When: April 22, 2023, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Cox No. 2 Cemetery, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
Who: several descendants of Felix Demonbreun (1789 – 1868) and other volunteers assisted by park staff
Contacts for more information: Claudia W. Kovar, descendant, clean-up volunteer, 918-809-0348, claudia_kovar@hotmail.com; Ed Jakaitis, Cultural Resource Program Manager, Mammoth Cave National Park, 270-758-2143, edward_jakaitis@nps.gov
Several descendants of Felix Demonbreun are planning a volunteer clean-up of his grave and the small cemetery where he is buried, located within Mammoth Cave National Park. The event is scheduled for Saturday, April 22, 2023, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cox No. 2 Cemetery, a small cemetery with only about six graves, is in a forested area on the eastern side of the park. The volunteers will report to the park’s Science and Resource Management Office at 9 a.m. for a briefing before going to the cemetery. Tasks include clearing the footpath to the cemetery, removing weeds, sticks and grass from around the headstones, cleaning headstones and generally clearing the area around the graves.
Felix Demonbreun (1789–1868) was veteran of the War of 1812, a farmer, and a Baptist preacher. The cemetery is in or near the area called Strawberry Valley where Demonbreun once had a farm.
Felix and his wife, Mary Ann Cagle, moved to Adair County from northern Tennessee around 1830 before moving to the part of Green County that is now located within Mammoth Cave National Park. Felix and Mary had at least nine children. Several of his children lived and farmed in Adair and Metcalfe counties. Descendants of Felix spelled their last name several different ways, including DeMontbrun, DeMumbrum and DeMunbrun.
Felix is believed to be the son of Timothy Demonbreun, who has a statue and a downtown street named after him in Nashville, TN. Timothy migrated to America from Canada and is thought to be one of the first Euro-American settlers of the area then known as the French Lick that later became Nashville. Timothy’s great-grandfather, Pierre Boucher, was an early settler of Canada and is said to have played a key role in convincing King Louis XIV to continue supporting the French colonists who had emigrated to what was then called New France in the 1600s. For his service to France, Pierre Boucher was given a title of nobility. A statue of Boucher stands outside the Canadian Parliament building in Quebec and the town of Boucherville (Quebec) is named after him.
Felix’s last-born child, Francis Marion DeMunbrun, is credited with being a member of a three-man team that discovered the Mystic River section of Mammoth Cave in 1868. This area includes a vast cavern leading off from the Pass of El Ghor.
Felix’s great-grandson, Almon Austine “A.A.” DeMunbrun, owned and operated a hotel and general store within the area that became Mammoth Cave National Park. In the 1920s, A.A. DeMunbrun served in the Kentucky General Assembly as a representative and later as a senator. During this time, he helped to pass legislation at the state level that, along with federal laws eventually resulted in establishing Mammoth Cave as a national park
Among the volunteers expected to participate in the clean-up are descendants of the following children of Felix: Sarah Ann DeMontbrun (husband the Rev. James W. Crouch), William Carroll DeMumbrum (wife Lucy Gholes Wisdom), Francis Marion Demonbreun (wife Ann Clemmons) and Manica Manise DeMumbrun Fleming Ferrell Sanders (husband Gabriel Ferrell).
The volunteers are all members of the Timothy Demonbreun Heritage Society, a non-profit organization based in Nashville, TN.
Claudia Kovar, a resident of Tulsa, OK, and a descendant of Felix’s son, William Carroll DeMumbrum, helped to organize the clean-up. Her great-grandparents, Zebulon “Zed” Akin and Lillie Mollie Nell Akin, moved their family to Oklahoma from Gradyville in 1913. Zed’s brother, Lee Athen Akin, and uncle, Edgar Gaither DeMumbrum, had already moved to Oklahoma. Zed’s other two brothers, Evan and Lafayette Akin, stayed in Adair County, KY. Their parents were George Robert Akin and Mary Catherine DeMumbrum Akin. Mary Catherine was a daughter of William Carroll DeMumbrum (son of Felix).
Kovar would welcome anyone who would like to help with the clean-up to contact her at claudia_kovar@hotmail.com or Ed Jakaitis, Mammoth Cave National Park’s Cultural Resource Program Manager at edward_jakaitis@nps.gov for more details about the event. Kovar would also love to hear from any of Felix’s descendants, even if they cannot help with the grave clean-up.
Information about the Timothy Demonbreun Heritage Society can be found at https://timothydemonbreunsociety.com.
Note to anyone who may be interested: Claudia Kovar has other Adair County, KY, ancestors whose last names are Nell, Flowers, Edwards and Cox. Many are buried in the Union Cemetery. Her Akin ancestors are buried in the Antioch (United Methodist Church) Cemetery south of Columbia, KY. Kovar would love to hear from any descendants of these families.
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Michael C. Watson