Yes, I am aware that more than one last name can be put into the field for a woman's last name, to list the last name(s) of her prior husband(s). However, according to the management at FindAGrave, it is up to the manager of the memorial, as to whether or not to include more than one last name in that field (see the attached email from FindAGrave). I choose NOT to include the last name(s) of a woman's prior husband(s) in that field. However, someone has repeatedly sent me an edit to add the last name of Arpie's first husband into that field. And each time they have submitted that edit, I have declined it. A few months ago, that person actually complained to FindAGrave that I denied the edit. FindAGrave sent me that attached email, to clarify the rules. To repeat...it is up to the manager of the memorial whether or not to include more than one last name in that field. I don't know who keeps sending me that edit, or why they are harassing me about this, but it needs to stop. It's ridiculous. If the harassment continues, I will have to report you to FindAGrave.

Daughter of Rev. Hugh Keith and his second wife, Phoebe Counts. Arpie married Henry Clay Shepherd on Sept. 14, 1904. When he died, in 1917, she buried him, in what was later known as "The Cole Cemetery." Arpie got remarried to Leck Cole around 1919. Arpie and Leck bought a 354-acre farm, east of Quicksand, near the community of Decoy. The farm was very remote, and way up on the side of a hill. The land was near Lick Branch, and so it was first owned by John Back Sr. and his wife Catherine Robertson. The Cole Cemetery is probably located on that farm. When Leck died, in 1929, she also buried him in The Cole Cemetery.

Arpie wrote her will in 1940, and she left her 354-acre farm to Joe C. Miller, who was her grandnephew; he had worked as her hired hand on the farm. Joe was seen living with Arpie, on her farm, in the 1940 Census Report, which was taken about 3 months before her death. Joe was the son of Florence Keith, who had married Alfred Miller; and Florence was the daughter of Hugh Burnam Keith, who was a brother to Arpie.

When Arpie died, Joe Miller buried her next to both of her husbands, in The Cole Cemetery.

Joe Miller soon sold the 354-acre farm to Arpie's nephew, Troy Back, who was the son of Arpie's sister, Siller Keith Back. Troy wanted to buy some land, in order to leave it to his two sons, which was a long-standing tradition among people who lived in southeastern Kentucky.

Unfortunately, there was a very serious problem with the property, but it is not believed that Troy was aware of the problem, when he bought it. The Clemons family owned land on three sides of it, and there had been a long-standing issue with where the property lines were. In Kentucky, this was called "a conditional-line dispute." No other state has this unique type of dispute. It is different than an ordinary property line dispute, and there is no viable resolution to it. (A conditional-line is a property line that is made by a property owner, not a surveyor, and so it is just the property owner's opinion, or sometimes, it is an attempt by someone to obtain land that is not actually theirs. But once a conditional-line is established, after many years have passed, it is actually accepted as a valid property line. It's "grandfathered-in."))

So, because of this conditional-line dispute, only 12 acres of the 354 acres was NOT in dispute, meaning that 342 acres of the parcel could not be farmed, nor could it be mined, for coal, nor could the lumber on it be cut down. In fact, that 342 acres could not be occupied, or used, in any way, except by the Clemons family. But the details of this very serious problem were not fully revealed, until many years later, after Troy had died. Troy's youngest son took control of the property, but when he learned about the conditional-line dispute, he realized that he could not make any money off of the land, by mining for coal, or chopping down the trees. However, several years later, in 1977, he sold the coal mining rights, for all 354 acres, to a man named Nicholas Pustay, even though he knew full well that only 12 acres of it could actually be mined. Mr. Pustay later found out about the conditional-line dispute, and he realized that it was simply not financially viable, to take all the mining equipment way up there, just to mine only 12 acres. But by the time that Mr. Pustay had realized all of this, he had been cheated out of about $200,000.

At the time of Arpie's death, she was known as "Arpie Cole."