James Hawkins of Stafford County, Virginia c.1800

This blog post is going to take a while to make sense.  I am trying to sort through the information about James Hawkins who is found in Stafford County at least from 1797 until 1820.  I have such a mish mash of information that I am going to just start adding it and then sift through what I have.

Why did I get interested in this James Hawkins?

Because my "brick wall" for 20 years or more, Thomas Ross Hawkins, had a daughter named Angelina.  Angelina married James A. Whitlock.  When Angelina died  either her husband or one of her children  filled out the death certificate.  And the person took the time to put in good information in the blanks.  And Thomas Ross Hawkins ....that I had thought for MANY years to have been born in Orange County, Virginia suddenly had a new birth county:  Stafford County.  So suddenly I believed that Thomas Ross Hawkins was born in Stafford County, Virginia.  And then, Phooey....Stafford County is a burned county....not a lot of information ....But I do have an approximate birth date for Thomas R. Hawkins of 1797 based on census information and the following from From the Religious Herald of Richmond, June 18, 1885:

 On the 6th day of April,

1885, at the residence of his son, Rev. E.P. Hawkins of Louisa County, Rev

Thomas Hawkins quietly fell  asleep, being eighty-seven years and seven

months old."

I would then calculate his birth to be Sept 1797.

You can see from Angelina's death certificate that clearly her father was born in Stafford County.  There would have been no reason for husband or child to have made such a thing up....all of the years that they had known him, he lived in Orange County, Virginia.  If they were just guessing, they would have guessed Orange.  They knew he had been born in Stafford.

 

So next I ran my new information by Elaine....and not long after Elaine found a tax record in which James Hawkins was paying taxes for William Ross in Stafford County, Virginia in the right time frame.  These have to be my men right?

Here is the blog post that I wrote at the time I discovered this information so you can see that tax record for yourself:

https://marshamoses.blogspot.com/2019/01/james-hawkins-and-william-ross.html

Timeline for James Hawkins and William Ross in Stafford County:

1783 William Ross and William Ross Jr are both on Stafford County Property list .  There is no Hawkins on the list in this year.

1797  On list B James Hawkins is paying for Wm. Rofs and there is another William Rofs later in the list.  This is approximately the same year in which Thomas R. Hawkins was said to have been born in Stafford County.

1800 Tax List James Hawken 103 acres Pt. Park and William Ross 202 acres Pt. Park   Jerrilyn says: 

"Pt. Park" means part of the Parke tract.

 The 1800 Virginia census was lost so the tax list is our best documentation. There is no Hawkins male listed on the personal property tax list at all in the County (I am using Binns tax list to do this research).  William Ross is on the list with 2 males over the age of 16.  This could be his own son or it could be his son-in-law, James Hawkins.  But there seems to be only one William Ross on the list.  So perhaps  as another theory the father-in-law, William Ross, has already died.  I feel certain that if Thomas Ross Hawkins was born in 1797, his father must have still been living in Stafford Count, but I don't know why he would  not have been on the tax list.

1811 James Hawkins is on the Stafford County personal Property List …on list A.  William Ross is on the same list.

1812 There is no Hawkins on the Stafford County personal Property List.  Killis Hord is listed.

1813  There is no Hawkins on the Stafford County personal Property List.  Killis Hord is listed.  There seems to be only one William Ross on the list.  William Ross is on the list, but I only see one William Ross. (I believe that this is because William Ross the father is deceased)

I looked at a deed book for Fleming County, Ky at the Filson library in May 2019.  There is no Hawkins transaction in the years between 1797 and 1818.

1820 There is a James Hawkins in Stafford County, Virginia in the 1820 census.  It is a large household.  3 sons:  1 under 10, 1 between 10 and 15 and 1 older than 16.  James is 45 or older.  4 daughters under 10 and one older than 16.  His wife was 45 or older.  In 1820 Thomas R. would have been 22-23.  So he could have been the one older son.  He is not yet married....but he could also be in Orange County with Uncle Benjamin.  He is found earlier than that in Orange County…perhaps when he was going to school.  And he has not yet married Matilda.  It is a large family.
  

Is there a will for William Ross?  Are there wills available at all in Stafford County?  

From Olyve:  I don't know where James b. ca 1765 was born. He left Stafford's tax role about 1825 and showed up in Clark CO. KY in 1826.   Other researchers say that James died in Flemming County in 1834.

I need to clarify this and find some documents.

Then I pulled out notes from a lady that I had communicated with for many years.  Her James Hawkins was from Stafford County and died in Fleming County, Kentucky.  There seems to be only one James Hawkins in Stafford County in the right time period....why would my James Hawkins move to Kentucky...and leave children in Virginia?  

So I started looking at Ancestry trees ....and there is more than one that looks  like the following:

This James Hawkins has wife, Margaret, born 1769 in Virginia and died in Fleming County, Ky 1834.    

And James is given dates that are similar as you can see from the above.  

So what is wrong with this picture?  James is about 26 when his first child is born and his wife is about 21.  That seems normal enough.....but then....they have three children that make sense for the age...and then don't have any more for 16 years. After 16 years they suddenly have six more children at ages 35 to 53.  It is absolutely not impossible.  But there almost has to be more to the story.  

Especially when you factor in that my Thomas Ross Hawkins was born in 1797.  And that he has sisters, Mary and Elizabeth and brothers, Moses and Benjamin.  I think it possible that Moses joined the family in moving to Kentucky.  But Mary and Elizabeth and Thomas Ross stayed behind in Virginia.  I don't know much about Benjamin but I do find a Benjamin Hawkins in Orange County who is of the right age.  These children stayed behind in Virginia with Uncle Benjamin and Aunt Mary/Polly...perhaps because of their age?  Don't know yet.

So was there a first wife?  And when she died, did James remarry ....and then his older children joined him in moving to Kentucky while his teenagers stayed behind...and James moved his baby, Moses, with him and with his new wife?  It would seem that all of James' children were born in Stafford County.  If the dates on the Ancestry tree are correct.  

So I guess the first question I'll start with tomorrow is:  When did James move his family to Fleming County, Kentucky?  And did he first move to Clark County, Ky?

Ok, I am still looking at trees tonight.  Walter R. is said to have been born in Stafford County so they are still in Virginia in 1817.  I am using Walter R. to search the trees.  He has wife Angeline Snedegar.  Here are some of the facts that I am finding on various Ancestry trees:

James Hawkins' wife is Margaret Jane Morton

James and Margaret's marriage was in Culpeper in 1790.  My best guess is that this researcher used the date of the first born child to come up with this information.  I have looked the Culpeper, Spotsylvania, and Orange County marriage books and while there are a number of Hawkins marriages, this one is not listed.  I have also checked Theresa A. Fisher's book for marriages between 1722 and 1850 that includes City of Fredericksburg, Orange, Spotsylvania and Stafford Counties.  I find no marriage between James Hawkins and Margaret Jane Morton.  Nor do I find a marriage between James Hawkins and any woman with last name Ross.  Stafford County is a "burned" county and the records are scarce.

Again from Ancestry trees, all of James' children are said to have been born in Virginia.  The last child named is Sally Ann born in 1819....so they did not move until after 1819 to Kentucky.

Many of the Ancestry trees say that this James is the son of William and Elizabeth Bourne Hawkins.  I would like this to be true if it is my James.  However, Elizabeth is certainly dead by 1819.  My notes say that William is still alive and probably living in Jessamine County, Kentucky at this time since he died in Jessamine in 1836.  Why did James not move to Jessamine County instead of Fleming?  Perhaps he and his wife moved to an area where her family lived? 

While I was looking for a deed for Sandi, I found the following map that I had worked on several years ago.  I have added it to the blog in two sizes to make looking at it easier.  Note that Clark County is much closer to Jessamine County than is Fleming.  I need to work on these ideas a bit.  And look how close Madison County is to Jessamine and the other Counties of interest in this time period!

The below map can be manipulated to read smaller parts better.

 

Then I have to make the fact that the father of my Thomas Ross Hawkins had a brother named Benjamin work for William and Elizabeth Bourne.  Uncle Benjamin has to fit into the family.  William and Elizabeth Bourne did indeed have sons named both James and Benjamin: 

Deed Book B. Pg 328 John, Benjamin, and James Hawkins, Polly Barnett, Willis Hawkins, and Sally Hawkins children of Elizabeth Hawkins daug of Andrew Bourne of Culpeper Co, VA to our brother Moses Hawkins P of A to recover slaves left us by our grandfather, Andr. Bourne: Feb 1808 s and ack. by John Barnett and Willis and Sally Hawkins only and rec. same.”

 So far nothing to absolutely rule this theory out totally.  Just need to work on it a bit.  

Joseph Sprigg and his wife, Ann Taylor

An Ancestry thruline that I looked at yesterday put me in contact with Suzanne who is the researcher who is connected to my dna match on FTDNA, William Donaldson Sprigg, Jr.  Mr. Sprigg is Suzanne's deceased father.  Suzanne has always been the researcher connected to the kit.  Suzanne and I had tried to exchange information a few years ago, but neither of us had done enough research to come up with the connection.  Now with help from all of the bells and whistles that are provided by the five big DNA sites, we are able to identify a really good match between Suzanne's dad and me on Chromosome #11.  So, of course, I first painted the chromosome match on dnapainter and then began to look at all of the new information that this makes available to me.

I descend from Joseph Sprigg and his wife, Ann Taylor, through their daughter Lucretia who married John Redmon in Pulaski County, Arkansas 23 April 1828.  I had found this marriage information on Ancestry in 2005 and my comment at this time was:

..... I found a marriage entry on Ancestry in June 2004 for John Redmon to Lucretia Sprigg in Arkansas Pulaski County for the date that I entered above.  The date works well for Louisa M. Redmon’s parents and is further substantiated by the fact that Louisa and John Slater name a daughter Lucretia “Luty” C. Slater.

Lucretia Sprigg and John Redmon had daughter, Louisa M. born in Arkansas.  I already had information that L.M. Redmon and Dr. John Slater had married in Arkansas.  

My notes that I had saved in my data base seem to firm up that what I have found is correct:  

I interviewed my grandmother (Mary Ann McGregor Hawkins.  She was the gr-granddaughter of Dr. John Slater and Louisa M. Redmon Slater) in the early 1970's.  My notes from that interview say:  Helen's grandfather (Dr. Slater) left North Carolina after the war and was a doctor in Lassen County, California.  And he was also the grandfather of John S. Partridge of San Francisco, California who was recently [letter written July 26, 1923] appointed Federal Judge in this state...

My research has shown the time when John Slater left North Carolina was BEFORE the war.  The census of 1860 in Lassen County shows John to have been born in North Carolina--so that substantiates granny Mary’s statement that he moved from NC, but tells us that he left NC before the Civil War.

Then the 1850 census finds John A. Slater living in Greenbrier, Independence, Arkansas with a wife: Louisa M. Slater who is 19.  This John has North Carolina as his birth place as well. 

It is quite interesting to note from the family sheet that Tim Purdy sent me that this family came via wagon train as the 4th child is born in Kansas in 1875...ˆmy date must be wrong....it must be 1855....I will double check this.

According to Fairfield’s Pioneer History of Lassen County California Dr. John Slater crossed the plains and came into the valley in 1857

I feel very good about all of these facts adding up to a story that is substantiated.

Now with Suzanne's help I have added Louisa Redmon's brother to my tree.  Ignatius Sprigg is the brother from whom Suzanne descends.  Ignatius Sprigg married Mary Polly Adkins.

Now I am working on adding more using the information from the Maryland Historical Society's magazine:  Volume 8, Issue #1.  I accessed this issue from the Maryland Historical Society's website.  And the URL for that is:

http://mdhs.msa.maryland.gov/pages/Login.aspx

Newspapers

I have an almost impossible project that has nagged at the back of my mind for years.  My question has been:  could there be the possibility of the mention of a family reunion of my Webb family in Bowling Green, Kentucky Newspaper?  I am not going to take the time right now to ask the question accurately...just jotting down some ideas for another day:

The Newspapers in Bowling Green in the right time frame were: Spirit of the Times (this one seemed to be Horse related) and Green River Gazette.  Both newspapers started in 1832.  My notes also say something about Publick Advertiser...but not sure what I was looking at when I saw that one.

The right time frame for this possibility was likely to have been between 1840 when Lucinda Hensley would have been about 10 until about 1870 while her mother was still well and living

And then the following came across one of my mail lists this morning.  It is a reminder of the Library of Congress site:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

While at the Ohio Genealogical Society's fall retreat, I took a class from Lauren Kuntzman.  At the end of one of her classes we talked about newspapers and places to find newspapers.  I wanted to add these ideas here.

Newspapers.com is a paid subscription.  If you have a world subscription on Ancestry this subscription is in included in the package.

Genealogy bank also has Newspapers and this, too is a paid site.

Chronicling America is a free site and is part of the Library of Congress.

A site called Ancestor Hunt has a section on newspapers and serves as a kind of index of where you can find various Newpapers.

For Ohio Newspapers, try Ohio Memory.

William Webb with wife Nancy

I am at the Filson Historical Society library today.  And I have decided to concentrate on my Webb line.  I have found buddies who descend from my Webb line.  And I am organizing my thoughts about this family based on new information received from this group.

First, it seems that William and Thomas Webb live next to each other in Logan County, Kentucky in 1810.  These men are thought to be related because of DNA matches.  William is probably my 4-gr-grandfather.  William is between 26 and 44 and his wife is in the same age range.  They have 2 sons under 10 and one daughter under 10.  My own ancestor, Nancy, has not been born yet.  My buddies tell me it is likely that the two sons are Isaac born in 1797 in NC and William Jr. born 1799.

Marriage of Matilda Pinkard and Thomas Ross Hawkins

I am chatting with a new buddy this morning.  Paul Stephens is a dna match to me on Ancestry.  I became very excited when I saw his tree because Paul descends from Thomas Ross Hawkins and Matilda Pinkard through their daughter (sister to my Edward Pinkard Hawkins), Martha Druscilla Hawkins who married James R. Poindexter.  I am sitting on the porch on Memorial day working on genealogy until the sun hits my toes!  And I am reviewing the information that Paul sent to me and adding to my data base and deciding what to send to Paul first.  And the following jumped out at me:

p. 55, 8-28-1823, Mitilda Pinchard(not a typo) m. Thomas R. Hawkins by James Garnett, Sr. (Crooked Run Baptist 1772-1986 located at 38 degrees 21.723' N, 78 degrees 6.441'W, Rapidan, VA, south of Culpeper at junction of Hwys 614 & 615).  You can see historical marker on-line if you google Crooked Run Baptist.

I have been up and down that highway many times and have not stopped to take a photo of the marker. 

Crooked Run Baptist Church was organized in 1772 and is named for the stream that flows nearby. James Garnett Sr., one of the early pastors, served the congregation from 1774 until close to his death in 1830. ..... The first meeting of the Orange Baptist Association occurred here in 1789. At first the members met in a meeting house, but by 1856 they had built a brick structure. This church was destroyed by a fire in 1910 and rebuilt the same year using the remains of the brick walls. Crooked Run is located 10 miles south of Culpeper on Rte. 15, near Rapidan.

 So the building that one would see now is not the same building in which T.R. and Matilda married.  There seems to be a history of the church available to read at one's local LDS FHL: 

James Hawkins living in Stafford County in right time frame to be Thomas R. Hawkins' father

I am hot on pursuit of adding James Hawkins as my 4-gr-grandfather!  I have worked on a father for Thomas Ross Hawkins for more than 20 years!  However, this past year I found a crazy new clue ....I think it was on Ancestry? that Thomas was born in Stafford County, Virginia ....not in Orange which had been my working theory for all of those years.  Thomas's daughter, Angelina, has death certificate that says her father was born in Stafford County!  So I began a new search.

Then, I received a huge clue from my best research buddy, Elaine, that she had found a tax record in Stafford County for James Hawkins paying tax for William Ross in exactly the right time frame for marriage and birth of Thomas Ross Hawkins.  Certainly this is beginning to make some sense, huh?

I am absolutely obsessed with the dna right now after having attended a all day conference in Richmond at which Blaine Bettinger spoke.  And then attending the Ohio Genealogical Society's Annual conference in Mason, Ohio.  Again I took a workshop from Blaine and heard other dna speakers.  Added to that is the fact that MyHeritage has added Cluster reports.  Ancestry has added thrulines.  And Blaine has taught me how to use dnapainter.  I have an entire cluster of 8-11 people who match me on Chromosome #13 and have connections to Hawkins.  Then I have three on FTDNA that match in the same place and have connections to Benjamin and Sarah Willis Hawkins.  One through daughter, Mildred.  One through son Benjamin. So many of my matches connect to the Hawkins/Bourne couples that I have given up the theory ....at least temporarily....that I connect to a different orphan than Benjamin who married Sarah Willis.

Last night I was messing around on all of my dna sites.  And I found the following on a public tree on ancestry:



and here is the list of wife and children:

There is something wrong with this picture?  Margaret Jane is 21 when she has her first child.  They have three children right in a row.  Then 16 years later when Margaret Jane is 41 to 50 they have 6 more ....Now this is not impossible.  But highly unlikely.  I think it much more likely that James had a wife with maiden name Ross as first wife.  He and his first wife were married before 1791.  They may have had 8 children beginning in 1791 and last child was probably Moses born in 1812.  This wife died about then.  James remarried to Margaret Jane.  The family moved to Kentucky.  The older children were already married by this time (or were at least old enough to be good help in the move) and they moved their families to Kentucky with the group.  The two youngest children, Jane and Moses, went with the family as well.  They would have been babies or toddlers.   But the children born in the 16 year gap in the above family stayed with Uncle Benjamin and Aunt Mary/Polly in Orange County, Virginia.  Thomas Ross Hawkins had probably moved down to Orange County to go to school when his mother died.  And the two teenaged girls, Mary and Elizabeth, then joined him....and maybe Benjamin did as well.  I don't know much about Benjamin.

Early Huntington Schools

The Cabell Rootsweb mail list that has been extremely quiet for a long time began chatting today about some of the early schools.  I was interested in knowing the answers because my Grandfather was probably in the first graduating class of the building that is on 8th street or perhaps he graduated in one of the last classes at the school that I remember was located on 5th Avenue.  I do know that I have a photo in my files and piles of Howard Burke Hawkins photographed with the other members of the basketball team.

So here is my very quick  research:

From James Casto's book with cover:




https://books.google.com/books?id=hL6Oeo2GoisC&pg=PT96&dq=When+was+the+original+Huntington+High+School+building+built+in+Huntington,+WV?&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj9uLzuoLnhAhXGtVkKHSb0CBYQ6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=When%20was%20the%20original%20Huntington%20High%20School%20building%20built%20in%20Huntington%2C%20WV%3F&f=false





I remember Oley because my grandparents lived on 5th Avenue only about a half block west of Oley.

My grandfather was born in 1899, so he would have been 18 in 1917.  The question is if he graduated from high school early or on time.  I will do this research when I have more time.  Further proof that there was never a Central High School in Huntington:







And then Billy Tucker added this to the conversation (so the verdict is still out if there was indeed an official Central High School or if indeed the entire school that house all 12 grades was just Oley:

From "Lost Huntington - Oley Elemetary; "Oley elementary erected in 1888 and named after Gen. John Hunt Oley. Later the city's first High School (Central) was constructed just East of the elemetary and later the 2 structures were  connected.  When the NEW Huntington High School was built in 1916, the First High School was designated Oley Junior High School."

I will try to find time to see if I can find what the name of the school was that my grandfather attended or graduated from.