Tombstone Tuesday – J. R. U. Crabb – Barren County, Kentucky
Sherry Stocking Kline
November 24, 2009
Here is my Tombstone Tuesday:
As shown on the tombstone:
J. R. U. Crabb
Born: April 14, 1838
Died: Nov 1, 1920Our Father is gone but not forgotten.
If I have all my facts right, and if my mother is right, too, then J. R. U. Crabb buried in the Glasgow Cemetery, Barren County, Kentucky, is my step great-grandfather. Mom was always told that Elizabeth Crabb was her grandmother, and Elizabeth was J.R.U.’s wife.
J. R. U.’s daughter, Bettie Crabb, is buried right next to him in the cemetery in Glasgow.
This is a beautiful cemetery, with a small Civil War fort, Fort Williams, at the top of the hill, and the tombstones run up and down along the sides of the hill.
Fort Williams has a cannon, and there are several memorial markers that tell the story of the battle that was fought there on October 6th, 1863, and you can look out over the tombstones from nearly everywhere in the Fort.
We spent an hour or two locating family graves, and spotting other names that may have been family as well, so I came home with several ‘extra’ tombstone photographs for research purposes.
Because there were flowers on one family gravesite (indicating to me that there were people living nearby who brought flowers) I was later able to track down some other family members thanks to a few phone calls and the kindness of several Kentucky businesses, the South Central Kentucky Cultural Museum, and new-found family members.
That evening we watched the sun set from the fort and it was beautiful to look out over the tombstones on the rolling hillside in one direction and in the other direction watch the lights of the city begin to twinkle on far below us.
The city of Glasgow’s website has information and aerial photographs of Fort Williams here.
You can read more abut the J.R.U. Crabb family and see information extracted from the 1860 census here.
For a time, J. R. U. , his wife, Elizabeth (Laird) Crabb, and their daughter Bettie lived on a farm just east and a little south of Milan, Sumner County, Kansas. I know from reading the local newspapers for that era that J.R.U. had cattle.
Elizabeth died on their farm near Milan, Sumner County, Kansas on July 30, 1912, and at some point in time before his death J.R.U. and daughter Bettie returned to Kentucky where J.R.U.’s other daughter, Sally Mayfield lived.
You can see Elizabeth’s tombstone, located in the Ryan Township Cemetery, Milan, Sumner County, Kansas, and read her obituary here.
And oh, yeah, if you’ve googled one of the names in this post, leave a comment and contact info! We need to talk!
I am a relative of Nancy Bush (I think!) My great-grandfather was Joe Black Bush. I’d love to reach some of the Bush family in the Glasgow area.
Hi Karl! I will forward your e-mail address and message to Kay and I feel certain that she will contact you. Her mom was the genealogist in the family, but she wrote me after her mom passed away, and we are going to try to keep in contact. I plan to go back to the Glasgow area when I can, though right now, I am the caregiver for my nearly 100 year old mom, and would go right now if she were able to make the trip as it is her family that I search for.
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