The Aaron F. Klair Bible

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about Aaron F. Klair and his family, spurred by an earlier post about the anti-liquor Klair Law. Then, not long ago, I got one of those wonderful, completely out of the blue emails I receive once in a while. It was from a woman named Marion who had purchased an old Bible off of Ebay a while back. What she enjoys doing is buying old books, diaries, Bibles, and so forth, and researching the people who owned them. In this case she ended up on the blog here because this particular Bible had once belonged to Aaron F. Klair.
 
As a quick refresher, Aaron Francis Klair was born in 1863 to Egbert and Elizabeth (Cranston) Klair, who at the time resided in the stone house now on the grounds of the former Three Little Bakers golf course. Aaron F.'s grandfather was also named Aaron, and his father was Frederick Klair. It was Frederick who, in 1810, moved his family from Pennsylvania into house on Limestone Road formerly owned by Rev. William McKennan.

On February 13, 1889, Aaron married Annie Armor at Faggs Manor Presbyterian Church, just south of Cochranville, PA. The couple had two children, Sarah Edith and Norman. Early in their marriage, Aaron and Annie seemed to have lived west of Stanton, but later moved west of Marshallton on Old Capitol Trail. I suspect they may have lived in the house beside nephew Pete (Howard) Klair's slightly later brick house, where Farrand Drive meets Old Capitol Trail (behind Best Buy).

But back to the matter at hand -- the Bible. On the occasion of his marriage, Aaron (or A. Francis, or on a later census, just Frank) was given a beautiful, leather-bound Bible by his parents. This is the book that Marion recently purchased. The only personalization seems to be the dedication at the beginning, and the inclusion of two newspaper clippings. I know that many families used their Bibles to record important family information, such as births, baptisms, and deaths. This practice may have been waning by the 1880's, as Aaron doesn't seem to have done this. I apologize for the slightly blurry pics, but you can get the idea.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see above, Aaron Francis Klair died on August 14, 1939, and was buried at Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church. Obviously his Bible passed out of the family's hands somewhere along the line, perhaps only recently coming into the hands of someone who was able to learn a little of the original owner. Marion, the Bible's current owner, has in the past been able to connect with descendants of the historic owners of items in her collection. If, by any chance, a relative of Aaron F. Klair reads this post and would like to contact Marion, you may email me (mchhistory@verizon.net) and I will forward your information along to her.