The New Book about Old Union Cemetery is ready for orders and shipping
March 3rd, 2018

The new book is ready. Please spread the word to family and friends. Our goal is to sell 200 copies of the book. That will be a real challenge without help from everyone.

The full details about the book and how to order etc. are on my Pipes Family Web Site.

www.pipesfamily.com

Please know that the sale of this book is a fund raiser for maintenance of the Old Cemetery where the Pipes, Harmon and Gray ancestors are resting. All proceeds go the Family Association

You may go there to reserve a copy  and /or pay for one and the first copies will be here mid-March to ship out. The first 50 are almost gone, so do not wait!!

A New Book about the Old Union Cemetery and Church Building

At the Family reunion in August of 2016  A small group of members of the Pipes Harmon Gray family association agreed to take on the fund raising task of writing a book about the Old Union Church and burying grounds in the west end of Boyle County, Kentucky.
We are off and running and need all the help we can get. If you have pictures, information or stories about the old church and those buried there, please consider letting us add that to the book.
The book will be sold with all proceeds going to the family association for cemetery maintenance costs.
We have some pictures of those buried there already:

1. Rice Harrison (R.H.) Harmon and
2. his Wife Elizabeth “Bettie” (Gray) Harmon
3. Elias Hardin Pipes and
4. his wife  Victoria Hourigan Pipes
5. Levi Allen Pipes
6. John “Jackie” Sheperson
7. Josephine (Edwards) Pipes
8. John W. Grantland and (he is not buried in Old Union)
9. his wife Louisa Calvert (She is buried in Old Union)
10. John Bradford “J. B.” Harmon and
11. his wife Catherine (Montgomery) Harmon
12. Iola (Lanham) Young
13. George Washington Pipes and
14. his wife Mariah (Edwards) Pipes
15. Nannie M  Pipes Overstreet (wife of John Caleb Overstreet II) Dau. of Levi Allen Pipes
16. Nathan Waters Pipes and
17. his wife Keziah “Kizzie” (Brand) Pipes
18. Sally Montgomery (Wife of Morris Pipes)
19. Ansel L. Bandy and
20. His wife Mary Burgess
21. George Washington Crain (Crane) and
22. his wife Nancy Arnold Crain (Crane)
23. James Whitehouse and
24. His wife Agnes Hunn Whitehouse
25. Susie Pipes Tharp
26. Her Husband Callon Tharp
27. Archa Gray and
28. His Wife Martha Montgomery
29. Jefferson Taylor Harmon ( Not in Old Union)
30. His 1st wife Kizzie Whitehouse ( she is in Old Union) 

If you can help with pictures of the old building that would be great. I have all of the old pictures from newspaper articles taken after 1960 but no original pictures of it.

Stories of ancestors who attended services there also are helpful. Please contact me and discuss what I have already and what you may have to add.
email me at pipesb@pipesfamily.com

My new book about the Pipes family in central Kentucky is ready for sale. This is the story of my G Grandparents, Obediah B. Pipes and Josephine B. Edwards. They are resting in old union Cemetery with many of their friends and relatives. Go to my web site www.pipesfamily.com to see a preview and purchase the book. Proceeds from the book will be donated to the Cemetery maintenance fund.
Thanks! and please tell everyone about the book.

Another Set of Monuments Restored in Old Union

I received a wonderful Letter and some pictures this week from Barbara May. Barbara was one of the very first 'Cousins' that my family met when we made our first visit to Danville to discover more about our family history in 1984. She introduced us to Brenda Edwards from the Advocate Newspaper and the result was a wonderful afternoon in Constitution Park in Danville and a full page article with pictures in the Sunday Edition of the paper. Brenda and Barbara made us feel very welcome and were so gracious and helpful, it made our family feel very special.

We were all from central Michigan and descendants of James Franklin Pipes who was born in 1876 on a farm on Ben Minor Ridge Road to Obediah Brumfield Pipes and Josephine Bonaparte Edwards. James was my grandfather and migrated to Michigan in the early 1920s to work for General Motors.

There were few people named Pipes in Michigan and to say we were disconnected from our roots would be an understatement.

That has changed over the years since that day in 1984 and my family will always remember Barbara and Brenda and how they helped us renew that connection to our roots in Kentucky.

Barbara sent me news this week about the Cemetery and the restoration of the largest monument in the cemetery. The monument is for Nathan Waters Pipes and his wife Keziah (Brand) 'Kizzie' Pipes. This monument had been leaning preciptiously for many years due to the foundation shifting and the ravages of the wind and weather. A company from Stanford was hired and they brought in a large crane to take the stone down and then a new foundation was poured. The smaller stones were also reset on new foundations and while she was at it, Barbara had them make bases and then mounted the previously broken stones for the parents of Nathan Waters, Nathaniel Pipes and Margaret Harmon.

On our first trip to Union Cemetery in 1984, Nathan and Keziah's monument was standing tall and proud but the smaller stones for Nathaniel and Margaret were down and broken. Now they are all standing up again and thanks to Barbara May they are resting close and protected and where they belong.

Also in the family plot is the stone and resting place for Mallie Pipes, the young daughter of Nathan and Keziah who passed away in 1874 at 13 years old.

Barbara is considering repairs for the wrought iron fence around the plot and proper landscaping for the area inside the fence. These fences are very difficult to repair and maintain and suffer greatly from vandals, weather and intruding cattle. Many of them in the cemetery have been damaged.

This is the best news I have heard about the cemetery in some time and we should be forever grateful to Barbara for personally making this happen.

Please consider a donation to the Family Association fund for restoring these old stones. Robbie Mayes is making a concerted effort to repair and reset the ones that can still be worked with. The address is on the main page.

Johnny Harmon Obituary

A tragic accident on January 15, 2012 took the life of Johnny Harmon. His obituary appeared in the Advocate Messenger and is copied here. John was the brother of our dear friend Peggy Edgington.

10:41 a.m. EST, Tuesday, January 17, 2012
PERRYVILLE — John “Johnny” C. B. Harmon Jr., 62, of Perryville, died Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, in Lexington. He was the husband of Judy Goode Harmon.

Born June 14, 1949, in Boyle County, he was a son of Bertha Yates Harmon of Perryville and the late Jack Harmon. He was a very active member of Perryville Baptist Church where he was a deacon and had served on various church committees.

Johnny was a retired employee of the United States Postal Service, having worked for 36 years in Danville. He was a 1967 graduate of Boyle County High School where he played baseball, football and basketball. Johnny is remembered as a “natural” athlete; he excelled in all sports. His love for softball didn’t end with high school; he continued playing for many years. Johnny was a member of a former state championship fastpitch softball team and a member of the Perryville fastpitch softball team. He coached the Boyle County Middle School Girls fastpitch softball team, was inducted into the Boyle County High School football hall of fame, was an avid golfer, played racquetball and enjoyed farming. Above his love for sports was his family; he cherished his time spent with his family and grandchildren.

In addition to his wife Judy, he is survived by three daughters and their husbands, Toni and Dale Joslyn of Danville, Dian and Tommy Tillett of Parksville and Kelly and Brent Webber of Lexington; one son, Brad Harmon of Lexington; two sisters and their husbands, Wanda and Bill Sprinkle of Paris and Peggy and Fred Edgeington of Harrodsburg; and six grandchildren, Kelsey Joslyn, Tyler Sebastian, Caleb Harmon and Savannah, Brittany and Tyler Tillett.

Services for Johnny will be 11 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, at Perryville Baptist Church by the Rev. Chuck Bass, with burial in the Hillcrest Cemetery.
Pallbearers will be Glen Gorley, Gregg Pierson, Tony Perkins, Larry Moore, Chris Fitzwater, Terry Stigall, Roger Webb and Jackie Casey.

Visiting hours will be after 5 p.m. Wednesday at Perryville Baptist Church.
Expressions of sympathy are suggested to the University of Kentucky Southeast Center for Agriculture Health and Injury prevention, c/o Kim Judd, UK CPH, room 104B, 111 Washington Ave., Lexington, KY 40536-0003.

Wilder Funeral Home, Perryville in charge of arrangements.
Visit Johnny's online guestbook at www.wilderfh.com.
Copyright © 2012, AM News

Something New, Somethng Old

Same old excuses, I have been busy with an article about John Pipes Jr.'s oldest son named Joseph who lived in the SW corner of Pennsylvania. John was first married to Jemima Harriman in Morris County, NJ. Will post a link here when I am done. We also discovered a new Son named Daniel, so he has 3 sons and a daughter there: Joseph, John III, Daniel and Rhoda.

Something new was sent to me by Robert Mitchell who is a desc of the Robert Mitchell in Old Union and the Mitchell family from Mitchellsburg. His G Grandfather was R.H.C. Mitchell, an attorney and businessman from Danville. He owned and operated the Mitchell farm in the late 1800s and hired Elias Hardin Pipes, "E.H." and George Washington Pipes, "G.W." at various times. He then paid them with Bank Checks. Robert sent me two of these checks from 1898 and 99. One is for fertilizer and the other is for Threshing services.

2010 Reunion Reminder and Information

Dear Harmon, Gray, Pipes Family Members,

1. Reminder - Family Reunion is this coming Sunday, August 8 at Perryville Christian Church @ 1:30 pm

2. Family member Ross Pipes has a cooking blog and a book review blog. Click on links below for some great recipes and book reviews.

http://www.grandpashomecooking.typepad.com/

See note received from Ross today:
"I finally got my August book report written and posted. This was, without a doubt, a terrific month of cooking, cleaning house, hosting wonderful visits of family, and still become totally engaged in reading some remarkable books. I hope that you'll take the time to read all I have written about the three books I read in July. They are books I hope many will read. Now ... I'm finally ready to start reading a stack of new ... look forward to ... being great books."
Keep on reading http://www.pipesbookreview.blogspot.com/

3. We're fielding a question, "Is anyone interested in a Family Facebook Site to connect with other members of the Harmon, Gray and Pipes families?"

See thoughts on this in note I received recently from Ross Pipes:

"I wish there were a way to know more family members and to be able to communicate history, joys, and concerns. I wonder sometimes about family interests, careers, medical history, adoptions, religion, and concentrations of family within geographic areas (I was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, but we have lived in the Durham (and Durham County), Chapel Hill (Orange County), and Raleigh area of North Carolina for 24 years. I wonder what other family members live in this area and whether we share any interests.
If a Pipes, Harmon, and Gray Facebook page were to be started, I think it would take some advance thought, energetic organization, and excellent initial launch messages to get it started on the right path."

If anyone has any interest in starting a Family Facebook site, you may get in touch with Ross Pipes at E-mail Address for further discussion. rosspipes@gmail.com

4. Would you like to share your family research with others? I am a volunteer at the Harrodsburg Historical Society. The Research Library maintains a large collection of family files, genealogy books, original documents, etc. Feel free to bring a copy to the Reunion on Sunday and give to me for donation to the Harrodsburg Historical Society Research Library.

5. If you are coming from out-of-town or out-of-state for the reunion, you may want to come a day or two early at do some family research in Boyle and Mercer Counties. The Harrodsburg Historical Society will be open Friday and Saturday from 1-4 pm each day.

Regards,

Peggy Harmon Edgington

2010 Family Reunion in Perryville

News Flash: This just in from Peggy Edgington.

Dear Family Members,

I have spoken today with Robert Mayes, President, of the Harmon, Gray, Pipes
Family Association. The 2010 family reunion will be held at the Perryville Christian
Church at 205 East Third Street on Sunday, August 8th at 1:30 p.m. SINCE YOU
ARE RECEIVING THIS NOTIFICATION BY EMAIL OF REUNION, YOU WILL NOT
RECEIVE WRITTEN NOTIFICATION FROM ROBERT MAYES. This will help
save on mailing expense.

The meal will be potluck. Plan on making and bringing your favorite dishes and
having great fellowship. If you're coming from out-of-town; you can pick something
up along the way if you like.

There will be a business meeting after lunch, and then we will gather for annual
family picture.

Bring any information that you want to share with others (pictures, articles, family
trees, etc.) for the sharing table that will be set up.

If you cannot attend this year, please send a check to support the upkeep of
the Old Union Cemetery. Make check payable and send to: Old Union Cemetery,
P.O. Box 124, Perryville, KY 40468. This has been a wet season; so, there
has been lots of mowing expense. The cemetery has been mowed about every
two weeks.

Just a reminder to check out Bob Pipes' wonderful website www.pipesfamily.com
if you haven't done so lately. On Bob's webpage, you can click on Visit our
Union Cemetery Site or go to www.unioncemetery.blogspot.com

Hope to see you at the family reunion on August 8th.

Peggy (Harmon) Edgington

Rachel Pipes Luckett

I received word today that Rachel Pipes Luckett had passed away back in June of this year. Audrey Smothers sent me her death notice from the newspaper. Rachel was the daughter of Obediah Silas Pipes and Malissa Wright. She was most likely named after her paternal grandmother, Rachel Brand, wife of Alfred Warden "A.W." Pipes.
A.W. and Rachel relocated their family to Clay Co. Missouri after living for many years in the house just east of the cemetery now owned by Randy Glasscock that was (We believe) the original home site of John Pipes Jr and also his Son Nathaniel.
Obe Pipes returned to Kentucky and had a farm on Logan Hill Rd north of Gravel Switch. Obe was named for his uncles Obediah and Silas Pipes. He married Malissa Wright who was the widow of Ephraim Smothers and they had three daughters, Rachel, Nadine and Louise.
The 4 sisters mentioned are the children from Malissa's marriage to Ephraim. The two sisters are children from Malissa's mariage to Obe.
Here is the death notice:
Rachel Pipes Luckett, 85, Lebanon, died Tuesday, June 8, 2010 at the Lifecare Center of Bardstown, Bardstown.
Born Sept. 24, 1924 in Marion County, she was a member of the Lebanon Baptist Church.
She was preceded in death by: her husband, John Bernard "J.B." Luckett Sr.; her parents, Obediah Silas and Melisa Wright Pipes; four sisters, Genetta Padgett, Margaret Padgett, Verna Hoskinson and Pearlee Piece; and two brothers, Frank and William Hardin Smothers.
Survivors include: two daughters, Darnel (Larry) Farris of Lebanon and Portia (Willard) Price of Hodgenville; a son, John Bernard (Linda) Luckett Jr. of Elizabethtown; two sisters, Nadine Stiles of Elizabethtown and Louise Reynolds of Columbus, Ind.; a sister-in-law, Susan Tatum of Lebanon; a brother-in-law, Joseph Luckett of Campbellsville; six grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Friday, June 11, at Bosley Funeral Home, Lebanon, with burial in Lebanon National Cemetery. Rev. Roger McCurry officiated.
Pallbearers were Gary Reynolds, Chris Gribbins, Wayne Stiles, Jerald Crawford, Scott Gribbins, and Kevin Krebs.
Bosley Funeral Home was in charge of the arrangements.

Remembering the 4th of July 1776

On this day we commemerate and honor the patriots who lived and fought for the cause of our freedom from tyranical government. Some of those men rest here in Old Union and many more in the countryside near by.

These words from the declaration of their purpose and the reason for their rebellion mean everything to us.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

More recipes from Cousin Ross Pipes' Blog

Here's a new post of one of the summer delights ... refreshing, healthy, and delicious Cukes 'n Onions


http://www.grandpashomecooking.typepad.com/

Coming up soon ...
Steamed shrimp, clams, mussels, and oysters ... with dipping sauces
Onion Jam
Chicken Liver Pate (served with toast points and Onion Jam ... delicious!)
An all vegetable sandwich that even the carnivores will love (I think)
Sunday Dinner ... Pot Roast
Grandma Stewart's Three Bean Salad
And lots more

I've just posted my recipe for Pot Roast and a 1920's photograph of my Mom when she was a girl. [Ross' Mom was Charlotte Allen, who married Lloyd Pipes]

http://www.grandpashomecooking.typepad.com/

Two Interesting Blogs to visit.

I heard today via email from a cousin of ours. Like me, he is a great grandson of Obediah Brumfield Pipes and Josephine Edwards, who are both in Old Union. This cousin's name is Ross Pipes and he descends from Obediah's son named William Obediah. I descend from Obediah's son named James Franklin. So we are cousins twice removed. Ross grew up in a very close knit family in Indianapolis at the same time I was growing up in Michigan. Lloyd Pipes was Ross' father and Ross has vivid memories of growing up with a man who was truly a great father figure.
Ross sent me a couple of links that I think you may enjoy visiting. Ross has a voracious appetite for good books and good food. And so, one blog is for book reviews that he has written and the other is for recipes from his family and his experience, presented in a very artistic and interesting way. He mixes stories and anecdotes from his childhood memories in with very enticing dishes and pleasing pictures. So visit and then if you are so inclined, send Ross an email and say hello to a cousin. Look around in the recipes to find the stories.
http://www.pipesbookreview.blogspot.com/
http://www.grandpashomecooking.typepad.com/

Memorial Day 2010 Civil War Veterans

Today we remember the Civil War Veterans buried in Old Union Cemetery.
Ansel Lee Bandy
Charles Burchell
Jesse P. Cox
Samuel H. Harmon
Bradford Pipes
Elias Hardin Pipes
Obediah B. Pipes
MC Roberts
Richard Survant
James B. Williams
R.B. Williams

A Genealogy Workshop

I am sending the following press release to you in case you know of anyone who is interested in this workshop. Please help us get the word out to those who would enjoy coming to this event.
Thank you so much, Carolyn Crabtree


Event: Genealogy Workshop at Forkland Abraham Lincoln Museum

Address: 16479 Forkland Road, Gravel Switch, Kentucky 40328

Date: May 22, 2010

Time: 9am-4pm

Cost: $25 includes catered box lunch

Contact: Pat Williams, 859-332-7606 or e-mail gwill@mis.net

Web site: http://www.forklandlincolnmuseum.org

The Catlin Family

There are two families in Old Union Cemetery that have intrigued me for some time now. William Davis Catlin and his brother Commodore Perry Catlin are brothers and sons of John T. Catlin. William's wife was Mary Calvert and Perry's wife was Nancy Abigail Harmon.
The Catlin Family first came to the area in 1789 when Seth Catlin relocated from Delaware and brought his family and quite a few other families along. Seth acquired about 350 acres of land on Lick Run just north and west of old Haysville. Seth's son Theodore was the father of John T. Catlin and the property stayed with his descendants well into the 1900s.
You can see the genealogy report for Seth Here.

It took some luck and some great research and a great deal of help from others to bring this all together. We have Wills for Seth and John T., Census data, and some great research by a guy named Gary Young from Maryland who used the tax lists of Washington/Marion Counties to prove the connection between Theodore Catlin and his son John T. Catlin.

Rita Jane Satterly , who is a descendant of this family, found very critical data in the Courthouse in Springfield and added much of her own family information to help us fill out the picture of these two brothers. They intermarried with the Harmon, Gray, Hundley, Calvert and Edwards families as well as many others from the area.

And finally, a lady I have not met, except via email, named Irma Bradley supplied us with the copies of the wills which were key to proving all these connections.

As always, let me know if you see errors or if you would like copies of the wills etc.

Elias Montgomery Harmon

A great picture of Elias Montgomery Harmon(1844-1924) and his 3rd wife Sallie Ann Montgomery(1854-1941). This great picture comes to us from Mark Schmidt, one of Elias' descendants. I think the picture is dated about 1910. Mark had the picture attached to a family tree on Ancestry.com and has given us permission to show it here. He also has a Conder family bible with some family info in it. Elias was married first to Margaret Conder then to Clarissa Montgomery and lastly to Sallie Ann Montgomery. He was a private in Company "G" of the 10th Kentucky Infantry(Union). Elias also had a farm very close to the cemetery and it was listed in the census next door to Rice Harmon's place which is right at the entrance road to the cemetery. Elias was a son of Michael Harmon III and Marion Webster. Click the photo to enlarge.

Note: the writing on the photo says that this is Margaret Conder but if you look at the ages, this has to be Sallie Montgomery.

Another picture of the George Washington Pipes House

This is the house that is east of the cemetery about 1/2 mile or less.

The picture shows George, his wife Mariah Edwards Pipes, Miss Edna Shoemaker and a daughter of Ada Pipes Cox named Hope. (Ada was a daughter of George and Mariah and wife of Perry F. Cox) Picture was sent by Tom and Beth Cox of Colorado.

I am posting it because it is a much bigger and better picture of the home. It is still standing but has been updated. Now owned by the Sheperson family. Click to enlarge.

Murder and Mayhem in Kentucky

Sorry I have not posted anything in the last couple of weeks but I am working on a project titled "Murder and Mayhem in Kentucky". The period from 1862 to 1910 in central Kentucky was fraught with lawlessness, killings, gangs of bandits, lynchings and regulators. Most of that stemmed from the period of the Civil War, when Martial Law was declared and local law enforcement was rendered ineffective. Some people took the law into their own hands as a means of self preservation and some saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of others.
Some of our family were dragged into it or the victims of it. Bradford Pipes was murdered, so were Isaac Thomas Hourigan and Samuel T. Harmon. And yes, some of the perpetrators were married into the family and many were neighbors.
William S. Wilson, The Crowdus family, The Rousey family from Milledgeville and Butchertown and the Rowes, Bluford Kennett, John Pennington, Benjamin Hardin Whitehouse and other familiar family names all were involved in one way or another. It is an enthralling historical story and one that really grabs your imagination.
Thanks to two of my mentors from Boyle and Marion Counties, (Karen Fowler Caldwell and the late John Sheperson), I have been sent many, many newspaper clippings and articles over the last few years about all of the above. In my files is a copy of a letter written in 1970 in Missouri by a grandson of Silas Pipes. And in the letter, the grandson describes how Silas told him in the early years of the 20th Century about the day in late November of 1868 when Smith Rousey died in a gun battle on the Isaac Shelby farm south of Danville. The story will give you goosebumps.
If you have any information about any of the violence that occurred in this period, please consider sharing it with me. Please contact me first as I have a lot of items already but I really need more. I have many small snippet items that were published in local newspapers but I may have missed some.
My plan right now is to put all of this into a booklet that will be sold as a fund raiser for the cemetery.

Washington's Birthday

I should have posted this yesterday but did not get it done in time.
George Washington was born on February 22nd, 1732 in the same era as most of our Pipes, Harmon and Gray ancestors who migrated to Mercer, Lincoln and Washington Counties. They served with Washington in the revolution and Kentucky became a state in 1792 while Washington was in his first term as President. Mary Morris Pipes tells the story in her Pension application, filed near the end of her life, how John Pipes met with Washington to discuss his plans to stay with the Continental Army.
George Washington is still a "Larger Than Life" figure in the history of our country and I think it is interesting how families started naming their children in his honor. I have about 20 people in my database files with the name George Washington and probably 50 more with the name George or George W.
Here are just a few of them who are closely connected to our families and the Cemetery.
1. George Washington Pipes b. 1809 to Elizabeth Pipes. He was a grandson of John Pipes, his mother married (2nd) Jacob Harmon. Jacob and Elizabeth migrated to Missouri and George went with them. George married his cousin Mary Pipes in Missouri they had 8 children and many descendants.
2. George Washington Edwards b. 1813, a son of Josiah Edwards and Sallie Wright, he married Isabelle Brown and his brother Josiah Monroe Edwards is in Old Union as well as his niece Josephine Edwards, who is my G Grandmother.
3. George Washington Crain b. 1835, a son of Thomas Underwood Crain, he married Nancy Arnold and is in Old Union. Many of you reading this are related to this George Washington.
4. George Washington Pipes b. 1844, a son of William Pipes and Nancy Gray and grandson of John Pipes. He married Mariah Edwards, had many children and lived just east of the cemetery. He and Mariah and his father William are in Old Union.
5. George Washington Harmon b. 1862, a son of Samuel Henry Harmon and Sarah Shaver, he married Maggie Pirtle and had three children.
6. George Washington Edwards b. 1862, a son of James Franklin Edwards and Martha Walston, he married Annette Lysle. He is a brother to Josephine Edwards Pipes, My G Grandmother.
7. George Washington Crane Jr. b. 1873, a son of #3 above, he married Lucinda Bottom who is in Old Union.

You can see how we have so many strong connections to this man who had such a large and lasting influence on our country, our history and on each of us.

Happy 95th Birthday Edna Lankford

LANKFORD CELEBRATES 95TH BIRTHDAY
Edna Lankford, Danville, celebrated her 95th birthday on Thursday, February 11, 2010 at the McDowell Place where she is a resident. Visiting Lankford were her children, Mary Frances Campana of Corvallis, Oregon and Robert Lankford of Los Angeles, California.

Lankford, an active member of the Women’s Mission Group of Lexington Avenue Baptist Church and Perryville Homemakers Club, has received numerous recognitions.

Recognitions include Boyle County Fiscal Court’s Distinguished Service Award, Proclamation from City of Danville Office of Mayor Hugh Coomer, Kentucky Assisted Living Facilities Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, City of Perryville Community Service Award, acknowledgement from The House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky Speaker Jody Richards and Member Mike Harmon, and has been named a Kentucky Colonel by Governor Steven L. Beshear.

Thanks to Peggy Edgington for sending this along. It appeared in the Advocate Messenger.

Edna is a long-time supporter and current Vice-President of the Harmon, Gray & Pipes Family Association.

New Burials in Old Union Discovered.

A fellow researcher ( and distant cousin) by the name of Sandy Kassen, who follows the Russell Family genealogy in central Kentucky sent me an email saying that she found two persons who are buried in the cemetery that we had not previously found in any records. The death certificates for them say "Burial in Old Union". I found the records on Ancestry.com. They do not have a stone and as the burials were in 1926 and 1932 I assume there may not have been a stone.
The persons are John Rufus Pipes and his wife Addie Johnson. They lived their lives near Gravel Switch and had no children. John was a son of Elias Hardin Pipes and Victoria Hourigan. He passed away in 1926 and Addie died in 1932. His obituary did not mention the burial but their death certificates both give Old Union as the burial place. They were among the last of the Pipes family to remain in Boyle and Marion Counties.
Addie's parents were W. C. Johnson and Celia May.
I can email copies of the death certs if anyone wants them.
I will add them to the "additional List" this week.

New Genealogy Reports Now Available

Today I am making the genealogy reports from my Master Genealogist Database available for viewing. I will put a link in this post but also add a link to the reports on the left side of the blog. The reports I have now are for the Pipes Harmon Gray families as well as the Crain and Montgomery families. I will add other families in the future but I need to do some more digging to get back to a common ancestor for each family and that means a single man and wife who came to Kentucky between 1780 and 1810 and purchased land in the area of the Cemetery and then intermarried with the families above. Obvious candidates are the Catlin, Calvert, Bottom, Whitehouse and Arnold families and possibly a few others.

The reports are here

You will notice that the same people appear in many of the reports and that is what happens when cousins and families inter-marry and a community develops and remains in place for almost 100 years. The 19th Century is unique in our history and is the foundation which most of us have built our lives upon. That time period seems to me to be so very stable and bears almost no comparison to the explosive changes that occured in the 20th Century. Perhaps I am being naive, but that is what makes the cemetery and the memory of the people who rest there so special.

Michael Harmon Genealogy Report

UPDATE: I corrected some mistakes in the genealogy report today (1/27/10). The children of James Michael Harmon were in the wrong family.
Also, the Report now has the date and time in the page header so you can tell when it was last updated.

Today I am posting a link to a genealogy report on Michael Harmon Sr. and his descendants.
Please thank all those who have helped me gather this information and realize that I still have more details to add. I will continue to update the report as I add information. I also intend to add reports like this on other "Founding Families" from the area near the cemetery and those in the cemetery.

http://www.pipesfamily.com/harmna.htm

My sources for this have been: Peggy Edgington, Mary Audrey Smothers, Rita Satterly, the books compiled and published by Elizabeth Prather Ellsberry, Luther Stinson Crain, Lloyd Harmon and Genevieve (Logan) Prather, the census records for Boyle, Washington and Marion Counties and many other Harmon researchers and also the resources of Ancestry.com.

I should emphasize that this type of report always contain errors. I make typing errors or misinterpret the info, etc. I always consider this info Public Property, so use it how ever you please but please check the information against the sources or do your own research to verify before accepting it as "Gospel".

Cemetery "Additional List" updated

I know this is kind of a goofy name for this very important piece of information but I could not think of a better name.
Anyway, I updated the "Union Cemetery Additional List" today. If you scroll down and look on the left side, you will see a link to it. It is a .pdf file and it contains all of the names that I have found so far of those who are listed or mentioned as being buried in the Cemetery but as of 2008 when I performed the inventory of the cemetery they had no marker.

It is important to know about this list if you are doing research or need to know the whole picture of who is in the cemetery.

The Mapping Database

Please note that the main purpose for this web site is the database that tells us who is buried in the Cemetery and to provide pictures of the stones and info about the people. You can now link to the database info by clicking on the image of the old church above. I am adding comments about who each person is as I find the information. Please dont hesitate to help me out. I always enjoy hearing from you. Many thanks to Peggy Edgington, Rita Satterly, Audrey Lanham Smothers, Mary Guerrant and Mary Rall for help so far. It helps to see the info if you can zoom your browser to make the page smaller.

2nd Update:Seeking info Henry C. Bottom & wife Amanda

I have found a public family tree on Ancestry that says Amanda B Bottom is Amanda Belle Johnson, a daughter of William Green Johnson and Lucinda Peyton of Casey County.

Thanks to Rita Satterly, we now know that Henry was the son of Harrison Bottom and Elizabeth Elder.
Can anyone tell me more about Henry C. Bottom, b. 1852, and his wife Amanda B., b. 1854?
They are both in Old Union and were married about 1873.
Henry died 3 26 1926 in Boyle Co., but that is not on his stone or is unreadable.

If you have any further info, please let me know. pipesb (at) pipesfamily (dot) com

Christmas Wishes

I wish all of you who visit here because you have an interest in our history a very Merry Christmas.
I hope you all enjoy the charts that are in the posts below this one. I have been planning on making those for several years and finally got them produced. Now I am working on updating the mapping database for the cemetery and as part of that I am trying to get as much as possible of the Pipes Harmon Gray family info into my database so I can print out reports showing the families and the intermarriages etc.

It is turning out to be a bigger job than I thought. The mapping database needed to have comments added for each person telling us who they were connected to.

I was raised in small towns and communities in Michigan but then spent the rest of my adult life in large cities. I had forgotten how interconnected a small community can become and it was especially prevalent in the 19th century when travel was more restrictive and people stayed put, which resulted in marriages within the local people pool.

So I should not have been surprised when I began to discover just how much the people resting in Old Union Cemetery are related and interconnected.

It has become a real challenge to keep all the Harmons, Grays, Craines/Cranes, Calverts, Catlins, Montgomerys and all the rest straight in my head. There were so many of them by 1900 and they all used the same given names over and over. It makes my head spin sometimes.

But I am enjoying the challenge and making good progress.
I am making constant updates to the comments in the mapping database so please check them out and tell me if I have someone wrong or if you have points to make about someone please dont hesitate to let me know.
Just to be clear, I am trying to make note of people as to who they were married to or if they were a son or daughter of someone or a spouse of someone etc.

More Pipes Harmon Gray info

I am adding two more slides that show details about the 3 families. Click to enlrage and be sure to see the 1st slide in the post below this one. Email me if you would like the powerpoint slides so you can print them in bettter quality or add your own notes to them.

Pipes Harmon Gray intermarriages

I have been working for the last few weeks to add the Harmon and Gray family info to my Pipes family Database. I thought this would be a good way to get all of the cemetery info that I have into one database so I could see it and try to connect all the families in the cemetery to the Pipes Harmon Gray families.
To start that process I made this powerpoint slide and converted it to a jpg file so I could place it here for you to see. It shows the 1st and 2nd generation and the intermarriages between the families.
If you would like the powerpoint slide please let me know and I can email it to you.
As always, Click it to enlarge and save it.

new Cemetery Web Site news

In case anyone is interested: Today I registered a new web site name for the Union Cemetery. The web site name is "redirected" for now, to point to this web site. My son and I are setting up the new site on our server at Hurricane Electric. As soon as I have something there to see I will have the name point to that new site.

The new name will be www.theoldunioncemetery.com

I plan to use that site to eventually replace this one and it will cover the Cemetery and the Harmon - Pipes - Gray Family Association news as well.

Stay tuned!

Bob

John Bradford Harmon (3 of them)

Did you know there were 3 men in the Pipes - Harmon family whose name was John Bradford Harmon? To understand who they were you have to go back to the original Pipes - Harmon families in what was then Mercer, now Boyle, county.
John Pipes Jr. and Michael Harmon were the first of our families to settle in Kentucky in the mid 1790s. John Pipes came here from Surry County, North Carolina and Michael Harmon came here from Pennsylvania. They had 18 children between them and 7 of those children married.
Why and how could it be 7 you ask? Well, two of the pipes daughters ( Jane and Elizabeth) married someone, then became widows and then married a Harmon.

Peter Harmon (Michael's oldest son) married two of the Pipes daughters. First Abigail and then as a widower he married Abigail's sister, widow Jane (who had been married to Archie Gray).

Jacob Harmon (Michael's youngest son) married widow Elizabeth "Patsy" Pipes (who had been married to Daniel Shaw)

Nathaniel Pipes (oldest son of John Pipes and Mary Morris) married Margaret Harmon (Michael's youngest daughter)

So where do the 3 John Bradford Harmons come from?

In 1822 the first John Bradford is born to Peter Harmon and Abigail Pipes. He married Catherine Montgomery and spent his life in Kentucky and is buried in Old Union. Her name is sometimes given as Katherine. Credit to Peggy Edgington and Rita Satterly for the picture.

In 1825 the second John Bradford is born to Jacob Harmon and Elizabeth Pipes. He was born in Kentucky but in his young life he migrated to Missouri and became an ordained Methodist Minister and married Elizabeth Knifong. he died and is buried in Missouri.

The third John Bradford Harmon was born to the second John Bradford above in 1866 in Missouri. The third John Bradford married (are you ready for this?) Sarah Francis Pipes, who was a great granddaughter of John Pipes jr.. This third John Bradford married his maternal aunt's granddaughter.

Sarah Francis Pipes' father, James Preston Pipes, was a grandson of two Pipes first cousins (James Pipes and Sarah Pipes). Sarah Pipes was a daughter of John Pipes Jr. and James Pipes was a son of John's brother, Sylvanus Pipes. James and Sarah were both born in North Carolina and raised within a stone's throw of the cemetery. They married in Mercer county in 1810 and were some of the first settlers to migrate into Missouri about 1811. They are something of a legend in the Pipes family.

Harmon, Pipes, Russell, Montgomery Connections

I received this email from Sandy Kassen last week, Sandy is a descendant of Obediah Pipes and Josephine Edwards (both in Old Union). She is a skillful researcher and while working on the Minerva Harmon and John Thomas Russell family she found this 1886 Bio of John Bradford Harmon, who was a half brother to Rice and Minerva Harmon.

"Hi Trudy and Bob,
I'm attaching a biography of John Bradford Harmon, b 22 Jul 1822, Mercer/now Boyle Co., KY.
John's father, Peter Harmon, was a brother of Margaret Harmon Pipes.
In the article...part of it boils down to:
1. Michael Harmon, b Germany, md Margaret Trump, b Germany; among others, they had..
2. Margaret Harmon, b ~1801, KY, md Nathaniel Pipes, b ~ 1779, NC; among others, they had..
3. Obediah Brumfield Pipes, ~1835, KY, md Josephine Bonaparte Edwards, b ~1849, KY; among others, they had Margaret Gertrude, Daisy and Frederica Pipes.
I came across the bio while researching John Thomas Russell, b ~ 1835, son of William Cletus Russell and Nancy Hatchett, who md. Minerva Harmon, also a descendant of the Boyle Co. Harmons.
I have included the info on my Ancestry tree, for any of you who do have Ancestry, my website is
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/2143358/person/-1858943169?pg=32827
Don't know if you've seen this bio, but thought that you'd enjoy reading it.
Hope all goes well with everyone, and wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Sandy Russell Kassen"

Here is the article:
Kentucky Genealogy and Biography, Volume V, Battle-Perrin-Kniffin, 4th edition, 1886. Boyle Co.
JOHN BRADFORD HARMON was born July 22, 1822, on the place where he now resides, in Mercer (now Boyle) County. His father, Peter HARMON, a native of Pennsylvania, was born in 1782, removed with his parents to Mercer County, Ky.; resided on this place as a farmer; was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, a Democrat, and died in 1852. He was the son of Michael HARMON, who established a tanyard on this place, and who married Margaret Trump (both born in Germany); their offspring were Barbara (Roberson), Katie (Henry), Margaret (Pipes), Michael, Jr., Jacob, John and Peter. Peter married Abigail Pipes, and from their union sprang Michael, Lucinda (Butler), Samuel, Thomas J., Nathaniel, Catherine (Montgomery), William D. and John B.; His (Peter’s) second wife was Mrs. Jane (Pipes) Gray, sister to his first wife, and their children were Rice and Minerva J. (Russell). February 18, 1847, John B. Harmon married Miss Catherine J., daughter of Isaac and Nancy (Stone) Montgomery, of Boyle County, born December 16, 1824, and to them have been born William T., Nancy A. (Williams), George D., Elias A., and John C. B. In youth Mr. Harmon enjoyed only such facilities for obtaining an education, as were afforded by the common schools of the vicinity but by improving his opportunities has become familiar with much of the current literature of the day. He is a farmer and owner of 320 acres of land, in a good state of cultivation. He is a Cumberland Presbyterian, a Granger and a Democrat. Mrs. Harmon's mother, Nancy Stone, was born in a fort on Clark's Run.

Veterans Day 2009

If you still believe that this is a free country and also want it to stay that way, Support our Veterans and our Military.
Shake their Hand
Say "Thanks For Your Service"
Keep them in your thoughts and prayers

Does Anyone have a picture of Martha Gray?

Martha (Mattie) Gray was married to Levi Allen ( Al) Pipes. They are both buried in Old Union. Our good friend Karen Fowler Caldwell of Marion County would like to see a picture Of Mattie to compare to the pictures below of Martha (Pipes) Montgomery.
If you have one please let me know.

Jason Pipes Selected as NCO of the Year

I recently attended the award ceremony at Monterey California for my son Jason as he was selected as California's NCO of the year in the State Military Reserve(SMR). The SMR is an arm of the California National Guard. I am very proud of Jason as he carries on the Military tradition of the Pipes Family. He was presented with all kinds of certificates, a bronze sculpture, cash awards and the California Commendation Medal. The picture is taken with the Commanding General of the SMR and myself, in a tux no less.

From Drop Box

More Montgomery Info

At Last!
Thanks to Martha Kelly for the clues. She has a Montgomery cousin, Lillian Campbell Brewer, who told us that Allen and Martha Montgomery are in Ryders Hill Cemetery in Lebanon.
Dates: Allen b. 3-12-1818 and d. 01-15-1895
Martha b. 11-19-1829 and d. 6-18-1889

Lillian owns the old Montgomery family home in Lebanon called Myrtledene.
www.myrtledene.com

Allen and Martha's daughter Lily Montgomery (who married Tom Jackson) lived there, as did her daughter Lillian and HER daughter Lillian. Lillian Campbell Brewer still owns the house, though it's now a B&B.

If someone in the area would volunteer to take photos of the two grave stones for me, I would be eternally grateful.

Allen S. Montgomery

This picture of Allen Montgomery was also sent today by Martha Graham Kelly. See the next two posts below this one for details.
Allen Was born about 1818, I assume it was in Mercer County or the general Area.
His father Was Isaac Newton Montgomery and his mother was Nancy Stone.

Martha Ann Pipes Montgomery

This is a picture of Martha Ann Pipes Montgomery. She is a daughter of Nathaniel Pipes and Margaret Harmon. Her namesake, Martha Kelly sent the photo to me this morning. Martha Ann was married to Allan S. Montgomery on July 3, 1848. She was born about 1822 on a farm just east of the cemetery and about where the Glasscock farm is now located. Allan and Martha had 8 children but 2 of them died in infancy. the others married into the Karrick, Boyd, Cardwell, McElroy and Jackson families.
She was a granddaughter of John Pipes Jr and Michael Harmon.

Can any one help me determine where Martha and Allan are buried or their death dates?
I will continue to look but they are probably in Perryville, Lebanon, Danville or locally.

Montgomery Family Information

As I have commented here before, I believe the Montgomery family is one of the "Founding Families" of the area around Union Cemetery. The Pipes, Montgomery and Harmon families intermarried several times. Morris Pipes, Martha Pipes, John Bradford Harmon and Catherine Harmon all married into the Montgomery family.
Yesterday I heard from Martha Graham Kelly, who grew up in Lebanon and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is a descendant of Martha Pipes and Allen S. Montgomery.
Here is her email to me this morning about her connection to Union Cemetery.

"I came across your Union Cemetery site while casually looking for some information about "Auntie Byron" Cardwell. A note about her just happened to fall out of the family album and I was curious – so I Googled. I was amazed to see so many of my family names pop up on your web site. Martha Ann Pipes Montgomery was my great-great grandmother. I have never met anyone named Pipes!

I can tell you a lot about my direct line and some of the side branches. I also have photographs of many of these people.

Martha Pipes married Allen Montgomery. (I have a note that says he wore long white whiskers and was in the Mexican War.)

Martha and Allen had eight children:

Lily – who married Tom Jackson

Lizzie – married Byron Cardwell

Levi – died in infancy

Isaac– died in infancy

Maggie – married WW (William Wallace) McElroy (this is my direct family – they are buried in Ryder's Hill Cemetery in Lebanon, KY)

Their three children were:

Stanley

Harvey and Allen (twins)

Martha Montgomery McElroy who married Oliver Gaither Kelly, Jr.

Their two sons were

Oliver Gaither Kelly III

Wallace McElroy Kelly who married Mabel Beatrice Graham

Whose only child was Martha Graham Kelly (me!)

Nannie – who married John Boyd

Billy – who married Adah Carrick

Elias – who married Lite Montgomery

Does this make us first cousins four-times removed?
I live in Brooklyn, New York, but I grew up in Lebanon, Kentucky. Have you seen Myrtledene? http://www.myrtledene.com/ This is a Montgomery home. Lily Montgomery (who married Tom Jackson) lived there, as did her daughter Lillian and HER daughter Lillian. Lillian Campbell Brewer still owns the house, though it's now a B&B.

Martha Kelly

George Washington Pipes Family Article

This Article appeared today ( 09-13-09) in the Advocate Messenger Newspaper. Written by our good friend Brenda S. Edwards and we were alerted to it by our good friend Peggy Edgington.

Click to enlarge.

http://www.amnews.com/stories/2009/09/14/his.953172.sto

Bob

Words From Our Fathers

......a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity. – Thomas Jefferson


Sorry, but I just cannot help myself. I needed to post this today. What does this have to do with our history, our genealogy and our loving memory of our ancestors? Everything.

Bob

Help Grow Our Mailing List

Dear Family Members,

INVITATION TO FAMILY MEMBERS TO JOIN OUR MAILING LISTS

As of August 31, 2009, the Harmon, Gray & Pipes Family Association
has family members on their mailing (postal and/or e-mail) lists
from 22 states and the U.K.

Those states are: AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MI, MO, MN, NC,
NJ, NV, NY, OH, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WI

Robert Mayes, President of the Family Association Board, maintains
the postal mailing list, and I maintain the e-mailing list. We would
like to invite you to send us names and addresses of family members
to help us grow our list to include all 50 states and other countries.

Please send me an e-mail with your family members names, addresses,
and phone numbers. I will forward postal mailing addresses to Robert
Mayes.

Best regards,

Peggy Harmon Edgington

peggydedge@hotmail.com

A New book about Whitehouse History

A message from Peggy Edgington today about a new Whitehouse book.

There's a new book out titled "Descendants and Ancestors of Cecil Tilden Ellis, Sr. and Alma Lou Whitehouse Ellis". The book has a total of 259 pages. The cost of the book is $70.00.

Chapter 2 of Part II is titled "Ancestors of Alma Lou Whitehouse". There is an ancestry chart which goes back to Cornelius Whitehouse 1735 - ? and Ann Austin 1741-?, with Cornelius' father who is also named Cornelius (dates unk) and wife Mary (dates unk).This Chapter of the book is from pages 59-105. The book includes lots of pictures. Appendix B is an Index of Whitehouse Cousins.

The compilers of this book are Karen Dru Ellis Marsee, Shirley Alma Ellis Sheperson and Barbara Ellen Ellis Taylor.

If you are interested in this book, you could contact Shirley Sheperson, who is a Whitehouse descendant. Shirley's phone number is 859-936-2061 and her address is 312 Venetian Way, Danville, KY 40422. Shirley does not have e-mail. For further information on how to contact her, see Bob Pipes' Union Cemetery blog [entry] of July 25, 2009.

Update for Cemetery photos

Just for the record. I have updated the picture file for Agnes Whitehouse's stone.
It was knocked down and someone has repaired it. Karen Fowler Caldwell took pictures recently and I updated the picture file with the new pictures for James and Agnes Whitehouse.
See the mapping database at the left side.

Even More Good News!!

I received this message today from Robert Mayes thru Peggy Edgington.

Dear Bob,

Robert Mayes called me tonight and asked me if I would e-mail you with the following information.
Thanks. Peggy

The following tombstones have been set up, footers poured and replaced:

William H. Harmon
Samantha Harmon
William Survant
Mammie K. Harmon
Johnie Williams
James Williams
Callon & Susie Tharp
Jim & Mattie Hair
Clarence Pipes
Georgie Tharp Downs

Good News and We Need Your Help

I received this letter today from Robert Mayes. It is the best news I have had in a long time. So many of the stones in the cemetery need attention and he has arranged with someone to start working on them. Great Day in the Mornin'!

Please consider making a donation to the repair fund. It means so much to preserve our heritage. I personally know how hard times are right now for some. But please think about how fortunate we are to have this opportunity. The cost to do this is very reasonable and we need to take advantage of it. Please read on.


Harmon Pipes Gray Family Association 2009
August 12, 2009
Robert Mayes President of the Board

Dear Friends,
The reunion was great. The food was very tasty as always and too much as usual.

Just to keep you updated on what is being done. We (38 members that attended) voted to repair the stones that can be repaired and upright those that are leaning or have fallen. We have about one-half the money to complete this project with 50 stones total [needing repair].

We have a cemetery stone man that will dig footers, pour concrete and set the stones and also epoxy broken stones, if possible, for 25.00 each. We will repair and right the stones as long as we have the money.

If you wish to help in this effort, send a check for $25.00 and mark the memo line “Restore Stones”. If you want to donate to the general fund, mark the memo line with “Upkeep”

Then send to: Old Union Cemetery
P.O. Box 124
Perryville, Kentucky
40468

Many Thanks,
Robert Mayes

2009 Reunion News

Thanks to Peggy Edgington for sending the photos of the reunion and this information.
The photos are in a slide show which can be found along the left side of this page.

Dear Family Members,

Attached is an article along with a group picture from yesterday's family reunion in Perryville which I have submitted to the Scrapbook section of the Danville Advocate-Messenger.

Officers were elected for the Family Association for the coming year: They are Robert Mayes, President; Edna Lankford, Vice President; Marian Gibson, Secretary and Treasurer.

Next year's reunion will be on the second Sunday in August in Perryville. We hope to see you there.

If you have any family members that you would like added to the Harmon, Gray and Pipes Family Association group emailing list, please forward their names and email addresses to me.

Best regards,

Peggy Harmon Edgington

2009 Reunion Photo

Thanks to Peggy Edgington for the info and the picture of the Reunion of Agust 9th, 2009.

Among those who attended the Gray, Harmon, Pipes family reunion, from left are: front row, Gavin Whitehouse, Austin Bodner and Avery Bodner.

second row, Edna Lankford, Marian Gibson, Joyce Cox, Nancy (Don) Freed Lerum, Marcia Curtis and Karen Fulk,

third row, Robert Mayes, Brenda Gray, Peggy Tudor, Tom, Cox, Ken Lerum, Lori Stipe and Peggy Edgington,

fourth row, Jennifer Bodner, Dennis Gray, Ron Tudor, James W. Cox, Jr.,

fifth row, Clay Russell, Bryan Bodner, Mary Rall, Richard Mayes, Mary P. Guerrant and Carolyn Gray Stipe,

back row, Monty J. Bryant III, Monty J. Bryant, Sue Evans and Libby Mayes.

Nancy Gray Pipes Stone

I thought we should add this for everyone to see. Marcia Curtis and daughter Karen Fulk, sent this photo of the inscription on the back of Nancy's stone. (see the post of July 4th for the story and the front of the stone.)
Click to enlarge:

New web Site

Peggy Edgington asked me today about the promise I made to get a web site set up for the Union Cemetery. My son and I have a server that we can use for this web site and I promise I will get it up and running SOON!.

General News Item

We received the letter from Robert Mayes about the reunion this week. It is being held August 9th at 1:30 PM in the Perryville Christian Church.

I should have pictures to post here of the reunion later in August.

I had planned on attending, but am not going to be able to get there. My sons and I scraped together $100.00 for a donation to the Cemetery Fund (and I do mean scraped in my case). Hopefully my financial picture will get better soon and I will give more. Please consider giving a family donation to the fund this year. Robert has someone who will start repairing stones and it will take some cash to get it done.
Send the donations to the address on the web page. Remember it is tax deductible.

I updated the Mapping Database with the new picture of the Whitehouse stone. If someone would volunteer to go out and take pictures of the Webb and Sheperson stones, I will add those as well.

Remember that the "Mapping Database" is the reason for this web page. You can see the link to it on the left side of the page.

Karen Caldwell reported that the cemetery looked beautiful this year. Grass mowed, weeds down, Outside fences in good repair. Thank You to all who care about the cemetery.

Whitehouse Family Update

Karen Fowler Caldwell made a visit to the Cemetery today to take some pictures of the Whitehouse grave stone mentioned in the posts below. We were all very surprised to find that someone has repaired the stone and has it upright and it looks like they did a very good job. It was on the ground last July when I was there to take the photos of all the stones.
If any one out there knows who did this wondeful thing, please let us know.
Many Thanks to Karen for the Picture.

Whitehouse family Follow Up

In response to the post below and an eMail that I sent out, I received the following two emails about the Whitehouse family.

An Email from Carolyn Crabtree (Carolyn is the head of the local History and Genealogy group):
Bob,

There are Whitehouse descendants all over the county. Have James get in touch with Shirley Sheperson, a Whitehouse descendant and historian in the area. Her phone number is 859-936-2061 and address is 312 Venetian Way, Danville, KY 40422. She has no e-mail, but you might be able to reach her by e-mail at the Forkland Community Center. Their e-mail address there is info@forklandcomctr.com. The person who gets those e-mails will pass them on to Shirley. Shirley helped write the book “Roots, Trunk and Branches” about the Lincoln connection to the Forkland area and the Whitehouse/Sparrow family. There is another entire book about the Whitehouse line that is separate from the main book. It contains more generations about the Whitehouse family. I put that book together myself. Shirley’s mother was Alma Whitehouse who married into the Ellis family. I’m sure she can help your friend and I will be happy to help as well.

Carolyn Crabtree ctree1492 at ctreeacres dot com



an Email from Peggy Edgington: ( Peggy is a Harmon Descendant and lives nearby):

Dear Bob,

There are several Whitehouse families still living in Boyle County. I will note names and phone numbers of some of them listed in the local phone book.

I went to school at Perryville Elementary and Boyle County High with Dennis Whitehouse. Dennis owns Whitehouse Auto Parts and Tires on W 2nd Street in Perryville. His home phone number is 859-332-7250 and business number is 859-332-2171. Dennis has a sister, Cindy, who lives in Danville. Dennis' father was Stanley Whitehouse, deceased. Dennis' mother, Crystal, is still living in Perryville.

I remember some of the following Whitehouse names growing up in Perryville: Allan Whitehouse, phone # 859-332-7003, Godbey Whitehouse, phone #859-236-2426, Kenneth Whitehouse, phone #859-239-0046. There is a Steve Whitehouse listed on Forkland Road in Gravel Switch, phone #859-332-7981. 332 numbers are Perryville, 236 and 239 numbers are Danville. There are a few other Whitehouses listed in the local phone book.

In the Perryville Community History Book, there is a picture of Leslie and Rose Lee Whitehouse with their eleven children, some of whom I recall as a child. They would have been friends with my father. The childrens names were: Godbey, Alfred, Ezra, Bertha, Stanley, Bob, Sadie, J. L., Marshall and Clarence. Another child, Arthur Day, died when he was 15 years old. The children grew up in Perryville. There is also a picture of Marshall and Frances Wilson Whitehouse in the Perryville book.

I hope this will be of some help to Jim Hagan.

Regards,

Peggy (Harmon) Edgington

Cemetery Repairs

I have good news. I spoke with Robert Mayes this morning (07/25/09) and he tells me that he has someone who is willing and able to repair and or reinstall the small to medium sized stones in the cemetery. He said 20 or 30 stones fall into that category. I say small to medium because there are a few larger stones he said, that are going to need a crane and/or mud jacking equipment to get them upright again and that is a whole different thing.
If you would like to contribute to the repair and restoration cost please see the donation address on the main page. The person who will do this is reasonable but not free. You can speak to Robert directly if one of the stones is for your family.
Robert Mayes' Phone #s:
1 859 332-7974 Residence
1 859 516 7974 Cell

Whitehouse Family in Union Cemetery

I recently heard from James Hagan, a descendant of the Whitehouse family. He is very interested in restoring the grave stone markers for his relatives here and would like to find someone to work with him to get that done. He is also interested in hearing from anyone else related to them. Jim lives in South Carolina. Here is his last message to me:
"The only Whitehouse relative I have ever been in touch with is Karen Caldwell, who is not a descendent of James and Agnes Whitehouse whose tombstones I would like to have repaired. Do you know of any Whitehouse or Gray relatives who might collaborate with me on repairs? I know Samuel Housan Whitehouse was a brother of my greatgrandmother and I think some of the Grays are related to him. I would like to get in touch with some of my long lost relatives about this, but also to get more info about family, copies of any family photos, etc.. I was very pleased to find photos of James and Agnes Whitehouse in the Forkland Heritage book, but do not have a photo of their daughter, my great grandmother. Thanks, Jim Hagan"

If anyone of our readers can help, please let me know. There are pictures of their stones in the database. The stones are in good condition but have fallen off their bases and need to be re mounted and cleaned up.

Passing of a Dear Friend

I learned today of the passing of my dear friend in Genealogy and History, John Sheperson. John was possibly the most knowledgable person in Boyle County when it came to local history and especially those buried in Union Cemetery. He shared many, many hours of study and research into local history with me over the years. He was, with his wife Eileen, active in many local history projects including the 2005 and 2007 editions of the Gravel Switch Community History book. One of the best books ever written about a community and its people and the heritage of central Kentucky.

I will miss him very much.

John had been fighting cancer for some time and was not feeling well but still getting around last year when we visited with him at his home in Gravel Switch.
His Obituary from the Danville Advocate Messenger On July 7, 2009:
John Sheperson
1945-2009
LEBANON - John Lee Sheperson, 64, of Gravel Switch died Sunday [July 5th].

Born May 8, 1945, in Lebanon, he was a son of Alice Sheperson of Parksville and the late Carlos Lee Sheperson. He was an Air Force veteran and state police officer.

Survivors include his wife, Eileen Sheperson; a son, John Sheperson Jr. of Gravel Switch; four daughters, Anita Sheperson and Rebekah Spears, both of Gravel Switch, Tanya Rice of Rineyville and Sarah Mattingly of Raywick; a brother, David Sheperson of Perryville; a sister, Ella Mae Pendygraft of Parksville; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Services will be 2 p.m. Thursday at Bosley Funeral Home by the Revs. Lee Arnold and Gerald Hegwood. Burial will be in Old Union Cemetery in Boyle County.

Visitation will be 5-9 p.m. Wednesday.

Annual Reunion Information

I received this email from Peggy Edgington Yesterday(07/15/09):
Dear Family Members,

I have spoken today with Robert Mayes, President, of the Harmon, Gray, Pipes Family Association. Robert will be sending out a letter soon about the upcoming family reunion in Perryville. The reunion will be held at the Perryville Christian Church at 205 East Third Street on Sunday, August 9th at 1:30 p.m.

The meal will be potluck. Plan on making and bringing your favorite dishes and having great fellowship.

Bring any information that you want to share with others (pictures, articles, family trees, etc.) for the sharing table that will be set up.

If you cannot attend this year, please send a check to support the upkeep of the Old Union Cemetery. Make check payable and send to: Old Union Cemetery, P.O. Box 124, Perryville, KY 40468.

Just a reminder to check out Bob Pipes' wonderful website www.pipesfamily.com if you haven't done so lately. On Bob's webpage, you can click on Visit our Union Cemetery Site or go to www.unioncemetery.blogspot.com.

Hope to see you at the family reunion on August 9th.

Peggy (Harmon) Edgington

Nancy Gray Pipes Grave Stone Picture

At last we have a picture of the grave stone of Nancy Gray Pipes. Nancy was the youngest daughter of John Gray and Lucinda Jones. John Gray I believe was a Revolutionary War Soldier and came to Mercer Co. very early from Prince Edward Co., Virginia. His daughter Nancy married William Pipes, who is buried in Old Union and was the youngest son of John Pipes Jr.

William died in 1855 at age 52 and after that many of William and Nancy's 12 children (born between 1822 and 1851) migrated to Pike Co., Indiana. I think the only child who remained in Boyle Co. was George Washington Pipes (GW is also in Old Union with his wife Mariah Edwards) Their son Bradford, who was a member of Morgan's Raiders, was murdered in 1865 shortly after returning from the war, is also buried in Old Union.

Nancy Gray Pipes and William owned the property just east of the cemetery and may have had a home where the house now stands that belonged to George Washington. That house is now owned by the Shepersons. Nancy sold a piece of the property to the L & N railroad and I have a copy of the deed here in my files. George Washington raised his family there and I have pictures of them as well.

Nancy moved to Pike Co., Indiana when her age caused her to be more dependent and probably to be closer to her daughters. She died there in 1886 and is buried in Flat Creek Cemetery.
I am not sure who did it, but her stone is obviously not the original and has been replaced. She has many, many descendants from those twelve children.
UPDATE 08/04/09 It was Janavie Pipes Richardson, a daughter of Nathan Pipes who raised the funds for the new stone.
Many Thanks to Marcia Curtis and her daughter Karen Fulk for the picture. They are taking several more pictures of the Pipes stones in that area for my web site.

A Message from the Brinton Family Line

I received this email message from Sally Brinton yesterday (7/03/09)
Her email is: sbrinton08 at gmail dot com if you would like to exchange info with her.
Hi Bob,
I certainly enjoy your blog, and was so excited to find a picture of the grave of Mary Brinton, wife of James Brinton(1781-1870), and so far unidentified Sarah Brinton. Thank you for this wonderful work. I have been trying to establish the ancestry of James for sometime, but haven't been successful so far. There were many Brintons in the area. Carolyn Crabtree did tell me that the Brintons were known as one of the earliest settlers of the area along with the Harbeson's. Sam Brinton, son of James was the civil war era owner of the Brinton House in downtown Perryville, and Hardin Brinton also son of James, was married to Elizabeth Montgomery (dau of Isaac).
You invited us to send on names of other founding families of the area, so I add the Brintons. Maybe someone out there can add some new info and help solve the mystery. In the meantime, I will keep enjoying your blog.
Thanks, Sally

A Tribute to Ashel

Who is Ashel? He is Ashel Eber Pipes, born in 1858 to James Pipes and Mary Denton, probably within ear shot of Union Cemetery. His parents along with almost all of the Children of William Pipes and Nancy Gray Pipes moved to Pike County, Indiana between 1855 and 1860. The one child of William and Nancy who stayed in Boyle Co. was George Washington Pipes and his wife Mariah Edwards.
Ashel was probably a hard scrabble Farmer in Pike County and at the age of 34 he enlisted in the Army. He was a member of several units and re enlisted several times and finally in 1899 was assigned to Company "M" of the 3rd US Infantry and was shipped to the Phillipines. On mAy 23rd 1899 he was Killed in Action at a place called Maasin on Leyete Island. In the early 1900s his body was removed and reinterred in the National Military Cemetery at the Presidio in San Francisco. My sons, who live near there, discovered his grave marker a few years ago and we visit there when ever we have the chance. The view from just above his burial site is one of the most beautiful places on this earth. It looks out over San Francisco Bay and Angel Island and the scene there is very serene. My son Taylor took the photos in the short movie below and I used Picasa to make the movie. Copy the http link below and paste it into your browser. Then be sure to select "View in HQ" on the upper right side of the screen when it appears or else it will be pixelated. The movie is about 1 min 30 seconds long with music.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bobpipes/TributeToAshel#5350275569078583874

Update on my home Improvement Project

As many of you know, I have been working on remodeling the space in the basement of my new home to have a place to work and relax and a place for all my books and computers. Well I am nearing completion and have been taking photos along the way. All that remains is some carpet for the floors and this phase will be done. You can see the project in a slideshow at the left called Knollwood project.

Interesting Robert Gray Article

Thanks to Peggy Edgington for sending this Today.

From the Danville Advocate Messenger:
Monday April 6, 2009
Looking Back: Markers of time -- Discovery of graveyard leads to lesson in history
By BRENDA S. EDWARDS Contributing Writer
The grave of Private Robert Gray, a Revolutionary War veteran, who served with George Washington at Valley Forge, went unnoticed for many years after he was laid to rest in a small family graveyard off Ky. 1856 between Perryville and Mitchellsburg.
He was buried in the family plot after his death in 1825 but no marker was visible at the site. If there was ever a stone at the grave, it had been destroyed or buried.
However, after many hours of research and hard work, Private Gray now has a white military marker near his grave. It was erected in 2008.
Joann Wilkerson, who grew up on Sugar Bush Farm, never knew the cemetery was on the adjoining farm until 1970 after a windstorm damaged a large clump of trees and the crumbled tombstones were exposed.
She and her mother, the late Lucille Bruce, checked the graveyard and learned most of the marked graves were from the Gray family. The last person buried there was Jane Gray, who died in 1861.
The land where the graveyard is located was purchased by Mrs. Bruce and added to Sugar Bush Farm, now owned by Joann and her husband, Conley Wilkerson.
After checking with many Gray families in the area, who were not aware of the cemetery and did not know anything about Robert Gray, the search was put aside until 2005, when a descendant, Dennis Gray of Indiana, stopped by the farm to check out the cemetery.
The Wilkersons did research on Robert Gray and learned of his service in the Revolutionary War. He served three years in the Virginia Continental Line and lived for about a year aboard a British prison ship off Charleston, S.C.
Records show Gray served in the 4th, 8th and 12th Virginia Continental Line Regiments, which apparently went through several reformations to adjust to the loss of men through military action, illness and desertions.
Gray is not listed on a marker with other Revolutionary War veterans on the lawn of the Boyle County Courthouse, but research shows that he was a veteran who came to Kentucky after the war. He apparently lived out his life in the Perryville area.
Military records show Gray was a private in the 12th Virginia Regiment and enlisted Aug. 30, 1777, for a three-year term. He was with the unit when it marched from Lancaster, Pa. The payroll in January 1778, shows he was paid in shillings. Two months later, his muster roll is dated, Valley Forge, March 1778.
Records cover Gray's service from his enlistment on Aug. 30, 1777, through 1779.
Gray came to Kentucky with other families
Robert married Sarah Pearce on Jan. 11, 1786, in Prince Edward County, Va., and they most likely came through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky. His brother, John and wife, Lucinda, may have been among a group that settled near the Chaplin River in Mercer County (now Boyle).
Sarah's name appears on legal documents, but is referred to only as Robert's wife and his children's mother.
A copy of a Mercer County deed dated March 24, 1795, shows that William McBrayer conveyed to Robert Gray 250 acres on the Chaplin Fork of Salt River, being a part of McBrayer's pre-emption of 1,000 acres. The cost was 75 pounds. The Gray family cemetery is on a portion of that land.
Gray's will states he wanted to be buried beside his wife, and shows that he left his estate to be divided equally between his three sons, John, Charles and Robert Jr.
Robert Jr. was to inherit the homestead where he, his father and two sisters lived and much of the tools, livestock and farm supplies. His daughter, Elizabeth, inherited linens and part of the money from the sale of the stock.
Daughters, Jane and Sally, got two cows, 12 sheep, furniture and money. Charles and Robert were to pay Jane and Sally $20 annually as long as they remained single. Robert Sr.'s personal property amounted to about $300.
The will mentioned the two acres that were to be laid off for a family burial ground. John and Robert Jr. were appointed executors of the estate.
Robert Jr. and his sister, Jane, who never married, lived on the farm until their deaths. Robert Jr. was born Oct. 28, 1795, and died May 11, 1845.
Robert Jr.'s will also mentioned the cemetery and instructed Jane to erect tombstones on his grave as well as his parents, Robert and Sarah.
After Jane's death in 1861, her will, dated Sept. 14, 1858, said: "Purchase four tombstones of marble, one for my mother and father, one for my brother Robert and one for myself." She also asked that other brothers and sisters and a nephew, John Gray, be buried at the cemetery, and that the cemetery be enclosed with a stone wall with iron railing on the top of the wall. She also left money with the interest to be used to educate four children of parents unable to school them.
There is little evidence that tombstones were put on the other family graves, but Jane's grave is marked with a tall monument. The partial stones found with names are of Nancy Burton, who may have been the wife of John Burton; and John, probably a nephew of Jane.
Jane was the last surviving descendant of Robert Gray Sr. to live on the Gray farm.
After discovering the Gray graveyard, the Wilkersons have cleared off the site, planted some flowering bushes and plan to replace the fence.
Conley and Joann Wilkerson are not related to the Gray family, and have found it interesting on the amount of information they have accumulated about the pioneer Kentucky family.
"We've had a lot of fun looking around," said Conley. "It's amazing what you can dig up."

Copyright:The Advocate-Messenger 2009