James Kilgore Sr (30 Jan 1831 – 8 May 1912) appears in or near the area bearing his name, Kilgore KY, sometime between 1850 and 1860. On 2 Aug 1850 he is listed as a 19 year old on the 1850 US Census. He is living with his parents in what was then Cabell County VA (West Virginia did not become a state until 1863).
In the 1860 US Census he was 29 and living near Star Furnace. The 1860 Star Furnace Census district would have included what eventually became the community called Kilgore. He is also mentioned in the 1861 diary of Star Furnace resident Joseph Bertrand Norris (1841 – 1928). The Carter County KY deed books show on 26 Nov 1850 he obtained 400 acres on Williams Creek Grantee K, p15 from an aging Charles B Riggs (abt 1783 – 1857). It is very likely some of these 400 acres are in current Boyd County KY. Boyd County was not formed until 1860.
He was married two times, to his first wife Malinda Riggs (1824 – 1882) in Cabell County on 10 Dec 1850, they had at least 7 children. Malinda Riggs was either the daughter or granddaughter of Charles B Riggs, the person whom James Kilgore obtained the 400 acres of land. James and Malinda were married just 14 days after this 400 acre land transaction. His second wife was much younger, Lucreta Alexander (1865 – ????). Lucreta Kilgore outlived him and resided in Charleston WV after James Kilgore’s death. James and Lucreta had at least 3 children.
I have seen the image below here and there, both on the web and in area personal collections. In general, the prints I saw had been subject to several generations of photographic copying and were not very good copies.
Recently I was able to get a high resolution scan of a higher quality large print owned by Betty Ruth Jenkins Davis’ (1943 – 2020). Betty’s sons, Allen and Bob, kindly loaned me this image to scan.
The image is the funeral procession of James Kilgore Sr at Kilgore KY, the community named for James Kilgore. This image is likely 2 or 3 days after Kilgore died on 8 May 1912 in Middleport OH. This is the current location of the intersection of KY SR 854 and US 60. I have included a recent image from 16 Sep 2023 of this approximate location below.
James Kilgore was buried at the cemetery at Kilgore, this cemetery is on the hill directly in front of the funeral procession.
Approximately the top one fourth of this image is Boyd County, and the bottom three fourths is Carter County. While not visible in the image, Williams Creek is there flowing from image right to left, and in this area it is the dividing line between Boyd and Carter counties.
Have a close look at the image. I have highlighted 8 features of this photo with red numbers with these explanations:
1. James Kilgore’s casket in a wagon drawn by a team of horses and attended by an entourage from the Masonic Lodge in their white mason’s aprons.
2. The person centered directly behind the wagon carrying James Kilgore’s coffin is Charles A Montgomery (1863 – 1933). Charles Montgomery was Betty Ruth Jenkins Davis’ maternal grandfather. This is the only person in the procession I can identify. Betty Ruth Jenkins Davis owned this scanned photograph.
3. Location of a still standing, large 2 story, white frame house. Due to the trees, I am not positive I can see this house in this image, but I think I can see a bit of roof, and there is a gate and path heading to the front door where I know this house stands. Charles N “Tid” Safreed (1893 – 1964) and his wife Mabel “Miss Mabel” Johnson Safreed (1899 – 2006) lived here for many years, but years after this image was snapped. “Miss Mabel” was a well known, longtime, local elementary teacher. In the 1910 US Census Charles Safreed’s mother, Minerva Jane Safreed (1843 – 1925), and her large family were living in this general area, possibly in this same house. Danny Abels currently owns and lives in this house at #20 SR 854 Rush KY 41168.
4. A large three story frame general store building. This business housed a general store operation called “Barrett & Son”.JB Obituary It was run by Joseph Barrett (1830 – 1912) and his son Nathan Barrett (1857 – 1917). In the 1910 US Census Joseph and Nathan’s occupations are cited as “Retail Merchant – General Merchandise”. Joseph Barrett lived across the street from this store. This business was previously operated by the Black and Castner families.JB Obituary In 1912 this would not have been a prime location for a large store. The coal mining activity had left the Kilgore area, due to played out drift mines, and moved further north along Rush Creek, with newer coal mining company housing communities located away from Kilgore. Joseph Barrett also partnered in another large general store with James P Castner (1844 – 1895) beginning in about 1881.DeedBook 10, p462 This Castner & Barrett store was located elsewhere near the current intersection of KY SR 854 and KY SR 1654 (Geigerville) and much closer to the newer mines and newer company housing. In 1889 James P Castner purchased all of this business in Geigerville.DeedBook 15, p527 The extended Castner Family continued to operate the Geigerville store after James P Castner’s death in 1895.
5. A two story frame house in “Jim Town”. This coal mining company owned community, called “Jim Town”, was likely named after James Kilgore. James Kilgore owned this bottom before selling it to the mining company for construction of housing for their miners. There were about 20 other such mining company houses in this same bottom, but they cannot be seen in this image. This bottom sat just beyond Williams Creek, so just inside Boyd County. For an article devoted to Jim Town click on the link below:
Click on this line to read the Williams Creek Basin article on Jim Town.
6. Once the Kilgore Post Office. This small frame building sat beside Williams Creek, beside a bridge going over Williams Creek, and just inside Carter County. The post office serving this general area bounced around between a few locations in Carter County and Boyd County. Depending on exactly where it was located the name also changed (Rush, Geigerville, or Kilgore). When this image was taken the local post office was at Rush in Boyd County and called Rush.Postmasters Boyd KY
7. Very small frame house. In the 1930 and 1940 US Census Lyda Lynk (1849 – 1941), her son Joe Lynk (1878 – 1945), a mining blacksmith, and wife Clara Bozman Lynk (1871 – 1956) lived here. When US 60 was improved in about 1950 this house was torn down to accommodate a slightly new path for US 60. Immediately beyond this house was the large two story frame Joseph Barrett house (the Barrett house cannot be seen in this image). Joseph Barrett was an owner of the large community store business located just across the street. Henry Thomas (1903 – 1992) and Betty Horton Thomas (1903 – 1981) purchased the Barrett House and related properties in an estate sale and lived there for decades. Betty Thomas was also a longtime, well known, local elementary teacher. This Barrett / Thomas house burned a few years ago after being empty for a couple of decades.
8. Huge ruts in the dirt road that would eventually become KY SR 854.
A big thanks to Allen Davis, Bob Davis, Barbara Copley, Larry Thomas, Minnie Thomas Leibee, Mitch Thomas, Gail Fannin, Virginia Musick, Teresa Martin Klaiber, and Linda Newman for their kind help.
Enjoy! Lon
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I think all you so much for this wonderful article , I spent the first 10 years of life living in Kilgore as a very young child I attended the burial of miss Lynk , she was buried in the same cemetery as Kilgore which is behind Sammy Burtons house .