shares. It was just north of the village of Mount Zion on Mount Zion and Zion Station Turnpike Road.  A fine farm of 320 acres laying on both sides of the Turnpike Road and in the midst there of a beautiful residence,?  fine barns and fine stock.   The Williamstown Courier ran a biography of John Thomas on its front page March 5th 1891 here are the content’s

The Honorable John T. McClure

A Good Farmer and Safe Legislator.

“There is no man more popular than John T. McClure. He was born at his present residence in Grant County near Mt Zion September 1834, making him fifty seven years old this near September.  Would it not be for his gray mustache and frost in his hair.  You would think him twenty years younger. Third child in a family of eleven born to John Allen and Eunice Fish McClure. He is the Grand Son of Nathaniel and Jane Porter McClure, some of earliest settlers to Grant County and a founder of Lebanon Presbyterian Church.  Of the children born to his parents, nine are still living John Thomas, Ezra Keeler, Dr. W.H., Mrs. J.W. Mount, Mrs. J.T. Simon, Mrs. Dr. J.F. Hendy, Mrs. F.T. Hendy, and Mrs. Fannie Hudson.

  The subject of this sketch has always been a Democrat, his faith in democracy always being as strong as his faith in Calvinism, For half a century he has lived among the people of Grant County, His worth as a man attested to by many a friend.  Quietly he has passed his years at the old homestead preferring to be a bachelor than risk the cares of marriage.  More than once his party has honored him with positions of trust and responsibility. In 1871 he was elected sheriff and served two years, and served four more years being elected in 1881 and 1883.  Two years ago they nominated and elected him to represent this County in the State Legislature and made an excellent representative No Better Man could be elected “.

    John T finished out his years by selling the farm and moving to Crittenden where he took a job in 1893 at the age of sixty-nine as the first head cashier at the newly formed Tobacco Growers Bank in Crittenden he worked for the next ten years without missing a day of work. He took a vacation for one week on the start of the eleventh year, he died a few months later his salary was one thousand dollars a year. The Williamstown Courier announced his death in 1904 with bold headlines.

  “The news of the passing startled and saddened the town of the Honorable John Thomas McClure September 13, 1904 at his Crittenden home, where he moved a few years ago after selling the family farm.  He was Sheriff, Representative, a farmer and a cashier in Tobacco Growers Deposit Bank at Crittenden he was seventy. They laid John Thomas to rest at the Presbyterian Cemetery at Lebanon, He was a Mason, and they named the McClure Chapter at Williamstown for him.”

  The newspaper stated that they buried him in the family plot at Linden Grove in Covington but this was an inaccuracy and we changed the text to reflect his true final resting place. He is in Lebanon Cemetery in grave 32 row 17 next to his mother Eunice.

The Ezra Keeler McClure and Nancy Dickerson Family

Ezra K. McClure was born in Grant County, Ky. August 24, 1836,  is the second son born to John Allen and Eunice Fish McClure,  Ezra K. McClure was reared on his father’s farm and educated at the Crittenden Union College.  In 1863 he volunteered in Gen. Churchill’s Arkansas Brigade,   remained one year, and left as second lieutenant. He then returned to Grant County and engaged in the manufacture of plug tobacco until 1870, when he commenced farming and buying tobacco, he left the farming to his son Jack in 1872, devoting his entire attention to buying and selling tobacco. He sold the tobacco at Cincinnati and handled from 160,000 to 400,000 pounds. The tobacco factory was a frame building 100 x 40 feet with an L 40 x 25 feet. I have been fortunate enough to obtain some documents of E. K’s business form Edna Cummins of Crittenden. She rescued his checkbook from a trunk a few years ago. He is a listing of some of the checks he wrote.

·    Check  # 2    J.Jackson        Tobacco             No Date             $ 20.70

·    Check  # 3    E.J. Green        llot Tobacco       No Date           $131.95

·    Check   #4    E.J. Green       Tobacco            22Jan1894          $471.58

·    Check# 23   W.L. Kennady Tobacco              27Jun1894          $ 31.42

·    Check# 32    Wm. Rouse     Tobacco               5 Jul 1894         $392.98

·    Check# 49    Self                  Wages                16Ma 1895       $  20.00

The check book continues on until 23 Dec1896 when its use is discontinued there are still over one hundred checks that were never used.

    Grant county court documents state that some of E.K. Neighbors Took E.K. to court for operating a public nuisance seems he decided to raise hogs in a pen next to the warehouse, to the dissatisfaction of the townspeople”.

    Ezra was a stockholder and founding board member of the new Tobacco Growers Deposit Bank in Crittenden in 1893. On July 26, 1859, Mr. McClure married Miss Nancy Dickerson, a native of Bourbon County, Ky. Nancy known as Nanny owned a boarding house and school for young women in Crittenden. Mr. McClure was a Royal Arch Mason.

They had five children:

1)  Conn McClure was born September 11, 1860 and died at the age of one in May 17,1862 they have buried him in Lebanon Church Cemetery.

2)  Ezra K. (Jack)  Jr, born November 25, 1862,  Married Callie Horton. He worked with his father on the farm’s and in the family tobacco business, he died July 13,1936 and is buried in Crittenden Cemetery alongside Callie.

3)  Nathaniel F. McClure, born July 21, 1865, graduated in June 1887 from the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY; twenty-third in a class of sixty-five, and was second lieutenant with the Fourth United States Cavalry at Fort McDowell, Arizona Territory. He married Mamie Chapin in Woodford County Kentucky. They had one child a son who died at an early age Nathaniel reached the rank of Brigadier General during World War One, after fighting in France in 1918 between the Argonne Forest and the Muse River.

  This is the text of Nathaniel’s obituary sent to me by Dr. Steven B. Gore USMA Historian at West Point. This appeared in the Alumni Journal

“Nathaniel Fish McClure No.3196 West Point Class of 1887. Died June 26, 1942 at Walter Reed Hospital Washington. D.C. He was born July 21, 1865 at Crittenden, Kentucky. His Great-grandfather for who he is named migrated to Kentucky from Virginia in 1795, and settled near Crittenden. A son John Allen McClure married Eunice Fish an immigrant from Canandaigua, New York. Their second son Ezra Koehler McClure married Nancy Dickerson. Five sons were born of this marriage; Nat McClure was the last survivor.

    Local school’s provided such education as Mac had prior to West Point. Through personal correspondence with Rep. John G Carlisle of Kentucky (twice speaker of the house and later secretary of the treasury) ,he secured an appointment to the Military Academy, entered as a “sep” in 1883 and graduated in 1887, above the middle of his class. He was a sergeant in his first class year, a Lieutenant in his second. 

     Mac was assigned to the Calvary his first assignment being to the 4th at Fort McDowell Arizona. Most of his service was in that regiment and the 5th in the southwest. In the world war he organized the 22nd cavalry then transformed it into the 80th Field Artillery thirty days later. Sometime after the war he commanded the 111th cavalry at Monterey California. His home service was in a third of the states; his foreign service was in Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Hawaii, Mexico, England and France.

Mac was a distinguished Graduate Of 

·  Army School Of The Line 1909

·  Army Staff College 1910

·  Instructor Dept of Military Army Service School’s 1913-1916

·  Army War College 1917.

 He Sailed for France November 2, 1917, where he was successively Chief of Staff, of line commutations,

· Commander of Debarkation Camp 1 at Saint Nazarie.

· Commander Base section No-5 at Brest.

His commission as Brigadier General, National Army,  was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 2 1918,  the day he arrived at Briest. There he remained until the latter part of May. He was prouder of his service there than any other in his career From a rather wretched base with a capacity of 14,000 men he built up a base with a capacity of 100,000 with a complete new water system, barracks and storage facilities, and a lighter system whose capacity was 3800 men per trip.

    But he wanted and sought combat duty and on Memorial Day 1918, he took over command of the 69th Infantry brigade at Abbeville. The division was slated for duty with the British but this was changed and by June 12th it was in a quiet sector in the Vosges. In eastern France. There by seniority he commanded the division for five weeks, during which part of the division was in the front line all of the time, and all of it for three weeks. The division was in Army Reserve in the St Mihiel operation (under a permanent commander) and was moved to the Argonne and given a front line position for the attack on September 26. McClure had completed placing his brigade in position for the attack when the order came relieving him and Brigade General Charles I. Martin whose brigade was in reserve of duty. In the combat zone there is little time for investigations McClure took this blow with fortitude of the good solider he was.

    Among duties performed after thee war were General Staff, Assistant Commandant, Disciplinary Barracks;  Colonel,11th  Cavalry; Signal Corps; He retired because of age July 21,1929, and was promoted to Brigadier General, Ret., June 21, 1930.

    McClure married Mamie Chapin Crovat July 14, 1890 in Lexington Ky. A son was born to this union buy died at the age of two years. His step-daughter, Ella Crovat Koch, did outstanding work in the Red Cross during the World War and when she died October 24, 1918 was accorded a full military funeral.

    Socially Mac and his wife were outstanding exemplars of the “old Army” now largely traditional. Their home in city or post, tropical jungle or frontier desert, was always open house to friend or wayfarer.

    Mac was a lover of the great outdoors, a seeker in pages of nature. The Sierra Club of California recognized his attainments by making him an Honorary Life Member. His fondness for mountaineering nearly led to his death when he was a member of the Pershing Expedition into Mexico in 1916 to capture bandit Pancho Villa. From the Mexican plain where the horses were grazed daily, a tiny speck of green was visible high on a mountain. That meant water, and one day he set out to climb it. He reached his objective, which proved to be a small spring, and stopped to get a drink. His 45-calibre revolver fell from the holster, was discharged, and the bullet after passing twice through the upper leg, lodged in his body near the base of the spine. He managed to drag himself nearly to camp when he was found. Then came a two hundred mile ride in a truck over terrible roads to a hospital. Only Mac’s splendid physique saved him.

    Tennis was his favorite game and he played a strong game well up into his sixties. Until a year of so before his death few days passed without his taking a long walk, and his pace was worthy of a younger man.

    In all his studies and they were many he showed remarkable persistence, following the subject through to a logical conclusion. Regardless of difficulties. Perhaps this is best shown in his last work, a history of the West Point class of 1887. At its fiftieth reunion he suggested that such a work should be undertaken and quite naturally, found himself elected a committee of one to write it. He started with the idea that it should comprise a biography of every man who had ever been a member. From the Adjutant General he got the names and home addresses given in 1883, and by letters to the home towns eventually got a biography of ever man. The last just the day before the book went to press!  Mac had had no office, no clerk at call, those hundreds of letters and the text were typed by him. The book is an excellent biography, is probably the only one of the sort covering every individual and represents two years of untiring labor. For a man in the seventies it is monumental.

    Mac was a member of the American Legion, the Military Order of the World War, the Union League of Chicago, the Military order of the Carabao and vice-president of the Associates of Graduates, the Army and Navy Club of Washington, D.C., the Sierra Club of California.

    His many friends will never forget his sweet smile, his bright blue eyes, his kindly warmth, his unfailing loyalty. To many, as to this writer, his passing marked the end of an epoch.

    Mac was one of the kindliest of souls- if he had a fault it was his acceptance of all people as imbued with his own virtues of generosity and good will. He was sentimental, particularly as to the State of his birth. Shortly before his death, listing to a band in the hospital grounds, he made his last request, which that tune should be played at his funeral it was “My Old Kentucky Home”.

    General McClure has always been one of the most loyal supporters of West Point. His great courage, inspiration, and love of the Academy are guiding light to all those who have been fortunate enough to know him directly or indirectly. In his death the Military Academy and his many West Point associates have suffered a distinct loss

                                                                          Brig. General E.D. Scott

4)  Dickerson McClure who was born in 1867, he died in 1869 at age two from pneumonia and is buried in Lebanon Church Cemetery.

5)  Lucien Dickerson McClure born October 31, 1870 and died at age 30 in 1900 from a ruptured appendix at the Navy hospital in Norfolk Virginia; E.K. was at his son’s side when he died. He brought Lucien home by train where they buried him at Lebanon Church Cemetery.  Before going to Norfolk Lucien taught school in the new Dry Ridge District Two School and in several adjoining counties.  Ezra and Nancy are buried in Crittenden Cemetery near their son Ezra Jack and his wife.

    John Allen and Eunice’s fifth child was Laura Ann McClure born May 1, 1838.  She married William S. Rankin November 16, 1859 at the age of twenty-one.  They had three children a son John Rankin and a set of twins. William was a successful attorney in Grant County and apparently died before 1900. In July of 1901 Laura held a party for Niece Miss Hendy, She then traveled to Washington D.C. to visit son John where he worked for the US Government. Laura at 66 in 1904 was not in very good health. Son John came to visit her August 11th. He returns to move her to Washington to live with him November 17 1904   Laura Ann died in Atlantic City N.J. sometime after 1907.

    John Allen’s next child was Nancy Hanna McClure she was born December 4, 1839 and married Reverend John Fenton Hendy December 1865 at Emporia Kansas. He was born in Ireland and immigrated to the United States in 1841 and became a naturalized American. He became an official of the Presbyterian Church, they had three children

1)  Rankin Hendy,

2)  Martha Hendy who was born at Vincennes, Indian and later would marry George S. Sweezy in Oct. 1895 at Oswego Kansas. 

3)  Edwin Hendy. He married Dora P. who was born in Tennessee about 1873. In 1900 they were living with John and Nancy and had one child John F. Hendy Edwin was a veterinarian. The 1910 Mo. Census shows Edwin M Hendy owns veterinarian supply they own their home, and have two children John F 11 and Dora 8 they now have a servant Ida Coffelt who was 30. By the 1920 census they are still in Jefferson City John, and Pattie Dora, and now a daughter Nancy Hendy who is four. The official manual of the State of Missouri shows E.M. Hendy of Jefferson City as the Missouri deputy state veterinarian from 1917 to 1928.  He graduated from Ontario Veterinarian College in 1895

    Nancy Hanna died May 26, 1904 at Jefferson City Mo., after a replase of a heart ailment and a short illness.  Her husband, children and Brother Dr.W.H. McClure were at her side. Reverend Hendy does not appear in the Missouri census after 1900 so I must assume he died between 1900 and 1910 or moved after Nancy Hanna died.

    Mary Jane Fish McClure was born November 5, 1841 to John Allen and Eunice.  She married Jacob W. Mount 4 Nov. 186