David Bohanan and Melissa J. “Lissy” Sapp
David Bohanan was born about 1853 in Nicholas County, Kentucky. He grew up in a rural farming community where families lived close to one another and relied on kin for work and survival. In the 1870s, he married Melissa J. “Lissy” Sapp, a young woman from neighboring Mason County.
Together, they had four children.
By the early 1880s, however, David disappears from the record. Family trees often list a death date of January 29, 1883, but no document has yet been found to confirm it. What can be proven is this: by 1900, at least one of their children had been taken into the extended Ishmael family network, and the Bohanan household no longer existed as it had in 1880.
Melissa’s later life is also difficult to trace. A woman with few legal rights to property and little documentation beyond census entries, she appears in records mainly as “keeping house.” For that reason, and because the surviving sources are intertwined, their story is told here together.
The records are few. The family endured anyway.
Lineage
David Bohanan is the father of Rosa Anna Belle Bohanan, my great-grandmother.
The line of descent is as follows:
Cynthia Fuller Kolf,
daughter of Henry Lloyd Fuller, Jr.,
son of Louise Elizabeth “Betty” Fuller,
daughter of Rosa Anna Belle Bohanan,
daughter of David Bohanan
Family Line: Bohanan
Relationship to Me: Great-great-grandfather
Generation: 4 generations back
Vital Statistics — David Bohanan
Full Name: David “Dave” Bohanan
(also recorded as Bouhannan and “Buck”)
Parents:
Jacob Bohannon
Matilda Ishmael Bohannon
Date of Birth:
About 1853
Place of Birth:
Nicholas County, Kentucky
Occupation:
1870 – Farm hand
1880 – Listed as “nothing”
Marriage:
Melissa J. “Lissy” Sapp (date not located)
Date of Death:
About 1883 (commonly reported; no supporting record located)
Place of Death:
Likely Nicholas County, Kentucky
Vital Statistics — Melissa J. “Lissy” Sapp Bohanan
Full Name: Melissa J. “Lissy” Sapp
Date of Birth:
February 18, 1852
Place of Birth:
Mason County, Kentucky
Parents:
Daniel Sapp
Dicia “Dicey” W. Campbell
Marriage:
David Bohanan
Possible Second Marriage:
A Melissa Bohanan married David Kookendoffer in 1887 (identity not conclusively proven)
Date of Death:
After 1887 (exact date not located)
Early Life
David appears in the 1860 and 1870 federal censuses in Nicholas County, Kentucky, in the household of his parents. In 1870 he was listed as a farm hand.
Melissa appears in the 1860 and 1870 censuses in Mason County, Kentucky, in her parents’ household.
Their marriage likely occurred in the mid-1870s. No marriage bond or certificate has been located.
The 1880 Census — A Snapshot
The 1880 federal census places David and Melissa in Upper Blue Lick, Nicholas County, Kentucky. In this enumeration, the surname was recorded as “Buck” for David, Melissa, and his parents, Jacob and Matilda. Given the consistency across the household, this appears to be an enumerator error or phonetic variation rather than a different family.
David’s occupation was recorded as “nothing,” an unusual entry that may reflect illness, unemployment, or enumerator interpretation.
After the 1880 census, David disappears from the record. Melissa follows shortly thereafter. No confirmed death record, probate file, or later census entry has been located for either of them.
The 1890 federal census, which might have helped clarify their circumstances or the household structure after 1880, was largely destroyed in a fire in 1921, leaving a significant gap for this period.
Kinship Networks and Intermarriage
The Bohanan, Sapp, Campbell, and Ishmael families appear repeatedly in census and marriage records across Nicholas, Mason, Bath, Bracken, and Fleming Counties. These counties formed a small and interconnected social world in the nineteenth century.
Travel was limited, communities were tight, and marriage partners were often chosen from within a relatively small circle of families. The repetition of these surnames across generations reflects geography and kinship patterns.
The Children of David Bohanan and Melissa J. Sapp
David and Melissa Bohanan had four known children. Each came of age in the shadow of their father’s and mother’s early deaths and were shaped by the extended kin networks.
John William Bohanan (1876–1952)
John William Bohanan was born September 16, 1876, in Nicholas County, Kentucky. In 1880 he was living with his parents in Upper Blue Lick. By 1900, however, he was residing in Bath County in the household of his cousin, William Ishmael — a descendant of David’s mother’s family — suggesting he had been absorbed into the Ishmael kin network after his father’s death.
John married Myrtle M. Latart in 1900, and together they built their life in Bath and later Montgomery Counties. They had eight children. Over the decades he worked as a farm laborer, tenant farmer, independent farmer, and later a clerk in a pool room. In his later years he sought work while living with one of his sons. He died September 16, 1952, at his home in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, and was buried in Longview Cemetery in Bethel, Bath County.
Susan “Sudie” M. Bohanan (1876–1969)
Susan “Sudie” M. Bohanan was born October 22, 1876, in Mason County, Kentucky. As a teenager she gave birth to two daughters under the surname Hunt. One of those daughters, May Elizabeth Hunt, was later raised by relatives and listed in the 1910 census as an adopted daughter.
In 1899 Susan married William Albert Hammonds, a farmer about twenty years her senior. They lived most of their married life in Fleming County, Kentucky, raising children and working small farms. After William’s death in 1929, Susan supported herself as a farmer and laundress. Although census records often stated she could read but not write, a surviving letter written by Susan to her sister Rosa shows she was capable and articulate in her correspondence.
She died August 16, 1969, and was buried at Elizaville Cemetery in Fleming County.
Mary Kate “Lissy” Bohanan (1878–1913)
Mary Kate “Lissy” Bohanan was born July 15, 1878. She appears in the 1880 census at age two in her parents’ household. By about 1898, she had married and by 1910 was living in Fleming County with her husband and two children.
Her life was brief. On January 10, 1913, she died ten days after surgery from septic peritonitis — a reminder of the risks of medical procedures before antibiotics. She was only thirty-four years old.
Rosa Anna Belle Bohanan (1880–1970)
Rosa Anna Belle Bohanan, born January 23, 1880, was the youngest of the four children and my great-grandmother. She married Oraches Seymour Tolliver in 1897 at Ishmael’s Chapel in Nicholas County and had four children.
After her divorce from Seymour, she supported her children as a laundress while living on Front Street in Augusta, Bracken County. She later married Ivor Lee Johnson. Widowed again in 1933, Rosa remained in Bracken County for the rest of her life. She died January 8, 1970, and was buried in Highland Cemetery in Augusta.
Legacy
David Bohanan left only a small trail in the written record. He appears in census pages, then disappears. No death record has been found, and no probate file has surfaced. Melissa is easier to document at birth, thanks to Kentucky birth records, but in adulthood she is recorded mainly as “keeping house,” a simple phrase that does not begin to describe the work she likely carried each day.
Still, their children survived. They married, worked as farmers and laborers, raised families, and remained tied to the counties of northern Kentucky. The repeated connections among the Bohanan, Sapp, Campbell, and Ishmael families show how tightly knit these rural communities were. When one household faltered, kin networks helped carry the next generation forward.
The records may be thin, but the line endured. That endurance is their legacy.
Sources Used in This Biography
Primary Records
Kentucky Birth Records.
Kentucky, U.S., Birth Records, 1847–1911. Birth record for Melissa J. Sapp, February 18, 1852, Mason County, Kentucky. Accessed 2026.
United States. Eighth Census (1860).
Mason County, Kentucky, District 3. Household of Daniel “Sass” (Sapp), including Melissa J. Sass (Sapp), age 8. National Archives Microfilm Publication M653. Accessed 2026.
United States. Eighth Census (1860).
Nicholas County, Kentucky. Household of Jacob Bohannon (includes David Bohanan). National Archives Microfilm Publication M653. Accessed 2026.
United States. Ninth Census (1870).
Nicholas County, Kentucky. Household of Jacob Bohannon (David listed as farm hand). National Archives Microfilm Publication M593. Accessed 2026.
United States. Tenth Census (1880).
Nicholas County, Kentucky, Upper Blue Lick. Household of David “Buck” (Bohanan), including Melissa and children. National Archives Microfilm Publication T9. Accessed 2026.
Kentucky Marriage Records.
Record of marriage between Melissa Bohanan and David Kookendoffer, 1887 (identity not conclusively proven). Accessed 2026.
Supporting Records for Children
United States Federal Censuses (1900–1950).
Bath, Fleming, Bracken, and Montgomery Counties, Kentucky. Households of John William Bohanan, Susan M. Bohanan Hammonds, Mary Kate Bohanan, and Rosa Anna Belle Bohanan. National Archives Microfilm Publications T623–T628. Accessed 2026.
Kentucky Death Records.
Death certificates for Mary Kate Bohanan (1913), John William Bohanan (1952), Susan Bohanan Hammonds (1969), and Rosa Anna Belle Bohanan (1970). Accessed 2026.
Cemetery Records.
Longview Cemetery (Bethel, Bath County, Kentucky).
Elizaville Cemetery (Fleming County, Kentucky).
Highland Cemetery (Augusta, Bracken County, Kentucky).
Accessed 2026.
Online Databases and Indexes
FamilySearch.org.
Indexed census, marriage, and death records for Bohanan, Sapp, Campbell, and Ishmael family members. Accessed 2026.
Ancestry.com.
Census images and indexed records supporting household structures and migration patterns. Accessed 2026.
FindAGrave.com.
Memorial pages and burial information for Bohanan and related family members (used as supplemental reference only). Accessed 2026.
This post contains my personal research and writing. Please do not republish or copy without permission. Genealogy is always a work in progress, and information may change as new records come to light.
