52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #17 – James Farquhar

My great-great-great-grandfather was James Farquhar (1813/14-1892). I have not yet seen any specific date records of either his birth or death. His parents married in February 1813 in Person County, North Carolina and census records indicate his birth sometime between 1813 and 1814 in North Carolina, although his tombstone lists his birth as 1820.

A marriage index provides evidence of a marriage between James and Barsheba McGuire on August 22, 1833 in Tuscaloosa County [the 1833 marriage date does not go well with an 1820 birth date for James – he would have only been 13 at that time; however, it does fit with subsequent census records]. There is an 1840 census for James Farquhar in Tuscaloosa County that showed them still in Tuscaloosa County. The tic-mark census was for a male and female between the ages of 20-29 (James and Basheba), one son under 5 (Andrew), one daughter under 5 (Mary “Polly”) and one daughter between 5 and 9 (Sarah – my great-great-grandmother).

By the 1850 census James and Basheba and their growing family had moved to Fayette County. In addition to James and Basheba and Sarah, Polly and Andrew, they also had Martha, James, Elizabeth and “Sis” or America.From September 1839 through June 1858, James Farquhar and/or his father purchased land in Tuscaloosa and Fayette Counties; James the son had married in Tuscaloosa County in 1833 so it is feasible he was ready to purchase land by 1839; however, his father of the same name was still living until 1859. A spreadsheet pulled from the Bureau of Land Records shows those purchases: The Tuscaloosa land is some distance away (between Tuscaloosa and the Fayette County line) but the remaining land is all contiguous. Someone has a website with plat maps of some of the Sections in Fayette County and the one showing James Farquhar’s land, as well as his son-in-law (and my great-great-grandfather) Robert Welch’s, is available [Robert’s land is top left and James’ land is center/left]. Between 1850 and 1860, three more children were added to the family: Lavina in 1851; John Thomas in 1853; and Amanda in 1855. One more child, Cornelia Helen, was born in 1860 but not enumerated until the 1870 census. The 1860 census listed James as a farmer with property valued at $1,200 and personal property also valued at $1,200.

The Civil War began in 1861 and James’ family was deeply wounded by the war. He had three sons and two of them were old enough to fight for the Confederacy and both of them died. Additionally, his daughter Martha had married William David Caraway who also enlisted and died. His son-in-law, Robert Welch, had died in 1861 prior to the War. The War had taken such a huge toll on the male population of the south and Alabama did a state-wide census in 1866 that was clearly needed because the Federal census taken in 1860 would not have been at all accurate.

The 1870 census gives a small indication of the economic impact on the area – where James’ property values were $1,200 land and $1,200 personal in 1860, in 1870 his property values were $700 land and $500 personal.

James’ wife, Basheba, died in 1882. He married again in 1886 to the widow Nancy Tierce Falls. He died six years later in 1892 and was buried at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Cemetery, on land he had apparently donated to the church for the purpose of providing a burial grounds. He was buried near his wife, Basheba, his parents and a number of his children and grandchildren.

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This blog was prepared as a part of Amy Johnson Crow’s  No Story Too Small 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #16 – George Alex Lineberry

My mother’s grandfather was George Alex Lineberry (making him my great-grandfather). He was the 6th child/3rd son of Jacob P. and Piety Thomas Smith Lineberry, born February 3, 1844 in Grayson County, Virginia. Although my mother and her brothers moved to Virginia in February of 1922, she didn’t get to meet her grandfather because he had died six years  before she arrived.

The 1850 census, though not a very clear image, does reveal something about families in that time period. His parents married in November 1833 and had their first child in February 1835 and over the next 15 years had another child every year or two. To clarify, his siblings were Catherine, Elizabeth, Allen, Joseph, Mary, Wesley, Martha, and Jacob. Only one more child was added in the 1860 census – Piety, born in 1856.

By 1861 and 1862 the country was facing a looming war between the states and George enlisted in Company F of the Virginia 29th Infantry on April 3, 1862 in the small community of Saltville. Saltville was an important strategic area because of the railway lines and because of the salt mines that were crucial for supply provisions for the Confederate Army (1). Saltville was about 70 miles northwest of George’s Carroll County community through the higher elevations of the Blue Ridge Mountains. George’s cousin, Orin A. Lineberry, must have made the trip with him because he also enlisted at Saltville on April 3, 1862. His brother, Wesley, enlisted in the same unit, but in Carroll County, on February 13, 1863 and his cousin, Joseph (Orin’s brother), enlisted on February 21, 1863, also in Carroll County. The Virginia 29th engaged in many battles throughout the years of the war; a list of the battles can be seen at http://www.geni.com/projects/29th-Virginia-Infantry-CSA-US-Civil-War-Project/4334. On our trip to Virginia this past summer, Kay and I stopped at the Appomattox Courthouse, which was the location of the signing of the documents that ended the Civil War – one of the battles listed for the Virginia 29th was Appomattox Courthouse. Some of the stories told about George’s experiences during the war were related in an audio recording made by my Uncle Leonard and written up by my daughter on a blog she called “The Wool Overcoat & Trying Times.”

A couple of years after the war George married Rhoda Harmon on February 26, 1867 in Carroll County, Virginia. The 1870 census lists George and Rhoda and their first child, Leander Francis, who was eight months old at the time of that June 1, 1860 record. George was listed as a farmer on property valued at $120, although he likely also participated in the family’s iron forge business.

By the 1880 census, George and Rhoda had added several more children, including my grandfather, Jacob, and their daughter, Piety Catherine, who provided a home for my mother from 1922 until 1929, following the deaths of both my mother’s parents. George was still listed as a farmer.

George and Rhoda were enumerated as living next to George’s parents in the 1880 census. His mother died in 1885 and his father in 1887. According to letters written by my grandfather to his brother, Leander, from 1894 through the beginning of 1915, the George Lineberry household was not one of peace and tranquility. In those letters, we learn of the death of George’s wife, Rhoda, and of his subsequent marriage to the former Amanda Thompson. George was 52 and Amanda was 22. There is some indication in Jacob’s letters that Amanda may have been George’s son Alex’s girlfriend, which, along with George’s abusive words and behavior, caused a good bit of ongoing animosity between George and Alex.

George and Amanda began their own family and the 1900 census enumeration shows them: Lillie and Alexander are Rhoda’s children. Although Amanda stated she was the mother of three children, all living, and three children are listed (Calla B., Robert and Burton), Calla was born in 1894 while Rhoda was still alive and three years before her marriage to George.

The 1910 census doesn’t shed much light on the question of Calla:There are five children listed: Robert E., Burton L., Rudy R., Benjamin G. and Roby P. Calla is not listed although she should only have been about 15. Amanda is listed as the mother of six children of which only five are still living. However, a marriage record for Callie stating she is the daughter of George Lineberry and Amanda Thompson was recorded in Carroll County in 1911 and she did not die until 1989. Since George and Rhoda already had a daughter named Callie born in 1881, it doesn’t seem likely they would name another daughter Calla/Callie born to them in 1894 while the original Callie was still living. The question then is, who were the parents of Calla Bell Lineberry and which child of George and Amanda died between 1900 and 1910? The 1920 census – taken four years after George’s death – lists one more child: Luria. That makes a grand total of 17 or 18 children for George.

A family reunion photo shows a small portion of what that kind of family looked like. As best as we can reconstruct, neither Amanda nor any of her children are in this photo. George is on the back row just to the right of center.

George died of pneumonia on January 18, 1916. He is buried at the Alex Lineberry Cemetery on the family farmlands just above Crooked Creek with headstones of both his wives nearby.

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(1) http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Saltville_During_the_Civil_War. Included on that website is an image of an early drawing of the Saltville railroad and mines that first appeared in 1865 in Harper’s Weekly. A number of other Saltville articles and drawings can be seen at http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1865/january/saltville-virginia.htm

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This blog was prepared as a part of Amy Johnson Crow’s  No Story Too Small 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #15 – John Jean

John Jean is my great-great-great-grandfather – my paternal grandmother’s grandmother’s father. He was born about 1796 in Stokes County, North Carolina to Rev. Edmund Jean and his second wife, Martha ‘Patty’ Beasley.

According to a private book written by Glenn Jean, an engineer from Boulder, Colorado, John’s father died about 1802. The family was still in Stokes County for the 1810 census but by the 1820 census, both John and his mother were in Lincoln County, Tennessee.

John married Ann Jane Shaw about 1817 and they began growing their family. They had at least nine children:  William Edmund (1820); Francis Marion (1821); unknown daughter (1823); Jessie L. (1825); my great-great-grandmother Martha Ann (1826); John Wesley (1828); my great-great-grandfather’s first wife Sarah (1830); David C. (between 1831 and 1833); Thomas Asbury (1836); Wiley H. (1837); and Elizabeth A. (1842).

There is a record of a loan from his father-in-law, William Shaw: “I, John Jean of Lincoln Co., TN being indebted to William Shaw, Senr, of same place in the sum of sixty five dollars advance to me before the execution of this conveyance and being anxious to secure the said show in the payment of said sum of money. I have this day sold and conveyed unto said Shaw the following personal property, to wit, one crib of corn, one sorrel horse, one sorrel colt, three cows, three small yearlings, three fattened hogs, three sows, and 23 pigs belonging to the same, one bed and furniture, 1-8 gallon pot, and one fodder stack. This 22nd Jan 1827.” (1)

John was widowed about 1845 when Ann died, and he married a second time on December 24, 1846 to a widow named Martha ‘Patsy’ Taylor who had at least four children.

John and Martha were enumerated in Lincoln County, Tennessee for the 1850 census. John and Martha were living in proximity to some of John’s children:

1) Dwelling 230 Family 230 age born
John Jean 54 1794 SC (Was NC)
Martha (Patsey) Taylor 47 1803
Four Taylor children 09 to 19

2) Dwelling 229, Family 228
Jesse L Jane 25 1825
Mary J 17 1833
Elizabeth A 5/12 1850

3) Dwelling 229, Family 229 age born
Asa L Sanford 29 1821
Martha A (Jean) 24, 1826
David C (Jean) 15 1835
Eliz A Jane 08, 1842

John (64) and Martha (57) were enumerated across the Alabama state line in Madison County, Alabama for the 1860 census. John’s occupation was listed as a Cooper. A cooper is a person who makes or repairs wooden barrels, casks or tubs. John had previously been listed as a farmer.

They were back in Lincoln County, Tennessee for the 1870 census. He was, once again, listed as a farmer with personal property of $500.

Sometime between 1870 and 1880, John’s second wife, Martha, died. By the 1880 census, John, 86, was enumerated with his son Wesley’s family.

John died about 1883. I have not yet found any burial information for John or either of his wives but the location is presumed to be in Lincoln County, Tennessee.

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(1) Land Deed Genealogy of Lincoln Co., TN, 1818-1828, Vol 2, Compiled by: Helen C & Timothy R Marsh, Southern Historical Press, Inc, Greenville, SC 1996.

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This blog was prepared as a part of Amy Johnson Crow’s  No Story Too Small 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks # 14 – Jacob P. Lineberry

Jacob P. Lineberry was my great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side. Jacob was actually the fifth known generation of sons named Jacob, although the original last name was Leyenberger. My great-grandfather’s name was George, but my grandfather also bore the name of Jacob Lineberry.

He was born in Grayson County, Virginia in about 1806 to Jacob Lineberry and Mary Elizabeth Fanning and married Piety Thomas Smith in Grayson County on November 4, 1833. There is a photocopy of their marriage bond attached to Jacob’s profile on FindAGrave.

Carroll County, Virginia was established from the eastern portion of Grayson County in 1842 and Jacob and Piety appear on the 1850 Carroll County census lists. That census page is very faint and difficult to read so I will provide a transcription:

Jacob Lineberry, 39, farmer, born in Virginia, can read and write
Piety Lineberry, 40, born in North Carolina, cannot write
Catherine Lineberry, 15, born in Virginia
Elizabeth Lineberry, 14, born in Virginia
Allen Lineberry, 11, born in Virginia
Joseph Lineberry, 9, born in Virginia
Mary Lineberry, 7, born in Virginia
George Lineberry, 5, born in Virginia
Wesley Lineberry, 3, born in Virginia
Martha Lineberry, 2, born in Virginia
Jacob Lineberry, 1, born in Virginia

The 1860 census adds one more child: Piety who was born in 1856. They also had a son named Isiah who was born about 1850 and died in infancy.Jacob is still listed as a farmer with property valued at $500 and personal property valued at $440.

The 1870 census lists Jacob not as a farmer, but as a hammerer of iron. The Lineberry family had been operating an iron forge for many years on Crooked Creek and this is the only census record that indicates that family occupation. My daughter Kay has written about the Old Iron Forge, including a transcription of a tape of my Uncle Leonard talking about the forge. When we were in Galax this past summer we took photographs of the hammers that were found and placed in the Harmon Museum.By the time of the 1880 census, all Jacob and Piety’s children were married and raising their own families, all but Wesley and Elizabeth still living on the mountains they’d spent their lives on and Jacob was once again listed as a farmer.

Jacob was widowed in October 1885 and he died May 13, 1887. Jacob and Piety are buried at the Hebron Cemetery in Carroll County.

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This blog was prepared as a part of Amy Johnson Crow’s  No Story Too Small 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.