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 "I saw behind me those who had gone, and before me those who are to come. I looked back and saw my father and his father and all our fathers, and in front to see my son and his son, and the sons upon sons beyond. And their eyes were my eyes. As I felt so they had felt, and were to feel, as then, so now, as tomorrow and forever. Then I was not afraid, for I was in a long line that had no beginning and no end. And the hand of his father grasped my father's hand and his hand was in mine, and my unborn son took my right hand and all, up and down the line that stretched from Time That Was to Time That Is and Is Not Yet, raised their hands to show the link. And we found that we were one, born of Woman, Son of Man, made in the Image, fashioned in the womb by the Will of God, the Eternal Father."

- Richard Llewellyn, 
How Green Was My Valley

 

Related | Kentucky | Appalachia | Genealogy

In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep,
to know our heritage -
to know who we are and where we came from.
Without this enriching knowledge,
there is a hollow yearning.
No matter what our attainments in life,
there is still a vacuum, an emptiness,
and the most disquieting loneliness.
~ Alex Haley


Al - beloved husband and friend
Beloved Husband and Friend

Grieving

Mom's
Story

Family
Photographs

Uncle Vergil:
Santa's Eyes

Proud Families
of Appalachia

A Wedding
Tale
(coming soon!)

The Breath of Life
from Breathitt

Dave's Nobel
Rook Prize

 

 

Find-A-Grave Links
 View pictures and short bios, leave flowers or a note...
also see W.W. Haddix Cemetery and Landrum Family Cemetery

AL DaddyMom

Uncle Floyd Freeman     Uncle Vergil Haddix

Grandfather Albert Sidney Landrum

Grandmother Laura (Back) Landrum

Grandfather Arthur Haddix

G-Grandfather Reuben Samuel Landrum

G-G-Grandfather Reuben W. Landrum

Cousin Amanda & Obed Wilson

"Related" Publications and Resources

Amanda and Her Cousins:
A Genealogy of the Landrum Family in Kentucky
as collected by James A. Landrum

Amanda and Her CousinsPrivately published in 2005, this book is the culmination of over 30 years of research, dozens of personal interviews and countless miles of 'side trips' in search of one more family connection. The author (my brother James A. Landrum, 1945- ) was first intrigued by the hundreds of family history sheets assembled by our mother, Blanche Haddix Landrum, and he was later honored to work on family research with a cousin, Lexington attorney Charles Landrum Jr. (see A Kentucky Family below). Taking up the torch from two such devoted historians, James has produced a thorough and detailed account of the known history of the Landrums in Kentucky, a fascinating and personal account of a Civil-war era cousin (also see Queen City Lady below), and an expansive collection of family listings that would surely make his mentors - and his ancestors - proud.

The book is over 300 pages long with a soft-cover binding. It contains over 30 photographs and illustrations, is thoroughly indexed, and includes an extensive bibliography. Edited by the author's sister Mona (me!), it is available only by direct order from the author. Descendants of the first Landrums in Kentucky - Reuben and Martha 'Patsy' Bibb Landrum - will find this book invaluable for genealogical research. Others will find it to be a unique and interesting glimpse into history. For more details about this book and order information, CLICK HERE.

A Kentucky Family, by Charles Landrum Jr.

 La Paix - PeacePublished in 1990 by Feeback Printing Co. in Lexington, Ky., with an introduction by Dr. Thomas D. Clark, Kentucky Historian Laureate.  This book contains the story of the early history of the Landrum name in Scotland (descendants of the Comyn clan, rivals to the throne, defeated by Robert the Bruce), the Lendrums of colonial Virginia, the beginnings of the Landrum family in Kentucky at Fort Boonesborough, and a brief autobiographical sketch of the author (a cousin of my father).  The appendix of this book, a detailed seven-generation genealogy of the Landrum family, was prepared by my brother, James A. Landrum, my mother, Blanche Haddix Landrum, and me (Mona Landrum Proctor). 

Charles Landrum Jr.Charles Landrum Jr., 1917-1990, known to all as Charlie, was a successful and highly respected attorney , co-founder of the well-known Landrum & Shouse law firm (formerly Landrum, Patterson & Dickey) in Lexington, Ky. He was a distinguished trial lawyer with a state-wide reputation.  His many professional positions included service as President of the Fayette County Bar Association and of the Kentucky Bar Association, Special Justice on the Supreme Court of Kentucky, Kentucky State Bar Examiner, Chairman of the Judicial Retirement and Removal Commission, and two terms on Kentucky's Supreme Court Judicial Council. He was the first attorney in Kentucky - and perhaps still the only one - to be honored as a Fellow in three selective organizations: the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers, and the American College of Trial Lawyers. Charlie's father, Charles Sterling Landrum, was also a Kentucky attorney. Charlie said, "My father was extremely well-known in the legal profession, so much so that, at his funeral in January 1966, the entire Court of Appeals from Frankfort attended his funeral."

A Back Family History:
The Story of a Major Branch of the Back/Bach Family 
by Custer Back, Kenneth Back, Troy Back, and Dexter Dixon
Dr. Reedus Back (former Academic Dean at Morehead State University in Morehead, Ky.), Coordinator and Director of Publication.  Published by The Back-Bach Genealogical Society, printed by BookCrafters, Chelsea, Mi., 1994. This extensive book, a hefty 2-volume set, represents the lifetime projects of many family members combined into a single invaluable resource, with direct-line ancestry documented into the 1500's and including over 20,000 names of Back/Bach descendants. 

The front matter and first chapter are available online for free at www.back-bach.com, including the harrowing tale of Hermann Bach's immigration in 1738/9 on the ship Oliver, bound from Rotterdam to Virginia. "For stark, sheer tragedy, no recorded Virginia shipwreck can approach that which occurred more than two centuries ago... Here was tragedy at its worst, for the stranding followed a wretched voyage of five months..."

The Back-Bach Genealogical Society grew out of this project and continues to flourish to the present day. The book is out of print but is now available on CD-ROM, in searchable .PDF format, from the Society's web site (click title above). I was involved with this project for several years and performed camera-ready typesetting for the book in 1993-94. (My father's mother was Laura Back, daughter of Solomon Back of Quicksand, Ky.)

  • Breathitt County War Memorial

  • Captain Bill Strong 
    A controversial relative who fought for the Union in the Civil War. At home after the war, he led the "Red Strings" against local Klansmen. He was deeply involved in the "Bloody Breathitt" feuds, and was murdered by ambush in 1897. Includes an interview from the Louisville Courier-Journal published in 1879.

  • Granville Pearl Noble Talks  
    A relative; interviewed at age 92 in 1939 as part of the WPA Writer's Program. Great-grandson of another of the original settlers of Breathitt County. His grandmother lived to the age of 113!

  • Mattie L. Landrum: 1950 Funeral Notice  
    My father's aunt; I have been told that I look like her. Mattie was a career woman at a time when that was unusual: she worked as a court stenographer for Judge Grannis Back for many years, and she served as Secretary to Ky. Governor Simeon Willis during World War II. She died from complications of phlebitis after turning her ankle in a pothole while leaving a movie theatre in Louisville. She never married.

  • Notable Breathitt Countians of 1947

  • The Pan Handle Purchase, by Blanche Haddix Landrum

  • Recollections of Breathitt
    J. Green Trimble's book, online in its entirety!

  • Sheriff Carl Back Names Deputies 
    (mentions my grandfather, Arthur Haddix)

  • Tom Haddix Recalls  
    A relative, b. 1861; interviewed circa 1938 as part of the WPA Writer's Program. Grandson of one of the original settlers of Breathitt County.

  • Dozens of Cousins, by William O'Connor 
     The book is out of print but is available on CD.

  • Life and Travels of William B. Landrum
    by the Reverend William Bibb Landrum
    Originally published by the Southern Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, in 1878. The entire text is available online - electronically reproduced in 2002 in the     Kentucky Virtual Library's "Kentuckiana Digital Library."  The author was the brother of  the Reverend Reuben Washington Landrum, my great-great grandfather, whose parents lived at Fort Boonesborough; he became a Methodist circuit-rider in eastern Kentucky. 

    • Amanda

  • Amanda and Her Cousins: A Genealogy of the Landrum Family in Kentucky as collected by James A. Landrum
     (see above)

  • Queen City Lady: The 1861 Journal of Amanda Wilson, 
     by William T. Venner
     Amanda Landrum Wilson (1832-1926), a relative, was the daughter of a Methodist minister from Augusta, Ky. She married a wealthy publisher from Cincinnati, Obed Wilson; together, they left an important legacy. This book contains the transcript of her touching personal diary, with  the  story of her brother, a Union lieutenant killed in the Civil War, and many footnotes about local Cincinnati landmarks. She was a world traveler and a noted philanthropist. A more personal account of her story (also with her diary) is available in my brother's book, above. 

    • A Daughter of the Samurai, by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto
       Originally published in 1926, this is a fascinating autobiographical account of the life of a Japanese samurai family at the end of the feudal era. The book tells the story of "how a daughter of feudal Japan, living hundreds of years in one generation, became a modern American." Amanda Landrum Wilson befriended the author when, as young woman, she moved to America for an arranged marriage. A very good read; highly recommended! It may be hard to find... check with your local library.

      I recently had the luck to run across a 1936 edition of this book (published by Doubleday) in a library book sale. It has an illustration not included in the 1973 reprint (published by Charles E. Tuttle Company) I bought a couple of years ago... this drawing of the author, Etsu, meeting Amanda (Landrum) and Obed Wilson (click on the picture to see a larger image):

    Etsu meets Amanda and Obed

     

  • Twin Towers: Methodist Home for the Aged, Cincinnati OH
     "[In 1903] Mr. and Mrs. Obed Wilson generously offered to donate 20 acres of land on the brow of College Hill, Cincinnati, for the building of the Home. The gift was accepted, and a fireproof building was designed that would serve 300 people. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson further donated funds for the erection of a Chapel and North Wing, and later gave an organ for the Chapel, built an Art Gallery, and donated their own private collection of art which graces the home today." Amanda also erected a flagpole with a marker dedicated to her brother, a Civil War soldier. I have toured the Chapel and Art Gallery... stunning. 

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