Robert H. Coffey was born in 1846 in Christian County, KY to Asa and Sidney Coffey. He lived in the 1st District of the county until the age of 14 when his parents moved him and his 7 siblings to the Second Township in Washington, IL. There they lived for a time until Robert moved […]
Robert L. Morton was a 21 year old Black man who lived until February 1897. He was born in Pilot Knob, Simpson, Kentucky, approximately 12 miles away from Rockfield. His occupation was unknown. The 1880 Federal Census has no record of Robert Morton’s mother or father. He lived with his grandparents, Isom Morton and Marian […]
Richard James was born on December 19, 1882, in Kentucky. He was of mixed race and worked as a farm laborer. He was married to a woman named Nora James, and they lived with his stepfather Henry Smith, according to the 1920 census records. They had no children. He was literate and owned his own […]
John Rex Scott was born in about 1913 to John and Lydia Scott. At the time of the 1913 census Rex Scott was unemployed but his father worked at mine in Hazard KY. Rex attended school and is able to read and write according to the census. As of 1930, Scott still lived with his […]
Marshall Boston was likely born around 1863, as a census from 1870 shows him as about 7 years old. The timing of his birth coincided with the later years of the civil war, meaning Marshall Boston likely grew up as a free black man in a free black family. There is not much known about […]
Will Skaggs was born in approximately 1875 to Margarett and Levi Skaggs in Rich Pond, Warren County, Kentucky. Will was their only child. The 1880 census indicates that he was 5 years old in 1880. An article from the Nashville Tennessean mentions Will’s father as John Skaggs, but no such man has been found. The […]
There are two versions of Sam Pulliam’s last name, Pullim and Pulliam. For this biography, the last name “Pullim” will be used as that is what was recorded in the 1880 census. Sam was born sometime in 1864 to his mother, Mary Pullim, and his father, Dave Pullim. Sam had a brother named James who […]
John Maxey was born in 1884 and raised in Frankfort, KY to John H. Maxey and his mother Cordelia Maxey. He had an older sister. Alice Maxey. The family lived in a rented home during Maxey’s childhood. His father was well-known and liked in the Frankfort community. John Maxey worked as an attache and a […]
Jimbo Fields and Clarence Garnett were African American teenagers who were born in Shelbyville, Kentucky. As their ages vary in different newspapers, Fields was estimated at sixteen years and Garnett of eighteen years at the time of the lynchings. As teenagers Fields and Garnett worked as day laborers, doing miscellaneous work for varying local businesses. […]
Silas Easter was born approximately in March 1883 in Bonnieville, Kentucky. According to the 1900 census, Silas Easter was the oldest son of H and Little Easter. Silas had two younger sisters, Elman and Mannie, who were 11 and 10 at the time of 1900 census. In 1901, Easter was approximately 18-years-old and worked as […]
