Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Sarah A. Howard (1813-1870)

 After a five year hiatus, I'm back! And I assure you the wait will prove to be well worth it, as you'll see with this current post!

So I had left off on my last post discussing the life and times of Benjamin McClusky and his wife Sarah Howard. At the time, not much was known about the origins and early life of Sarah Howard and she had proven to be a pretty solid brick wall. But not anymore!

Up until just recently, pretty much all that was known about Sarah was that she was born in Virginia in either 1813 or 1818 according to the 1850 and 1860 federal census reports, she first appears in earlier records with her marriage to Benjamin McClusky in Lincoln County, Tennessee on September 28, 1840, and then presumably dies at some point prior to 1870 in Pontotoc, Mississippi. End of story. Even after an exhaustive search through the existing records in both Lincoln County and Pontotoc County, no clues seemed to surface pointing to her parents or earlier life prior to marrying Benjamin McClusky in 1840.

When researching this particular family, one thing has always stood out to me that seemed to be a possible important clue and connection; and that one thing is the constant and close proximity of this family to people with the surname Kidd and to a lesser degree the name Walker. In 1840, you see the McCluskys living along what is now known as the Walker Branch of the west fork of the Flint River in southwestern Lincoln County alongside many families with the name Walker, as well as an elderly widow by the name of Sarah Kidd. Between 1840 and 1850 you then see Benjamin McClusky and his wife Sarah migrate south to Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Pontotoc County marriage records show that on December 10, 1845 a woman named Susan Kidd marries a man named Japheth Walker who was the son of John Walker who lived in very close proximity to the extended McClusky families back in Lincoln County and directly next to the widow Sarah Kidd. Interestingly enough, on the 1850 Census for Pontotoc County you find Japheth and his recently married wife Susan Kidd living directly next to Benjamin and Sarah McClusky. On this same census you also find a woman named Nancy A. Kidd living in the home of Benjamin and Sarah McClusky. Four years later Nancy Kidd would marry a man named James Cox on January 12, 1854 in Pontotoc County, and by the 1860 Census you find a young man named Robert Kidd residing in their home. This same Robert Kidd can be found ten years earlier living in the home of a local merchant named William Walker working as a clerk. Also around this period of time you see a John D. Kidd relocate to Pontotoc County from Lincoln County, and the appearance of Greenberry L. Kidd in the county by 1860.

Greenberry L. Kidd was born in Virginia around 1820 and had relocated to Pontotoc County from Tuscaloosa County, Alabama where he and his family had resided since at least 1847. Based on the birth locations of his three oldest children, records show that Greenberry Kidd had also lived in Lincoln County, Tennessee as early as 1840. Prior to that he can be found in Blount County, Alabama where he married Sarah Brown on February 7, 1839. It's important to note that at the time of his marriage he had a legal guardian named Caleb Hartgraves which would imply that Greenberry's father had passed at some point prior to the marriage in 1839. With the coming of the Civil War, Greenberry Kidd would accept payment from a man to serve as his replacement in service which would ultimately lead to him being shot and killed at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. Seven years later you then find Benjamin and Sarah McClusky's daughter, and my great great grandmother Mary McClusky, residing in the home of Greenberry's widow Sarah (Brown) Kidd in 1870.

So what does all this have to do with the origins and early life of Benjamin McClusky's wife Sarah Howard? Well, if you go back to the 1839 Blount County, Alabama marriage record for Greenberry Kidd, six years prior you'll find another marriage record in the county for a Sally Kidd marrying a James Howard on May 12, 1833. The witnesses on the record are listed as John Howard, Henry Parham, and her father John Kidd. It is generally accepted that the name Sally is a nickname for Sarah and generally used when the mother is also named Sarah to help differentiate the elder from the younger Sarah. It is also important to mention that at this point in time you find a William Walker from Pittsylvania County, Virginia living in Blount County, Alabama and by 1840 the arrival of a Jeremiah Walker also from Pittsylvania County. Both of these men are believed to be related to the Walker families you find residing near the McCluskys back in Lincoln County, Tennessee. And in fact, you find this same Jeremiah Walker residing near a John Kidd in Lincoln County, Tennessee on the 1830 Census.


(1833 Blount County, AL Marriage Record for James Howard and Sally Kidd)


With all the connections I've just presented, this would strongly suggest that when Sarah Howard married Benjamin McClusky in Lincoln County, Tennessee in 1840 she was on her second marriage and her maiden name wasn't actually Howard, but instead, she was actually born Sarah A. Kidd. Historical records coupled with DNA evidence also indicates that she was the older sister of Greenberry L. Kidd, Susan A. Kidd that married Japheth Walker, Nancy A. Kidd that married James Cox, Milford Robert Kidd that you find living in the home of William Walker in 1850, and most likely John D. Kidd who had relocated to Pontotoc County from Lincoln County by 1850. It is also highly likely that the widow Sarah Kidd you find living in close proximity to the McCluskys back in Lincoln County in 1840 is their mother who had relocated there after the death of her husband John Kidd in Blount County, Alabama prior to 1839. As you'll later see, this would be the most logical move for her considering the family had lived in the county before, as well as, the large number of Walker families living there and her connection to that name.

With the evidence presented, I strongly believe that Benjamin McClusky's wife Sarah A. Howard was actually born Sarah A. Kidd in Pittsylvania County, Virginia around 1813 to John Kidd and Sarah "Sally" Walker. Pittsylvania County marriage records show that John Kidd and Sarah "Sally" Walker were married on September 13, 1812. They can still be found living in the county as late as 1820 for the birth of their son Greenberry and eventually migrating to Lincoln County, Tennessee with several other Walker families by 1830. By 1833 the family had relocated to Blount County, Alabama where other related Pittsylvania County Walker families were already living, and then back to Lincoln County after the death of John Kidd sometime prior to 1839 where Sarah (Walker) Kidd would live out her days.

The evidence and case I've provided should also dispel the notion that Greenberry L. Kidd was the son of a John Kidd and Sarah Isabelle McCleskey (the younger sister of Benjamin McClusky's father William McCleskey).

More to come........

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Benjamin McClusky (1819-1862)

As I discussed in my last post, John P. Kennedy's first wife Mary Susan McClusky was the daughter of Benjamin McClusky and Sarah A. Howard. Her father Benjamin was born in Limestone County, Alabama in 1819 and was the third of eight children belonging to his parents William McCleskey and Elizabeth Proctor. During his childhood, the family would relocate to Lawrence County, Alabama and then to Lincoln County, Tennessee. It is here in Lincoln County that Benjamin would meet and eventually marry his wife Sarah A. Howard on September 28, 1840. Very little is known about his wife Sarah's early life other than she was born in Virginia around the year 1818.

Together Benjamin and Sarah would have five children: William Marion (1841), Sarah E. (1844), Joseph P. (1848), Mary Susan (1851), and Harriet A. (1856).

By 1844, the family would relocate to Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Benjamin McClusky makes his first appearance in the county records via the 1845 tax list for the county. His earliest known appearance in the county's land records involves a deed of trust between himself and a man named Isaac P. Carr dated June 1, 1852. In the document, Benjamin is guaranteeing the transfer of 103 acres of land to Isaac P. Carr who was the treasurer of the county school fund, against a loan of two hundred and fifty dollars. The land is described as being located in the southwest quarter of Section 3 Township 11 of Range 3 east. This piece of land lay to the southeast of the town of Algoma and it's location proves interesting when it comes to trying to locate the final resting place of Benjamin McClusky and his wife Sarah.


Township & Range Map for Pontotoc County, MS.
(red X marks location of land owned by Benjamin McClusky)


Civil War Enlistment Document for Benjamin McClusky


With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Benjamin at age 43 and his oldest son William Marion McClusky would enlist with Company F of the 41st Mississippi Infantry Regiment CSA on April 1, 1862. The men in Company F were also known as the Pontotoc Grays. Benjamin's service would be very short-lived due to his contracting measles and being sent home where he would die from the disease on June 23, 1862. For his efforts, records indicate that Benjamin received a whopping sum of twenty-two dollars and seventy-three cents. In stark contrast, his son William would survive the entire war and ultimately be pardoned in Greensboro, NC as part of General Joseph E. Johnston's surrender to General William T. Sherman on April 26, 1865. In 1863, Benjamin's wife Sarah would petition the Confederate government for his pension and ultimately receive the sum of forty-three dollars and ten cents. After this point, Sarah would disappear from the county record apart from a possible listing on the 1870 federal census. Both her and Benjamin's final resting places are unknown, but I tend to believe they are buried in unmarked graves in a small cemetery south of their property known today as the McCleskey Cemetery. There is also the possibility they are buried in New Salem Cemetery in the southeastern part of the county near the community of Troy which is where two of their children, Joseph and Harriet, are buried.


New Salem Cemetery ~ Troy, MS

Grave of Joseph P. McClusky
(son of Benjamin & Sarah McClusky)

Grave of Harriet A. McClusky
(daughter of Benjamin & Sarah McClusky)

William Marion McClusky and family.
oldest son of Benjamin & Sarah McClusky
(circa 1890 ~ Chickasaw County, MS)
photo courtesy of Nelda Hamer



























Sunday, October 14, 2018

John P. Kennedy (1831-1912)



John P. Kennedy and his six sons.
(circa 1910)


The early life of John P. Kennedy is somewhat shrouded in mystery. His gravestone (a modern replacement) indicates his birth year as being 1822, yet various census records put it as being 1827, 1831, or 1836. I tend to lean more towards the year 1831 which is the birth year stated on the 1900 federal census for Pontotoc County, Mississippi. This is also the record that states he was born in Ireland and had immigrated to the United States as a child in 1842. Port of entry records for the time period show numerous John Kennedys that fit the same description entering the country from various ports in the Northeast, as well as the South.

If I were to venture a guess at a likely candidate and location for John P. Kennedy prior to his appearance in Pontotoc County in 1870, it would be the John Kennedy that appears on the 1860 federal census for Tippah County, Mississippi. With Tippah County bordering Pontotoc County to the north at the time, proximity makes it very possible, as does the fact that this individual shares the same birth year and is listed as being from Sligo, Ireland. If this is in fact the same John Kennedy, this record would provide evidence of a previously unknown first wife named Wiley A. Strong. County marriage records show the couple having married on December 10, 1859, with her father Martin Strong acting as a bondsman. It's also quite possible this same John Kennedy can be seen ten years earlier on the 1850 federal census living in the home of J. and Hannah Kenada in Tishomingo County which bordered Tippah County to the east. Interestingly enough, this John is the only person in the household listed as having been born in Ireland. It's also important to note that both of the John Kennedys mentioned disappear from both of these counties' records beyond these two census records.


1850 Federal Census listing for Tishomingo County, MS


1860 Federal Census listing for Tippah County, MS


The earliest known and definitive record involving John P. Kennedy is his marriage to Mary S. McClusky in Pontotoc County, Mississippi on July 26, 1870. His wife Mary had been born in Pontotoc in 1852 and was the daughter of long-time residents Benjamin McClusky and Sarah A. Howard.

John and Mary Kennedy would have eleven children together: Elizabeth (1876), Harriet (1877), James Hugh (1878), Josephine (1880), Ira (1882), Jennie (1884), Eber (1885), Edwin (1886), Effie (1888), William (1889), and John Pile (1891).

On August 16, 1884 the couple would purchase 160 acres of land from John T. Cruse for the sum of one hundred and sixty dollars. The parcel of land is described as being "the southwest quarter of Section 13, Township 10 of Range 2 east of the Basis Meridian of the Chickasaw Surveys". The money to purchase the land was acquired through a promissory note for the amount of one hundred and eighty dollars and forty cents from W. A. Rodgers and R. D. Wood on that same date. The property lay a few miles southwest of the town of Pontotoc and was primarily used for growing corn and cotton. The land is currently located between Hwy 341 and Old Airport Rd.




2010 Township & Range Map
showing location of John P. Kennedy's farm.


This same piece of land can be seen being used as collateral for monetary loans and referenced in a series of merchants' deeds of trust in the years 1892 and 1895-1899. The southern half of this section of land was later sold to O. C. Carr on January 23, 1903 for the sum of one thousand two hundred dollars. It is unknown what became of the northern half due to the lack of documents addressing it's sale.

At some point between the years 1892 and 1895, John's wife Mary would pass away due to unknown cause. Her burial location remains unknown, although I suspect she's buried in an unmarked grave located in the Jernigan Cemetery which lays just to the north of the family's property.



Jernigan Cemetery ~ Pontotoc County, Mississippi


John would eventually remarry on June 2, 1897. His new bride was a woman named Emma Lula (Rogers) Poe and together the couple would only have one child named Manilla Dykes Kennedy in December of 1898. The family was still residing in Pontotoc County by the turn of the century, but by 1903 or 1904 had set their eyes to the north and the newly opened cheap land in the Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma). The Kennedy family chose to resettle on the Creek Nation (present day McIntosh County) near the town of Eufala. Not long after arriving to the area, John Kennedy's second wife Lula would die in 1905 and be buried in Mellette Cemetery in Hanna, Oklahoma. John P. Kennedy would follow her in death seven years later, dying in 1912, and be buried next to her.



Grave of John P. Kennedy ~ Mellette Cemetery, McIntosh County, OK
(photo courtesy of Jayson Shellady)


Grave of Emma Lula (Rogers) Poe ~ Mellette Cemetery, McIntosh County, OK
(photo courtesy of Jayson Shellady)




















  



Sunday, October 7, 2018

William Kennedy (1889-1931)



William Kennedy 
(circa 1910)


Born on September 16, 1889 in Pontotoc, Mississippi, William Kennedy was the tenth child born unto John P. Kennedy and Mary S. McClusky. His mother was a native of Mississippi and his father an Irish immigrant. As a young man, he farmed cotton in southeastern Oklahoma in McIntosh County. It is here where he eventually meets and marries his wife Ollie Drucilla Jones on January 29, 1911 in the town of Eufala. As I discussed in my last post, William and his wife Ollie would have eleven children during their marriage.



William Kennedy
(circa 1920's)


Just prior to 1920, he would relocate his family to northeastern Oklahoma near the town of Mounds, where he would continue to farm. On the evening of December 9, 1931 after a supposed night of drinking and gambling, he was shot in the abdomen during a dispute with another local farmer named J. L. Sanders. He was brought to Morningside Hospital in Tulsa, where he would eventually die from his wound the following day. The incident was front page news in the Tulsa Tribune newspaper and his assailant would eventually be charged with murder. William was buried in Duck Creek Cemetery in Mounds, Oklahoma. His grave remained unmarked and lost until 2010 when I personally located it and arranged for a gravestone to be placed on the grave. 





Sunday, September 30, 2018

Ollie Drucilla Jones (1893-1980)



Ollie Drucilla Jones
(Mellette, Oklahoma circa 1911)


Ollie Drucilla Jones was born in Batesville, Arkansas on January 5, 1893 and was the fourth child born unto John Curtis Jones and Sarah Parthena Felts. By her own account, she wasn't close to her parents John Curtis and Sarah. In later years she would recollect that "she did not have good communication with her mother and father. Especially her father." Her reasoning for this was that when it came to her father "it seemed boys were more important than girls."

After her family relocated to the town of Mellette, Oklahoma she met William Kennedy whose family had also recently relocated to the area from Pontotoc, Mississippi. William and Ollie would eventually marry on January 29, 1911 in Eufala, Oklahoma. In later years, Ollie would state that she only told one of her sisters about her pending marriage to William, providing further evidence of her strained relationship with her parents.



William Kennedy & Ollie Drucilla Jones on their wedding day.
(Eufala, OK ~ January 29, 1911)


After getting married, William and Ollie remained in McIntosh County for a number of years raising cotton. During this time the couple had seven children: Norma Kennedy (1912), James Curtis Kennedy (1914), Dodd Kennedy (1916), Ira William Kennedy (1919), a set of twins named Elmer and Velma who died at birth (1921), and Dolfus "Don" Kennedy (1922). In 1923 the couple would decide to relocate to California.  The family was accompanied by Ollie's half-cousin, Tinsy, and her husband. After getting as far as Texas, the car broke down. Tinsy and her husband returned to Oklahoma and the Kennedys remained in Dodge, Texas for about a year. It was during this time that Ollie gave birth to her eighth child James Robert "Junior" Kennedy in the late summer of 1924. The family eventually returned to Eufala, Oklahoma and spent several months living in an extra home on the farm owned by one of William's brothers. In 1925 or 1926 the family moved north to Okmulgee County and settled in the Natura Township on a farm known as Old Hayden's Place. While living at Old Hayden's Place, William and Ollie had three more children: Billie "Charles" Kennedy (1926), Leroy Kennedy (1928), and Jack Kennedy (1931). Four months after the birth of Jack, William was shot in the abdomen south of Bixby, OK by a local farmer named J. L. Sanders during an evening of heavy drinking and playing dice. The incident made the front page of the Tulsa Tribune newspaper and Sanders was later charged with murder after William succumbed to his wound and died on December 10, 1931.

Following William's death, the family remained at Old Hayden's Place for a couple of years and then relocated to just outside Kiefer, OK. After only a couple more years the family moved again to Beggs, OK. It was here in Beggs, that Ollie got remarried to a man named Thomas McCall. The marriage only lasted a year. In November of 1936, Ollie gathered all her children and packed all their belongings into a 1932 Ford V-8 with a trailer and headed out to California. After making the long trip at the lightning-fast pace of 30 mph, the Kennedys arrived in Southern California. They first took work helping two older ladies who lived in a huge house. The family took up residence in a small house in the middle of an orange grove. Ollie's son Don recalls that during this time "each family member probably ate five pounds of oranges a night." They worked for seventy-five cents an hour, an unheard of sum for the time, taking care of smudge pots for 10 to 12 hours a night. The family eventually headed north to Turlock, where times got hard due to lack of work. What little work that could be found primarily involved migrant work picking peaches, cotton, and grapes. By the 1940's work became more plentiful and Ollie took a job working for Armours in 1941. Eventually she was able to buy a house for the sum of $2750.00. Ollie would eventually remarry again, this time to a man named Lee Belcher on May 10, 1956. Ollie lived out her days in Turlock, CA, eventually passing away on August 14, 1980.



Ollie Jones Kennedy and daughter Norma
(Turlock, CA ~ 1943)


   

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Stranger Than Fiction Part 2................A Tale Of True Love.

I figured while I was on the topic of John Logan Jones and his children, I'd tell y'all a tale that was told to me by Buddy Jones from Oklahoma City involving John Logan Jones' son John Curtis Jones and his half-brother Lewis Polk Jones. Buddy Jones is the grandson of Lewis Polk Jones. It's an amazing story about love, dedication, and how life was in rural America at the turn of the 20th century.

Between 1895 and 1900, John Logan's son John Curtis Jones left Arkansas for the newly opened Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) to resettle. His half-brother Lewis Polk Jones soon followed suit and eventually the two families were residing next to each other. At the time, Lewis was married to a woman named Mollie L. Mechum (or Mitchum), and together the couple had three children: a child who died as an infant, a daughter named Perly in 1900, and another daughter named Rosa (Tinsey) in 1904. Not long after their daughter Tinsey was born, Mollie passed away.

At some point after Mollie's death, Lewis and his half-brother John Curtis' daughter Roxie took a shine to each other. Under the guise of heading to Texas to check his prospects down there, Lewis left his two daughters with his half-brother's family and left for Knox County, Texas. Once he arrived, he sent for Roxie, and the two were married without the consent of her father.



Lewis Polk Jones, Roxie Jones, and her father John Curtis Jones in the background.
(circa 1908 Oklahoma)
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.


Roxie Jones
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones


After their marriage Lewis and Roxie seemed to move around quite a bit, returning to Oklahoma for a short time, then Arkansas, and finally returning to Texas and settling in the town of Vernon. During this time the couple had four children: Cleo Franklin Jones in 1908, Orvel Lee Jones in 1910, Jesse James Jones in 1912, and Opal Jones in 1916. Not long after the birth of their daughter Opal, the family decided to leave Vernon and relocate to the town of Commerce. It was during this time that Roxie drank some bad water, contracted typhoid fever, and died. On the day of her funeral, the family left their infant daughter Opal under the care of a couple named G. W. Polk and Myrtle McCullen who decided to kidnap her. Lewis put up a $1000.00 reward for her return which was matched by the state of Texas. Also at this time, Lewis somehow managed to get deputized and set off for California where one of the suspects' brother lived. This was all done by "riding the rails" which took a substantial amount of time. Upon arriving at the suspects' brother's home in California he found a letter that placed them in Arkansas, and so he set off in that direction. When Lewis arrived in Arkansas, the couple caught wind of it and abandoned Opal in a hotel they were staying at and were never caught. Opal would eventually live to see the ripe old age of 94, passing away in Texas in 2010.



G. W. Polk and Myrtle McCullen
(the couple who kidnapped Baby Opal)
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

John Curtis Jones (1862-1930)



John Curtis Jones (Oklahoma circa 1900)
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.


John Curtis Jones was the fourth known child born unto John Logan Jones and Margaret Jane Bizzell in Independence County, Arkansas on March 8, 1862. After the death of his mother in 1870, John Curtis and his youngest sister Alzada Elizabeth Drucilla Caroline went to live with their aunt Alzada Bizzell Martin who also lived in the county. At age 22, he would marry Sarah Parthena Felts in Sharp County, Arkansas on April 27, 1884. Sarah was born in Barren Township in Independence County, Arkansas on March 8, 1867 and was the daughter of Robert E. Felts and Susan Carter, both from Tennessee.



Sarah Parthena Felts (wife of John Curtis Jones)


The couple had their first child Edgar Otto Jones on April 8, 1885 in Independence County, Arkansas. This birth would be followed by five more children being born in Arkansas: Roxie Ellen Jones (1888), Maude Lee Jones (1891), Ollie Drucilla Jones (1893), Jeff Thomas Jones (1894), and Rendie Parthena Jones (1895).



Edgar Otto Jones and family
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.


Roxie Ellen Jones and brother Jeff Thomas Jones
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.


Ollie Drucilla Jones
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones


Maude Lee Jones
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.


Rendie Parthena Jones
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.


With the opening of fresh land for sale in the Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma), John Curtis and his family left Arkansas and resettled on the Cherokee Nation near the town of Warner (present day Muskogee County) at some point between 1895 and 1900. By 1908, the family had relocated to the settlement known as Mellette in neighboring McIntosh County. During this period of time, John Curtis and Sarah had three more children: Arch Franklin Jones (1900), Bertha Ann Jones (1904), and Claude J. Jones (1908).



Arch Franklin Jones and wife Arfil.
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.


Bertha Ann Jones (circa 1915)
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.


Claude J. Jones (circa 1915)
photo courtesy of Buddy Jones.


It was during their time spent in Mellette, Oklahoma that they met the family of John P. Kennedy who had also recently moved to the area from Pontotoc, Mississippi. Through the two families' relationship, three marriages would be produced: Ollie Drucilla Jones to William Kennedy in 1911, Maude Lee Jones to John Pyle Kennedy in 1912, and Rendie Parthena Jones to Eber Kennedy in 1915. Eventually John Curtis and his family would relocate once again to the town of Mounds in Creek County, Oklahoma. It is here where John Curtis Jones would pass away at the age of 67 on January 19, 1930. His body would be laid to rest in the Duck Creek Cemetery located in Mounds, Oklahoma. His wife Sarah would pass away six years later on August 17, 1936 and be laid to rest next to her husband.



Grave of John Curtis Jones
photo courtesy of Jayson Shellady.


Grave of Sarah Parthena (Felts) Jones
photo courtesy of Jayson Shellady.