52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: A Mystery Aunt

Well, well, well. A mystery has unfolded.

I was roaming through Ancestry's shaky green leaves a few weeks ago and found a copy of this photograph on someone's tree. A photograph of my 2nd great-aunt Barbary Sawyer Proffit  I posted on the blog back in 2010. I assumed it had been taken from the blog, but when I checked, the woman who posted it had labeled it as being Liney Huffman Howlett Evans, Barbary's older half-sister. She had gotten the photo from a cousin. When I asked her about the identity she was unsure, having based the identification on her cousin's information.



As am I.

My photo is labeled on the back in my aunt's handwriting. She never knew either woman, but labeled the photograph based on interviews with her aunts. The problem is her aunts never knew Liney and only barely knew Barbary. I never have been able to figure out who the F.L. Evans is sitting next to Barbary. BUT, if the picture is Liney, then it is probably her husband James A. Evans. It would be lovely if the photograph included a studio name or location. Barbary lived in Cocke and Greene counties in Tennessee. Liney moved to Arkansas and then to Oklahoma. No studio. That the women might look enough alike to be mistaken for one another makes sense. They are sisters.

Last week I found the photo on another Ancestry tree belonging to one of Liney's descendants. This time I know the owner of the tree. He is a thorough and generous researcher who has shared his work with me about Liney and her life after leaving Tennessee. I am inclined to trust his information, even if the source of the photograph is not given. Unfortunately the email address I have for him is no longer valid and he has not responded to messages through Ancestry.

So, who is this? Another one of my Sawyer mysteries. A photograph of one of my great-grandfather Gee Sawyer's older sisters. With a man named Evans. My bet is Liney, but then again, my aunts were no slouches when it came to research either.

Written for Amy Johnson Crow's blogger challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Wormhole Genealogy

Last night I had one of those out of body, out of time genealogy adventures. In the end it was more fiction than science, but what a ride! 

I began by revisiting my great-aunt Mary Kathryn's mysterious husband, Heiskell (now Hascal) McKenzie. I knew he was a devastatingly handsome man "from" Lenoir City (Loudon County, TN), that they married when my mother was a teenager (1940s) and that he died soon after from alcoholism. I have never found a marriage record for them and decided to see how Ancestry's search feature would work with the elusive Mr. McKenzie. 

Sometime later (on FamilySearch) I found him in the 1900 census living with his grandparents in Cocke County, TN. This was a revelation to me, for I had no idea he had local roots. I was even more surprised that his mother's parents were Abe and Jane Dawson, part of a large Dawson clan that contributed many in-laws to my Sawyers and Conways. 

I wandered a bit further and discovered that Jane Dawson, Hascal McKenzie's grandmother, was born Jane Precilla Ren in January, 1837 which is when Mary Kathryn's grandfather, Archie Sawyer was being hauled into court to support an illegitmate child born to Scintha Ren. This was when my brain took off and the ride become more carnival roller coaster/side show than actual research. I leapt, wondering if she was the child (probably not). I found a Priscilla Ren living with Jane in 1850 and suspected she was the errant Scintha, neglecting to notice she was in her sixties in 1836. I discovered that Jane's purported father Joel Ren was married to an Elizabeth Killion, prompting visions of Archie's sister-in-law marrying into the other woman's family and raising his spawn. 

At which point I decided I'd best go to bed.

Today, after sleep and copious amounts of caffeine I realize that I don't know if Archie and Scintha Ren's child was a boy or a girl. I don't know if the child survived. I don't know what happened to Scintha Ren. I have yet to find a record that I can confidently tie to Scintha. I even wonder now if Archie and Sallie's son Andy could have been Scintha Ren's son, for I have no marriage record for Archie and Sallie. 

What I do know is that Archie and Sallie's FAN club has grown, giving me lots more to work with. Joel Ren was born in North Carolina. Did he migrate with the Killions? Did he know the Sawyers before landing in Cocke County? Who is the Priscilla Ren I was so eager to label as the other woman in Archie's life (wouldn't that have been an accomplishment)? Is Elizabeth Killion Ren one of the tickmark daughters of David and Barbary Killion? 

I also know that falling into those wormholes is tremendous fun. I started looking for a 20th c. in-law and landed back in the 19th c. hills circling near my favorite mystery grandfather. 

Photo Credit
 Some rights reserved by uncleboatshoes

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Sally Killian Sawyer (1812-1881)

Sally Killian Sawyer is one of my favorite ancestors. Perhaps it's because I knew so little about her when I started researching 30 years ago. For someone who was known as a story teller, my great-grandfather Gee Sawyer said very little about his parents, Archie and Sally Sawyer. I started with their names and birthplaces. Nothing more.

Over the years I have learned more about them both. I have learned that spelling really doesn't count. Even my own hasn't been consistent. She has shown up as Sallie or Sally or Sarah. As Killian or Killion. As Sawyer or Sawyers or Sanger or Sayers. And as a tick mark in the 1820, 1830, and 1840 censuses.

Sally was born in Lincoln County, NC in September of 1812 to David and Barbary Fulbright Killian. A marriage bond for Sarah Killian and David Huffman was recorded on 18 October 1832 in Lincoln County. Sally's daughter Linnie Huffman Howlett Evans named her father as William Huffman in her Civil War Widow's pension application, so the name of Sally's first husband is open for discussion. Whatever his name, their daughter Linnie was born 13 May 1833 in Lincoln County, NC. Mr. Huffman disappears from the scene soon after.

By 1836 the Killians, Sally and Linnie Huffman have moved to Cocke County, TN. Sally has married Archie Sawyer, at least 10 years her senior with a child or children of his own. Their eldest son Andrew was born 15 December 1836, just before Sally's father was putting up part of the bond for Archie after Scintha Ren had named him has the father of her illegitimate child. Magnanimous soul.

State of Tennessee, Cocke County.

We Archibald Sawyers, David Killian and Lewis Williams acknowledge our selfs (sic) indebted to the state of Tennessee as follows;  Archibald Sawyers as principal in the sum of two hundred dollars and fifty;  David Killian and Lewis Williams as his securities in the sum of seventy five dollars each to be bound of sums goods and chattles lands and tenements respectively for the use of the state to be void on condition that the above bound Archibald Sawyers do make his personal appearance at the circuit court at the court house in Newport on the second Monday in January to answer the state on a charge of bastardy by Scintha Ren and not depart the court without leave.     

Archibald Sawyers (his mark);  David Killian (his mark)  Lewis Williams (his mark)

Acknowledged before me Jos. Williams and acting Justice of the Peace for Cocke County this 6 day of January 1837;
Jos. Williams Esq. CC                            Fd’d Jany 9 1837 in circuit court clerk office

Sally and Archie had six more surviving children - Barbary, (1838), William (1840), Elizabeth (1843), Crofford (1847), Jake (1849), and my great-grandfather Jehu Stokely "Gee" (1855). Archie appears in census data as a farmer, though there is no indication of any wealth. They moved frequently in the years surrounding the Civil War, living in Sevier County in 1860, in Jefferson County in 1865 and back in Cocke County in 1870. By 1880 Sally was an invalid widow living with her son William in Greene County. According to her gravemarker she died 2 January 1881. Her grave lies in Joseph's Chapel, just down the road from Sawyer Hollow.

Census information indicated she was illiterate. Her daughter Linnie's pension application has provided me with the greatest bit of information. Sally was midwife for her daughter, delivering all but one of her children. She apparently acted as midwife in the area. Her 1869 deposition stated

"she ... acted as chief Physician and that she was the Osetrician in the section, at the time, and where these children were born and is yet..." 

I have wandered the roads in Cocke, Greene and Sevier counties where Sally lived but it wasn't until I read this deposition that I had a sense of who she may have been.


Written for Amy Johnson Crow's blogger challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

Sources

• Alta Sawyer Palmer, The Sawyer Family, Third Edition (Morristown, Tennessee: Privately published, 1986).
• Cocke, Tennessee, Supreme Court Cases, East Division, State vs. Archibald Sawyer, 1837; Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.
• Jefferson County Court Clerk.Nicholson, James M. Voter Registration Receipt for Archibald Sawyers. 19 Jul 1865. Privately held by Susan Popp Clark, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] St. Louis, MO. 1996.  
• North Carolina Division of Archives and History, "North Carolina Marriage Bonds, 1741-1868," database, Ancestry.com (accessed 18 Jan 2014), entry for for Sarah Killian and David Huffman; citing marriage bond 000073458.  
• Sawyers, Sarah Depostion, Howlett, William M. Civil War Widows Pension Application 141.238, 1867; privately held by Susan Popp Clark, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] St. Louis, MO. 2005. Digital image of pension application file.  
• 1820 U.S. census population schedule, North Carolina, Lincoln, East of the South Fork of the Catawba River, p. 406, David Killion; digital images, Ancestry.com (accessed 16 Jan 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M33, roll 83.  
• 1840 U.S. census, Tennessee, Cocke,, p. 262, Archabald Sawyers and David Killion; digital images, Ancestry.com (accessed 16 Jan 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M704, roll 518.  
• 1850 U.S. census, population schedule, Tennessee, Cocke, District 11, p. 423A, dwelling 1142, family 1142, Sarah Sangers or Sawyer; digital images, Ancestry.com ( accessed 16 Jan 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M432, roll 874.  
• 1860 U.S. census, population schedule, Tennessee, Sevier, District 3, p. 399, dwelling 272, family 272, Sarah Sayers; digital images, Ancestry.com (accessed 16 Jan 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M653, roll 1270.  
• 1870 U.S. census, population schedule, Tennessee, Cocke, District 11, p. 468B, dwelling 12, family 12, Sarah Sawyers; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Jan 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M593, roll 1519.  
• 1880 U.S. census, population schedule, Tennessee, Greene, District 4, enumeration district (ED) 046., p. 65C, dwelling 162, family 162, Sarah Sawyers; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Jan 2014); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T9, roll 1258.  

Sarah Killion Sawyer - Tombstone Tuesday

Last month I wrote about my great-grandparents Archie Sawyer and Sally Killion. I mentioned that I had seen her tombstone more than 20 years ago, but had not taken a camera to the cemetery. Revisiting the cemetery was high on my to do list for this summer. Well scratch that one off the list. I may get up to Joseph's Chapel Cemetery, but it's no longer a must do. I did have a camera!

SARAH

wife of 

ARCHIE SAWYERS

BORN 

Sept. 2?, 1812

DIED

January 2, 1881

I found this picture while digging through my basement for a cooler for the upcoming research trip. Obviously my basement, like the rest of my life, is exceedingly well organized. I'm not going to speculate on what powers are rewarding me for days of planning and techie traumas, but I thank them, my lucky stars and anyone else who wants to take credit.

Grass may well have grown over the marker by now so finding it could have been quite a chore. My notes say her birthday was September 23rd, but the marker doesn't look like that from this picture. Regardless, I'm thrilled to have found this and so pleased I wasn't quite the ditz I thought I was. Well, still a ditz, having misplaced the photo in the basement near the cooler, but not such a ditz as to have forgotten to take the picture!

Jehu S. Sawyer (Sort Of) Family Record - Treasure Chest Thursday

My great great-grandparents Archie and Sallie Killion/Killian Sawyer were my largest stumbling blocks in researching my mother's family when I started in the 1980s. My great aunts, when questioned, never knew the names of their grandparents but knew we were "kin" to the other Killions or Killians in the area. One of my first successes was identifying Sallie's parents, David and Barbary Killian. Identify as in "I am sure these are her parents but I don't have any document naming them as her parents". 

Census records identified David and Barbary as the only Killians old enough to be her parents in Cocke County at the time Sallie and Archie were married and starting their family. Their sons were the only other Killians appearing in 1840 and 1850 Cocke County censuses. They were neighbors, enumerated on the same pages in 1840. David actually signed a bastardy bond for Archie when he was hauled into court after an apparent fling (making him one generous father-in-law). Archie and Sallie named their first daughter Barbary. All the Killions in the area descended from David and Barbary's sons. The circumstantial evidence goes on and on. But there was nothing in writing. 

Until this. A family record written in my great-grandfather Gee Sawyer's funeral home book. A record that names Sallie Killion's parents as David and Barbara Killion. Now I know it's written generations later, and yes, I can see their names were added even later to this record (in pencil, at that). The handwriting is shakier than any other in the funeral home books and seems to be that of an elderly person. It is entirely possible that my great-aunt wrote this in the '80s after I told her of my theories, or that my great-grandmother knew the information and added it later. And it is true that my elderly great-aunts did not know or remember this when we talked in the 1960s and 70s and 80s. But it is the ONLY time I've ever seen their names written in any of the family documents I've inherited. 

So it's a keeper - with asterisks galore***. 

Doughty-Stevens Company (Greeneville, TN). "Jehu S. Sawyer Memorial Books." Digital Image. Privately held by Susan Clark. 1996.  

Archie Sawyer & Sally Killion - What I was told

From Flickr by hubertk

Growing up I was told my great-great grandparents Archie & Sally Killion Sawyer had come over the mountains from the Carolinas to Cocke County after the Revolutionary War.  They had nine children - James, Linnie, Andrew, Barbary, William B, Elizabeth, Crawford, Jake and my great-grandfather, Jehu (or Gee). Most of the children remained in Cocke or Greene counties, but James settled in North Carolina, had twins and a son Leroy. Linnie moved away after the Civil War and contact was lost with her family. I was told that Archie died January 2, 1881 and was buried at Joseph's Chapel in Cocke County. We were kin to the Killions and Killians in the area and to the Sawyers over the mountains in Madison County, NC.

That was it. The sum total of our knowledge.

My aunt dug into census records in the 1970s and reported that Archie had been born in South Carolina around 1795 and that Sally was born around 1810 in North Carolina. Once I began researching in the 1980s the census records provoked as many questions as they answered.  The 1880 census enumerated Sally (listed as Sarah) living in Greene County with her son William. She and her daughter were both listed as widowed. Given that I believed Archie died in 1881 this was surprising.

1880 Greene County TN census listing for Sarah Sawyers

I wondered if he had left the family (giving him LOTS of credit for an 85 year old man) and searched the census records for Cocke, Greene, Jefferson, Sevier Counties in Tennessee and Madison and Buncombe Counties in North Carolina. He was not to be found.

On my next trip back to Tennessee I went to Joseph's Chapel to see Archie's grave. (Did I take a camera?  I was young. I had diaper bags, juice boxes, Cheerios, even toddlers. No camera.) Once I found the tombstone I was surprised to find it read Sarah Killion, wife of Archibald Sawyer with the dates 23 September 1812 - 2 January 1881. That's according to my notes. Will I swear to the spelling? Not a chance. I'm not even sure if it read Sarah or Sally - Archibald or Archie. (Remember, I was really, really young.) What I will swear to is that it was NOT Archie's grave, but his wife's. There was no marker for Archie. Given the 1880 census record I feel confident that Archie died sometime before the 1880 census and was probably buried at Joseph's Chapel. 

Guess what's on my agenda this summer?

UPDATE

I was wrong in stating I did not have a camera! Photograph of Sarah's gravestone is here.

1880 U.S. census, population schedule, Tennessee, Greene, District 4, enumeration district (ED) 46, p. 65C, dwelling 162, family 162; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T9, roll 1258.