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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

More Bybee Untrivia

One of the best-validated, genealogically, of the Bybees is Juliette. Anyone who has ever searched the records in the courthouse in Glasgow, Barren County, Kentucky, knows about Juliette. She was before my time, but in her later years she lived in the Moulton area. Her exact position in the family is disputed, but she also came from Barren County, as did my grandfather, Thomas Henry. Pearl, my father, called her "Aunt Julie." The relationship had to be fairly close.

She is mentioned in the Will of Jonathan Bybee, recorded in Will Book No. 3, Page 282 of Barren County:

I, Jonathan Bybee of Barren County, Kentucky being in bad health, but in my perfect mind do constitute and make this my last will and testament in the following manner--

1st, I desire that all lawful debts be paid after my death;

2nd, It is my will that after my death that my dear wife Mary Bybee shall inherit all my estate both real and personal during her life or widowhood--

3rd, After the death of my wife Mary Bybee my will is that the remanes (sic) of my estate be equally divided between John Hyram Bybee and Julaett Bybee, son and daughter of Shirard Bybee, and Mary Susan Button daughter of Jordan Button--

4th, It is my will that my executor manage my estate both real and personal to best advantage for the benefit of my wife and three children above named.

5th, It is my will and desire that John Button execute this my last will and testament, April the 19, 1847.

The will is witnessed by James Wade and Jordan Button.

The confusion around Julie arises from the way the will reads. It sounds as if the mother of John and Julie was Mary Susan Button. However, there is a comma between "Sherard Bybee, and Mary Susan Button" and Jonathan specifically mentions three children.

Some think Julie's parents were Sherrod Bybee and Jemima Mackey, but this will would seem to put that in doubt.

Both Juliette and her husband, William Wilson Baldock are buried in Otterbein Cemetery, west of Moulton.

William was killed in a construction accident, according to my information, while he was helping to build a schoolhouse.

The following information was taken from LDS film No. 0973096 - G 69544, the third section, which is a microfilm of an entire book. The book is entitled, "The Times of Long Ago, Barren County, Kentucky," by Franklin Gorin. Published by John P. Norton, Inc. Louisville, KY 1929.

The Foreword of the book says this publication first appeared as a series of articles in the Glasgow Times in the 1870s. ((Later, the year 1876 is given.))

Parentheses ( ) are as given in the text. Double parentheses (( )) have been added to clarify certain parts. Ellipses ... have been added to indicate that words have been omitted in this transcript. This was done to eliminate numerous names and other verbiage not necessary for the purpose of the transcript.

From the Index:
BYBEE -- Fleming, p. 28
      John, p. 24, 28
      Lee, p. 25
      McCann, p. 25
      Sherod, p. 24
      Wilburn, p. 28
      William, p. 75

BUTTON -- John, p. 133

p. 24, 25:
Among the earliest settlers in that part of Monroe County taken off Barren County were ... Richard BRAY* ... on Beaver Creek above Columbia Road, including the sinks of Beaver and surrounding country: ... John and Sherod BYBEE...

((*Jehu Bybee, who was a son of my great-grandfather, Lee Bybee, married Nancy Ellen Bray. No doubt there is a relationship here.))

p. 25:
On the headwaters of Marrowbone, Skegg's, No Bob and Glover's Creeks, settled ... Lee and McCann BYBEE ... and Richard Shirley, who killed two panthers on his plantation; others were heard day and night, screaming around his home. In those days--1800 to 1804--persons carried their guns with them everywhere, even to meeting to protect themselves against Indians and wild animals.

((I understand that "No Bob" received its name from the following:

((A young man with the first name of Bob had disappeared from a party which I believe was traveling through that area. The remainder of the party spent many days searching in and around the place he was last seen. Each night they would meet at a predetermined site with reports on their efforts to find the missing Bob.

((The reports usually consisted of two words, which said it all: "No Bob." The search was eventually abandoned and it was believed that Bob had been killed by Indians. The meeting site came to be known as No Bob.))

p. 28:
John Matthews, Jr., built the frame house on the corner of Race and Washington Streets ((Glasgow)) (now standing), He had previously married Juda Pickett. He opened a tavern--the fourth one--at an early date. There the young people frequently indulged in their favorite pastime, dancing--the same as they had done at his father's and Dickinson's. ((Dickinson had earlier built "and kept a first-rate house of entertainment for a number of years.")) These balls often occurred during the day. He was in 1817 succeeded by W. S. Lampton, who kept a good house for several years, when he returned to Columbia, Ky., whence he came. He had the first billiard table in Glasgow in 1817. He was followed by John BYBEE, now dead, and our genial, kind and respected fellow citizen Wilburn BYBEE, a member of the firm of ASHBY & BYBEE, now a justice of the peace and public administrator.* Since the death of John BYBEE, the house has been occupied by several persons as a boarding house, now by Mr. Scrivener.

*During my genealogical searching of the records in Barren County, KY, I happily made the pen-pal acquaintance of another Charles (H.) Bybee. who was the Assistant County Clerk. He wrote me, in February 1983:

"A man was in the office here a couple of days ago and found a Wilburn BYBEE that was postmaster here from September 1861 to February 1862. This was, of course, when the Rebels took over during the Civil War. Also, we have found an old index book that lists the same Wilburn BYBEE, but have not found the book it refers to."

I met Charles H. Bybee once when I made a trip to Glasgow, while tracing my "roots." He was a fine man, and we became good friends on sight. Unfortunately he had terminal cancer at the time and, since I never heard any more from him, must assume he has passed on. May he rest in peace. CFB

The first horse traders to the south ((of Glasgow)) were Wm. Hall, Wm. and Henry Rennick, Joseph Neville, Sam and Tol Thomas, John C. Hamilton, and Wm. and Thomas Mackay. The last, Thomas Mackay, was murdered on one of his trips down in 1812 or '13, on Bear Creek in the Indian Nations by Indians. They took all his horses and a negro. Gen. Jackson afterwards made a treaty with the Indians, by which Mackay's heirs obtained the negro and part of the horses.

After those mentioned we had many traders, William BYBEE in 1830, and Robert Hughes were the most constant. ((According to Webster, "constant" would mean faithful, or honest.))

p. 133:
((John BUTTON is mentioned as a neighbor of John Duff, "who came to Barren County from Fauquier County, Virginia, in 1798." Duff was born in Virginia and died in Barren in 1850.)) End of LDS film transcript.

Dick Bybee, b. Jan. 7, 1845, d. July 2, 1873

Sallie, dau. of Wm. & Ann Bybee, b. Aug. 22, 1857, d. Mar.24, 1876.

Nettie, dau. of Clint & R. E. Bybee, b. Sept. 28, 1878, d. May 29, 1879.

BYBEE GRAVEYARD on J. K. Allen Farm, 6 miles south of Winchester on Two Mile Pike:
Jane, wife of Jas. Bybee, b. Nov. 3, 1801, d. Jan. 10, 1876
James Bybee, b. June 7, 1801, d. July 10, 1884
Travis, son of J. A. & Rebecca Bybee, b. Feb. 27, 1873, d. Nov. 1877.
(Mrs. J. K. Allen is daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter of a James Bybee, and great-great-grandaughter of David Bybee.) ((???))

*John Bybee, Jr., born 1739, served in the Revolutionary War under Colonel Abraham Buford, according to the muster rolls in the Bureau of Archives, Washington, D.C. It was from this Colonel that the family name of Buford originated. There has been a Buford Bybee every generation since the Revolutionary War. ((At least at the time of this writing by Curtis Bybee, this was so. I have seen the given name Buford spelled a number of ways, while doing my research, such as Burford, and other misspellings--or perhaps evolution of the name.

((Sherrod, a common given name in the early years of the Bybees in this country, also has a number of spellings, but probably came from Sherwood, as in Sherwood Forest, with Robin Hood and his Merry Men.))

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