Ky

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Thanks Bob, or how we got so interested in Kimbrough genealogy

My late father-in-law, Bob Kimbrough, known as “Lan” to his relatives, took a trip back to his hometown of Guthrie, Kentucky during the early years of our marriage. I have always been interested in history and when I found that this family had an old house there – a plantation house, really – and some older relatives who still lived near there, I was hooked. Why not investigate the Kimbrough genealogy? It seemed sooo much more romantic than my local folks. It didn’t hurt that each time I searched the various genealogy websites I would find hits on the name – many of which turned out to be related.

So began the quest that’s lasted over 15 years: who were the Kimbroughs? Are the McMurrys related to William Wallace? Are the Bollings descended from Pocahontas? Were the Kimbroughs the only plantation owners in Kentucky that didn’t own slaves? As you can imagine, many of the family legends, like the last one, have turned out to be just that – legends. Can’t say it hasn’t been fun.

As I began another round of sorting information today I came upon some pictures that reminded me of Bob’s pivotal part in our search. He passed away on December 13th, 2009, so as we approach this anniversary I thought it apt to write a bit about him, his history and his contribution to the Kimbrough legacy.

Bob was born on 26 March 1919 in Guthrie, Todd County, Kentucky to Keith Keesee  and Mary McMurry Kimbrough. He was the 3rd son of 5 children and spent his growing up years in Guthrie. His mother died when he was not yet 11. He decided, after high school to attend Georgia Tech in faraway Atlanta, encouraged by his aunt and uncle who lived there. He obtained his engineering degree from there and never looked back. He was Army Air Corps ROTC and entered WW II in 1941.

Here are his orders:

Special Orders to Galveston

Monday, 23 June 1941

HEADQUARTERS KENTUCKY MILITARY AREA

436 Post Office Building

Louisville, Kentucky.

June 23, 1941. Special Orders No. 112.

By direction of the President and under authority contained in Public Resolution No. 96, 16th Congress, approved August 27, 1940, second Lieutenant Robert Landon Kimbrough, 0-410941, CA-Res.,(541st CA) Guthrie, Todd, County, Kentucky, is ordered to extended active duty effective June 30, 1941, on which date he will proceed without delay from the place shown after his name to Fort Knox, Kentucky reporting upon arrival to the Commanding General, for temporary duty for the purpose of undergoing final type physical examination. Upon completion of the physical examination, if found physically qualified, he will proceed immediately to Galveston, Texas, reporting upon arrival to the Commanding Officer, for assignment and duty with Harbor Defenses of Galveston.

He will rank from May 20,1941. Unless sooner relieved, he will return to his home from the station where he is then serving.in time to arrive thereat on June 29, 1942, on which date he will stand relieved from active duty. The travel directed is necessary in the military service. FD~1325 P 15-06, 15-02, 15-07, 15-13, 15-01, A 1505-01-2. (Reference War Department letter AG 320.2 (12-27-40) M-A-M, January 3, 1941, Subject:

“Allotment of Reserve officers for Regular Army Inactive Units to be activated June 1, 1941”). (Reqn. #112-1941)

 Bob in 1940s

He shared with us one of the other important related turning points of his life – he was NOT sent to Guadalcanal later in the conflict as his engineering skills were needed elsewhere. Otherwise a lot of our Kimbroughs would not exist. The military continued to be a big part of Bob’s life even after discharge in about 1947  from the Air Force as he maintained membership in the Reserves until the mid 1980’s.

Bob spent his post active military career with the Boeing Company and retired from there. After his retirement he did some traveling and on one of his trips he came upon the old Kimbrough Family Cemetery which was originally on the Kimbrough Plantation in Hadensville, Kentucky,  just outside of Guthrie. His original Kentucky forebears were buried there and he wanted to see that it was preserved for future generations. With support from a cousin, Ben Kimbrough and his nephew John, son of his late brother Charles, Bob crafted a plan to restore what tombstones and sites could be found. We got involved in the last stage of the restoration: taking pictures and documenting the burials – as best we could. Our results are seen on the website http://www.kimbroughgenealogy.com .

The quest for information to know more about the folks who were buried in the cemetery really drove a lot of the research for a while. We have yet to find out where Thomas Winston Kimbrough and his brothers were raised…but we have hope! I’m sorry that Bob won’t be around to celebrate with us when the brick wall is finally breached, but I’ll imagine him laughing.

RLK on front porch of his childhood home in Guthrie, Kentucky in 2001

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Kentucky and Tennessee

The last few days have been quite busy! We have been staying in Clarksville, TN, county seat of Montgomery County. Todd, Christian and Logan counties in Kentucky are very close to Clarksville and the library has a lot of resources for those counties. I’ve now crossed the state line about 10 times and have researched in all the above mentioned except Christian- oh, wait a minute, I think I did look at a couple of Christian county books.

I am no closer to the ultimate goal of finding Thomas Winston Kimbrough’s parents, as far as I can see at the moment, but have found some information that helps to fill out the tree and hopefully additional information and resources for down line relatives.

Soon after we arrived we found that my husband’s last surviving aunt had suffered a major auto accident earlier this week and is in the hospital with a fair prognosis. Landon went to see her at the hospital and visited with his cousin, John, who is the person that maintains the old family cemetery in Hadensville. He and his wife were very helpful when the efforts to restore and document the cemetery took place a few years ago. Landon’s late father Robert, and his cousin Ben Kimbrough of Clarksville financed the restoration. It’s a great gift to the descendants of Thomas Winston and Susan Gaines Kimbrough.

Speaking of cemeteries, one of the items I wanted to find was an obituary and burial place for Parthenia Kimbrough Mimms, TW and Susan’s firstborn. I wasn’t able to do that yet, but found an immense amount of Mimms information which also includes a bit about the Gaines and Garth connections. There is a book about their grandson, Gaines Meredith Mimms. Perhaps the most fun was finding some vertical files in the Elkton, Ky library that contained a number of genealogists’ correspondence regarding these families. I even found some that I believe is from Jeanette <now> Humphries about T. Gaines Kimbrough. Wondering if all 6 of his children have been accounted for?

A great resource that I found thanks to a couple of librarians was the Logan County Archives that are maintained by the Logan County Genealogical Society.

Logan County Gen society

http://www.logangenealogy.com/

These women were awesome, especially Lee and Judy! Lee took me through to the court offices with all the deed books – helped me find the deeds and then copied them for me! Wow! I now have a number of deeds that are connected with various Kimbroughs during the 1800s and also a lawsuit where W.L. Kimbrough sues a Thomas R. Kimbrough over a land transaction. I believe that Thomas R. is the same “Tom Bob” who is the son of Meredith and Mildred Kimbrough – W.L.’s nephew. I’ll be more forthcoming about this when I have time to read the whole file and confirm the relationships.

Next stop: Virginia