A year or so ago Rush KY native Darrell “Snuffy” Stewart was walking a forested ridge line at Kilgore KY. He spotted a relatively large and ornate lone grave marker reasonably close, but still definitely outside, the small nearby Rigsby Cemetery. This marker has an interesting and sad story.
Darrell posted a Facebook message to a community Facebook group with an image of this marker. I have been documenting the GPS locations of the 50 or so graveyards in The Williams Creek Basin and despite having a very good GPS location for the Rigsby Cemetery, I had never been there. I wanted an overview photograph of the Rigsby Cemetery and a GPS location and photo of this lone grave marker.
Yesterday, 6 March 2023, we parked at the mouth of John D Hollow, beside what had been the spacious Rush area baseball field, and Darrell and I walked to this grave site area. I was able to photograph the reasonably new Rigsby Cemetery, photograph this lone grave marker, and get a precise GPS location of the lone grave marker (GPS 38.34608, -82.78669). It was about a 1 mile round trip walk with an elevation gain of 230 feet.
Here is the location of this lone grave marker in Google Maps. It is at the red teardrop marker. Just click on this line.
This lone marker was for two distinct human beings, Samuel D Lusk, died 13 Nov 1891, and Marion W Lusk, died 13 Nov 1891. We noted that both had died on the same day and initially thought this might have been a married couple that died in a house fire or other shared family calamity.
I have determined this is the grave marker for two brothers that were killed in a local coal mine accident. I also determined a bit of other info on these brothers. They were Samuel David Lusk (1 Jun 1857 – 13 Nov 1891) and his slightly younger brother, Marion Whitten Lusk (6 Mar 1859 – 13 Nov 1891). The brothers were from the large family of at least 12 children of Harrison Lusk (1823 – 1897) and Nancy Matilda Hall Lusk (1829 – 1912). Harrison and his sons all seemed to have been coal miners working and living near coal mines in the Rush KY – Coalton KY area. There were many of the Lusk family in the Rush area for several decades, but I have no knowledge of any still remaining in the Rush area.
This report clearly indicates this is the grave marker for Samuel and Marion Whitten “Whit” Lusk, brothers killed in a mining accident.
For those not familiar with the mining jargon used in this report, “stumps”, also called pillars, are columns of coal ore that are left in place when the mine is being enlarged by following the coal seam to extract the coal. These pillars prevent the roof of the mine from collapsing to the floor of the mine. Sort of like the 2” X 4” studs in house walls prevent the ceiling above from falling onto the floor below.
When it is decided they do not want to enlarge the mine further and abandon meandering with the coal seam for ore, the miners “pull the stumps”. They start with the stumps farthest away in the area to be abandoned, install temporary roof supports, dig out the coal ore stump, and remove the temporary supports while carefully working from this interface area, just beside, but still supported by the successive stumps that are still in place. It is extremely dangerous, but still routine coal mining rigor.
“The place was heavily working – creeping and crushing and bottom heaving” indicates the ground near the accident had moved significantly. This noted movement meant the entire hillside containing the mine had shifted wildly, likely causing the deaths.
The company operating the #6 mine at Rush, “The Ashland Coal and Iron Railway”, was sued by the administrator, John Lusk, of Samuel Lusk and Marion Whitten Lusk’s estates. The administrator won a $11,000 plus expenses judgment. This John Lusk is likely the slightly older brother of Samuel and Marion Whitten Lusk, John Philip Lusk (1856 – 1934). The $11,000.00 adjusted for 131 years of inflation from the 1892 judgment, would be $361,634.07 today. Below is a clipping discovered on Ancestry.Com from “The Evening Bulletin” from Maysville KY on 5 Oct 1893 detailing this case.
This large settlement explains how the heirs of these brothers were able to afford such an expensive grave marker. These marked Lusk graves are on one end of a strip of a few other older graves on this ridge. Most of these older graves are not marked, or only have a piece of sandstone at the grave site. Note these older graves are a bit away from the nearby fenced in Rigsby Cemetery. This nearby more formal fenced in Rigsby Cemetery was not initiated for another 1/2 a century after the deaths of the Lusk Brothers. The Lusk Brother’s graves and marker does look a bit lonely on that ridge line.
I also found the working record of Marion Whitten Lusk for an The Ashland Coal and Iron Railway Mine for 1898 when he was 29 years old using an index of a mining ledger I created a few years ago. Here is a link to that ledger page.
Click on this link for the Ashland Coal and Iron Railway Mine Ledger
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Lon,
My family , Estill Rigsby, owned the property that you speak of.
There are several other graves at that site. When I was young we
tried to take care of the graves there. That was before the Rigsby
family started our cemetery. My Dad sold that property to Wiley Christy
after I left home.
I can remember two women came to visit the cemetery where the
monument stands. I do remember there are a couple soldiers buried
there. Someone would put flags on the graves every year.
Carolyn, Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. Enjoy! Lon
Samuel and Marion Lusk were brothers of my great grandmother Elizabeth Lusk. Thank you for posting this information. It will be a great addition to our family history narrative.