Lizzie B. LaFever

1888-1905

Lizzie B. LaFever was the daughter of Andrew Jackson LaFever and Julia A. Lacey 1864-1936. She was born in October 1888 in Kentucky. Lizzie was the first wife of Herbert Bernard Kohus Sr. They married on 7 Sept 1903 in Dearborn County, Indiana. Herbert Kohus was 17 and Lizzie was only 15 years of age when they married. Herbert and Lizzie had a daughter,  Julia Alma Kohus on 1 Jan 1905.  Lizzie died the day she gave birth to Julia. Lizzie LaFever is buried in Greendale Cemetery, Dearborn County, Indiana. She has a concrete headstone with the initials L K on it. Family stories say that her father, Andrew Jackson LaFever, made the headstone and was known to whitewash it on occasion to keep it looking nice. At the time of Lizzie’s death, Herbert was left a single, 19 year old parent, with an infant daughter. He left his daughter Julia with his mother-in-law, Julia Lacey, for the first three years of Julia’s life, returning after his second marriage to Mabel Duncan in 1907 and took custody of his daughter. He took Julia back to Cincinnati to be raised by him and his new wife.