Six stories from Columbia City Cemetery residents brought Adair County’s past to life Monday as Silent City marked 20 years of remembering the people who helped shape the community.
Costumed presenters portrayed historical figures, sharing their lives, accomplishments and connections to Adair County during the annual cemetery walking tour.
The tour began with the Reed family, at the gravesites of Mary Louisa Reed, wife of the Rev. George Reed, and their daughters, Octavia Reed and Georgia R. Shelton.
Shelton grew up in the John Field house, which still stands on Reed Street, named in honor of her parents. She taught at the Male and Female School in Adair County, which later became part of the Columbia School District. From 1906 to 1910, she served as Adair County’s first female superintendent of schools.
Octavia also became a teacher before pursuing missionary work in Clay County, where she worked to improve literacy among children and parents. She later returned to Adair County and taught alongside her sister at the Male and Female Academy.
Their father, George Reed, once heard gunshots around noon as the family sat down for lunch. The Jesse James gang was robbing a local bank. Reed went to retrieve his pistol but could not find his ammunition. By the time he reached the bank, the gang had fled.
The next presentation featured Mary Wood Garnett and her family.
Her husband, James Garnett, held several public positions, including deputy county clerk, deputy circuit clerk and superintendent of schools, while also practicing law. He later served in the state Legislature, as a circuit judge for the Ninth Judicial District and in the state Senate. He also served as president of the Bank of Columbia.
During the bank robbery by the Jesse James gang, Garnett was shot in his right hand. The injury eventually required amputation.
Their son, James Garnett Jr., also built a distinguished career. He joined the Columbia Masonic Lodge in 1893 and played a leading role in establishing the Masonic widows and orphans’ home in Louisville. He later served as Kentucky attorney general and grand master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. He remains the only person from Adair County to have held the grand master position.
McFarland Canterbury was the next figure featured on the tour. His headstone has neither a birth date nor a death date because both remain unknown.
Canterbury and his family moved to Columbia and established a blacksmith business. He purchased property on High Street where Robertson’s Academy once stood.
Canterbury also served as Adair County jailer. During his tenure, a new jail was built at the corner of High and Greensburg streets. Prisoners were held upstairs, allowing officers to drop them off without dismounting from their horses.
The tour continued with Martha Susan Mourning, the only person buried in Columbia City Cemetery with that surname.
Her father was born in Ireland before immigrating to the United States. Mourning became a teacher and a member of the Methodist Church. She never married.
In 1906, Mourning joined several other Adair Countians on a trip to Roosevelt County, New Mexico, to learn about low-water farming. The experience exposed the group to a way of life vastly different from what they knew in Kentucky.
Mourning returned to Adair County in 1910. She continued teaching, performed alterations and served as matron at Lindsey Wilson Academy. In that role, she helped students with their studies, wrote letters home for them and distributed medication.
The fifth stop honored Dr. Lafayette Page, who was born and raised in Adair County. At 21, he left home to study laryngology in Louisville before continuing his studies in Europe. While overseas, he married Marian Henley of Indiana.
Page developed a treatment for gas inhalation that was used by the U.S. military and the British and French militaries. At his base camp, 9,600 patients received the treatment, and 118 died.
His family also left its mark in other fields. Marian was involved in the music industry and became one of the founding members of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Their daughter, Ruth, followed her mother’s interest in the arts. In 1970, she opened the Ruth Page School of Dance in Chicago, now known as the Ruth Page Center for the Arts.
Their son, Irvin, pursued medicine and spent much of his career studying cardiology in Cleveland. His research on hypertension earned him a spot on the cover of Time magazine in October 1955.
The final presentation featured Nathan Braxton Miller, one of 15 children who grew up in Adair County. After graduating from local schools, he attended Columbia Christian Academy and studied law under Judge James Garnett before becoming an attorney.
Miller later became a pension examiner for the U.S. government. He and his wife, Katie, and their two sons moved several times before settling in Buffalo, New York.
Despite the distance, Miller maintained close ties to his family in Adair County. Katie died in 1943 and was buried in Columbia City Cemetery. Miller soon returned to Columbia, where he lived at the newly constructed Adair Hotel on the square. He died in November 1955.
The annual Silent City program is hosted free of charge by the Adair County Genealogy and History Research Center.
This year’s presenters were Tabitha Morgan, Renea Watson, Amy Thomas, Annita Dial, Michael Watson, LeeAnn Jessee, Dave Thomas and Richard Phelps.
For more information on the tours offered throughout the year, contact the research center at 270-380-1024.
By Amy Pike
amy@adairvoice.com
