About Elizabeth Kuykendall Keller written by her sister, Ivah

Elizabeth Kuykendall Keller

Her grandchildren called her Momaw.  The following was paper-clipped into the guest book from her funeral service.  I'm guessing Ivah wrote it for Sarah Jane Keller Castleman as she was the only one of Momaw's daughters that had all boys at the time.  I remember Ivah was a very sweet aunt.  She wrote bio's on several family members.  I'm glad we have this one about Momaw...

Sept. 14, 1979 

Elizabeth Kuykendall Keller

About the first thing I can remember was Elizabeth and me playing-- jumping from one rafter to another while the carpenters were building the porch on our new house where the Shetleys live now.  She was about 3 1/2 years and I was 2 years (almost) older.  Then came time for me to go to school.  Mama asked the teacher if Elizabeth could go with me and they let her start.  We made it fine going because we had Claudia to take us.  But we only went 1/2 day and poor Claudia spent her lunch hour walking part of the way home with us.  Mama met us and we made it fine.

Somehow Elizabeth was more aggressive than I.  She had gone with Claudia to Central College and Had seen her first piano.  She took a plank and made a key board and she imagined she was making music.  I was so dumb, I didn't know what she was doing.  Papa and Mama decided she had talent and they bought an organ and she and Hettie learned a few tunes.  Mama's uncle could play so he taught them a few tunes.  It was a beautiful piece of furniture.  Papa bought a place in front of Hendrix College and we moved there so the little ones could be closer to school.  Then he bought a piano.  That was 70 years ago.  They gave Elizabeth lessons with Mrs Nell Cole-- paid her in cream and butter.  

When Elizabeth and I were in 6th grade they took her out of grade school and sent her to Central College so she could take lessons there and not walk from school to Central.  I was lost-- never had any more interest in school after that.  She begged for me to go to Central but papa wasn't able to send both of us.  She got a wonderful education then and finished her musical degree under the very best instructors.  She gave her recital in 1917 and got her degree then.  While she was at Central she had a studio close to public school and taught some pupils.

Then she and Claudia were asked to go to Wellford, the first consolidated school in Arkansas.  They stayed there 2 or 3 years.  Got wonderful salaries.  She was engaged to Perry Herrin and she spent most of her money on her trousseau.  Then she came home in the summer and started dating your father, Bill Keller.  They were married the next year-- 57 years ago.

Elizabeth was always the favorite of the whole family.  She was the bright spark in everyone's life and she expected lots of love and attention from every member.  She was a devout Christian from the time she could toddle off  to the Church and Sunday School and BYPU.

She was always kind and thoughtful of every member of her family.  Nothing was too good for any member of the whole family. 

Elizabeth had many many true friends.  She attended U of A in Conway and took some manual training so she could be in the class with your dad.  He did most of the work for her. 

She used to go with Papa when he would go on his 2 or 3 nights trip to places where they had pianos and she would play for them.  They would call in the neighborhood and they would all have a ball.  She was very popular. 

She and I loved our double cousins, Ida and Marietta King- and we spent each weekend together- either at their house or ours.  We were all about the same age. 

Friday AM
Guess you're home by now and taking care of all your boys.  Was that biography kinda what you wanted?  If there is anything else you want me to tell, let me know.  I could have written a book on her. 

I'm glad you were with your dad for that week.  I am really doing fine and I think I will be entirely well in a few weeks.  Has it snowed yet up there?  Believe me it is chilly here, but wonderful.  You won't believe it, I sold about a bushel of pom-granite this morning.  They were so big and beautiful.  I got 25 cents each for them.  It's better to sell them than see them hang there and burst open.  I will have about 20 or 25 dollars worth-- not bad eh. 

The Kordsmeier's gave me a bushel of the most beautiful tomatoes and yesterday I canned 13 quarts and 3 pints of tomato juice.  Tomorrow I am going to can pears.  I have already made preserves as I decided to can these.  I tell you there's not a free minute as long as I have a garden, pond, and everything around. 

Ida and I are going with some friends of ours to the Toad Suck fish place this P.M.  I want to take you all over there if you ever come and stay long enough.  You'd love it.  Must stop now and mail this. 

I love all of you,
Ivah

Wrightsborough

Photo posted by user "wind9954" at Ancestry.com

President Jimmy Carter wrote a historical novel a few years back set primarily in Georgia (naturally) during the Revolutionary War.  It's called The Hornet's Nest and I'm about halfway through it.  It's been a good read so far.  Carter apparently thought a lot about what it was like to live in the 18th century.  Daily activities that seem foreign today are detailed and brought to life through his characters.  It is a work of fiction, but the broad historical context is accurate.

Amazon LINK to "The Hornet's Nest"

Much of the book focuses on the Quaker settlement of Wrightsborough or Wrightsboro as it became known.  I understand it was the southernmost Quaker settlement in the colonies.  At the time of the Revolutionary War, Wrightsborough was on the frontier. If you traveled any further west, you would be in Indian territory.  A road was cut through the forest from Augusta to provide access to the new settlement.  Today, it is a little dot on the map in McDuffie County, Georgia 40 miles west of Augusta and about 90 miles east of Atlanta just north of Interstate 20.

I was a little familiar with Wrightsboro because I had read that a 5th great grandfather was murdered there.  He was born into a Quaker family in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  Along with other Quaker families, he migrated from Chester to North Carolina and ultimately, Wrightsboro, Georgia.

His name was Thomas Jackson.  Here is what his birth record looks like from the New Garden Monthly Meeting, Chester, Pennsylvania...

The record mentions his parents, Isaac and Mary Jackson.  Isaac and Mary were immigrants from Ireland landing with their families in Pennsylvania in the 1720's.  They married in Pennsylvania and eventually moved to Orange County, North Carolina.  It was in Orange County that their son Thomas married a girl named "Mary."  There is no solid proof for Mary's last name though there is a very good case for her being the daughter of Joseph Maddock, a Quaker leader.  Joseph founded Wrightsborough and he features prominently in Carter's book.  If Mary is his daughter, Joseph Maddock would be my 6th great grandfather.

In Wrightsborough, Thomas and Mary Jackson had at least 2 children before he and a neighbor were brutally killed by Creek Indians in August of 1770.  The story is recounted in several sources.  In "Documents of the American Revolution, 1770-1783," Vol III edited by K.G. Davies, we read the following:

...yet the Creek Indians have frequently stolen great numbers of horses and cattle from many of His Majesty's subjects and have also committed several murders since that time, the last of which was in August 1770 when some of the said Indians in cool blood and without any cause or reason whatever barbarously murdered Thomas Jackson and George Beck, two of the inhabitants of Wrightsborough Township...

Other accounts further describe that Thomas was tending his field just outside of Wrightsborough when he was surprised by a Creek war party.  So far, Jimmy Carter's book does not mention this episode.

Thomas and Mary's two children were Deborah and Joseph.  Deborah Jackson, married Robert McGinty a year after her father's death.  It is the McGinty line through which we connect to Thomas Jackson.

A cousin, who "wrote the book on the McGinty family," lays out the case for Thomas Jackson's wife being the daughter of Joseph Maddock.  Jerry McGinty outlines about 10 items that reinforce the connection.  We know Thomas' wife was named Mary because an Oath of Administration is issued to Mary Jackson (his wife) after Thomas' death.  Joseph Maddock signed that document.  Both Thomas Jackson and Mary Maddock appear in the Cane Creek Monthly Meeting minutes in the 1750's back in North Carolina.  Land plats of Joseph Maddock and Thomas Jackson adjoin each other in Wrightsboro.  Mary names her children Joseph and Deborah.  These names occur frequently in the Maddock family.  Mary's father and brother were named Joseph. She had a sister named Deborah.  Neither name is common in the Jackson family before the Revolutionary War.  The ages of Thomas and Mary's children fall in line with the ages of the parents and their probable marriage date.

By the way, Jerry McGinty's book is available from him personally.  Let me know if you want a copy and I can get you the contact information.

Beyond the above circumstantial evidence for Mary Maddock Jackson, there are currently over 40 DNA matches to me and my sisters that show this same Maddock line in their ancestry.  While I admit it's not "proven," the culmination of all this evidence makes me comfortable calling Joseph Maddock my 6th great grandfather.

The Quakers generally suffered during the Revolutionary War.  This was certainly the case at Wrightsborough.  As more and more non Quaker settlers moved to the area, conflicts became more prevalent between the pacifist Quakers and their more Patriot minded neighbors.  Rebel partisons raided the community frequently.  There were more murders.  Some Friends fought back and were disowned.  Many of the Friends outright sided with the British-- Maddock especially.  He was imprisoned for a time by the rebels and spent a number of months as a refugee in British-held Savannah.  After the war the exiled Quakers were allowed to return to Wrightsborough but life did not improve.

Joseph Maddock solicited monetary assistance for the displaced refugees from the British and other sources during their time in Savannah.  After the war the monthly meeting asked him to account for his use of the money.  He was ultimately disowned as he was unable or unwilling to provide the accounting.  He died at Wrightsborough in 1794.

The Wrightsboro Quakers held staunch anti-slavery beliefs that were basically incompatible with their surroundings.  By 1810 most of the Quaker families had migrated to Ohio.  The remaining community in Georgia dwindled and ceased to be by 1923.  Now it is a simple crossroads in rural Georgia.

Maddock's granddaughter, Deborah Jackson, became a preacher's wife.  In 1785 she and Robert McGinty moved from the area of Wrightsboro to Wilkes County, Georgia. Robert, who was originally either Presbyterian or Quaker was baptized at age 35 by their neighbor, Silas Mercer in the Baptist Church.  Silas was a pioneer Baptist preacher in Georgia-- Pastor of Phillips Mill Baptist Church.  Silas baptised his son, Jesse and Robert McGinty on the same day using the same barrel on his property.  Jesse and Robert both became Baptist ministers serving long and fruitful careers.  Mercer University was named for Jesse Mercer.

-Lineage from Joseph Maddock-

JOSEPH MADDOCK (1720-1794) - 6th great-grandfather

(father of)

MARY MADDOCK (1735-1780) who married Thomas Jackson (1731-1770)

(mother of)

DEBORAH JACKSON (1760-1835) who married Rev. Robert McGinty (1750-1841)

(mother of)

WILLIAM A MCGINTY (1792-1858) who married Martha Grant (1800-1876)

(father of)

ELISHA KING MCGINTY (1830-1896) who married Mary Catherine Stinson (1841-1930)

(father of)

MEDORA MCGINTY (1867-1926) who married John Sherwood McBride (1860-1937)

(mother of)

WILLIAM MCGINTY MCBRIDE SR (1899-1963) who married Annie Lou Sentell (1903-1990)

(father of)

WILLIAM MCGINTY MCBRIDE JR. (1929-2016) who married Marjorie Catherine Keller

(father of)

JOHN SENTELL MCBRIDE who married Karen Nell Cochran

The Order of the First Families of Mississippi

I work in the library at church for a brief time most Wednesday afternoons.  I enjoy it because I get to see people that I wouldn't see otherwise.  One intersting character who used to come through frequently was Mr. Thomas Bowen Jr.  Tom Bowen was a past Governor General of The Order of the First Families of Mississippi.  He passed away a couple months ago.  

A few years back on one of his stops in the library, Tom asked about my McBride's and if they had been in Mississippi long.  He was interested because he had a son-in-law who was a McBride. He also had a passion for the First Families organization.  I knew Tom's son-in-law because we had boys that did scouts together.  We've been on many camping trips, endured foul weather, gruelling hikes and questionable scout cuisine.  I figured out at some point that we share a pair of great great great grandparents.  Actually, our shared ancestor is my third great and his fourth great grandparents.  That makes us fourth cousins once removed.  Our boys are 5th cousins once removed.  The ancestor we share was John McBride (1800-1868).  There is a blog post about him a couple posts back.  He spent 45 years in Mississippi starting from about 1821.

Tom was wondering if our John McBride would qualify me (and his son-in-law) for membership in "First Families."  To qualify for membership in the Order of First Families of Mississippi, you have to prove descendancy from someone who resided in the Territory of Mississippi-- that is, the area of the state before it became a state in 1817.  Unfortunately, John McBride was 4 or 5 years too late to the party but Tom's asking got me interested in the organization.

My sister was also interested in joining, so I checked into the options.  What I liked about the organization is that it is history minded.  First Families is "dedicated to perpetuating the memory of the founders of the state of Mississippi."  They "work to preserve for future generations the history and genealogy of Mississippi's colonial past."  They meet a couple times a year and offer lectures and tours during those meetings.

I found at least 5 ancestors who would qualify me for membership.  The easiest to document was already in the Roster on their website, Benjamin Brashear.  Three of them were already on the roster. I've already written about the Brashear family on this blog.

I did some legwork and pulled together the proofs and Tom and his daughter agreed to sponsor me and my sister.  We were made members just before the 2017 celebration of Mississippi's 200th birthday.  I've been to a couple of the meetings, toured the Governor's mansion and an antebellum home in Natchez and heard a couple great lectures since joining.

Here is the website...  https://offms.org/

The roster of ancestors on the First Families' website provides an option for submitting a short bio for your ancestor.  I wrote the following and submitted it...

Benjamin Brashear (1727 - 1809) 

Benjamin Brashear, a fourth-generation American colonist of Huguenot descent, was baptized in 1727 at Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church in Prince George's County, Maryland.  Within the impressive brick structure is currently housed a marble baptismal font and silver communion set inscribed “St. Barnabas Church in Merreland, 1718.”  Benjamin and his children were likely baptized from that font.  

Benjamin was a veteran of the French and Indian Wars having served in the Maryland Militia.  He married his Captain's niece, Catherine Lucy Belt, in 1750.  Their union produced 10 children.  Lucy was the grand-daughter of Colonel Joseph Belt who is credited as the patentee of Chevy Chase, Maryland and member of the House of Burgesses. 

In 1773, Benjamin removed his young family from Maryland and embarked for the western frontier initially settling at Red Stone Creek near Fort Burd on the Monongahela River, then part of the Colony of Virginia.  It was here, two of Benjamin's sons, Richard and Tobias, enlisted under General George Rogers Clark and embarked on the notable Northwest Campaign near the end of the Revolutionary War.  Benjamin and the rest of the family accompanied Clark's army down the Ohio River stopping briefly at Bullitt County Kentucky and on through the Illinois territory; settling for a time at Kaskaskia, Illinois after Clark and his men wrested the area from the British. 

Benjamin’s oldest son, Marsham, remained in Bullitt County and established a trading post on the Wilderness Road between Harrodsburg and the Falls of the Ohio River.  Marsham’s was purportedly the first marriage ceremony performed in the fledgling settlement of Louisville.  Marsham married Lucy Phelps, a survivor of the Boonesborough siege of 1778.  In an interview with Lyman Draper, she recounted having watched Col. Daniel Boone sharply eye an Indian spy peering into the fort from an adjacent sycamore tree.  A crack from Boone’s musket and the Indian was felled from his branch. 

In 1780, the Brashear family left Clark’s army in the Illinois territory and made their way down the Mississippi River. Benjamin secured a Spanish land grant of 400 arpents on the waters of Bayou Pierre in the Spanish held Natchez district.  Sons, Richard and Tobias had married in Kaskaskia and brought their young families south as well.  The entire family settled in and around Natchez and Port Gibson marrying into local families and becoming intertwined with the community.  Several of Benjamin’s sons and sons-in-law also secured Spanish land grants in the area. 

One son, Turner Brashear, is well known for having established, in 1806, a stand on the Natchez Trace.  Today, Brashear’s Stand is a featured historic waypoint on the Natchez Trace Parkway at Ridgeland, Mississippi.  Turner married into the Choctaw Nation and served Spanish and American authorities as an official Choctaw interpreter.  His name is found among the signatures of many notable treaties.  Turner and his younger brother Eden served in several capacities at the nearby Choctaw Agency in conjunction with their business endeavors along the Natchez Trace.  Their father, Benjamin, maintained a plantation on Bayou Pierre in what is now Claiborne County until his death in 1809 after over 20 years in the Mississippi Territory. 

Benjamin Brashear passed away when he was 82 years old outliving his wife and five of his children.

Ambush Rock - Eliot, Maine

Illus. from the publication, "Ye romance of old York"
by Herbert Milton Sylvester

Phebe Littlefield Heard was a second generation colonist in 17th century New England.  Her father, Francis Littlefield, was born in Hampshire on the southern coast of England.  He migrated to the colonies in the 1630's.  Francis married a Maine native, Rebecca Rust, in December of 1646 in Wells, Maine which is just a couple miles down the coast from Kennebunkport.  Phebe was born in 1670, one of several children.  She married Captain John Heard in April of 1690.  By 1697, Phebe and John had three girls and one boy under the age of 7--  Dorcus, Phebe, Shua and James.  They were living in the vicinity of the village of Eliot, Maine.

The following excerpt was written in 1906.  Like the picture above, it is taken from the book, "Ye romance of old York" by Herbert Milton Sylvester.  Eliot is in York County, Maine.  The passage describes the final moments of 10th great grandmother, Phebe Littlefield Heard.

This was old Quamphegan, better known in these hurrying days, as South Berwick.  It was here that church service was first inaugurated, for John Mason sent over with his pioneer colonists (which was in 1631), a communion set, also a "great Bible and twelve Service Books."  The service was of the Episcopalian order, and I have no doubt but the service of the Church was read, and that the laborers joined in saying of the responses and the creed with bowed heads and an accompanying reverence.  As early as 1640 fines were imposed for such violations of the Sabbath as occurred, which may be taken as an indication of the sanctity with which this day was thus early clothed.

This, in 1668 was known as the parish of Unity.  Stackpole concludes that the first meeting-house here was built about 1659;  but the service seems to have been of a somewhat desultory character, as this parish was presented to the court four separate times in as many years, "for not providing a minister."

It was from this old church that Captain Frost was returning on that summer morning of 1697, in company with Dennis Downing, John Heard and his wife Phoebe.  They had reached a point in the bridlepath of those days, opposite a huge boulder, which was about a mile away to the north from the Frost garrison house.  The sharp reports of three guns broke the silence.  Captain Frost and Downing were killed instantly.  The Heard woman, although sorely wounded, tried to regain her saddle but was unable to do so.  Falling back into the path, Spartan-like she urged her husband to ride for the cabin and place the children in safety, which he did, notwithstanding the savages chased him and shot his horse under him just as he got to the garrison.  He saved his house and his children.  Heard was a great Indian fighter, and the Indians were desirous to obtain his scalp.  They lurked about his place to finally come across him in the woods.  Heard ran and the Indians gave chase.  He remembered a hollow log in the woods and made for that, into which he crept, thereby evading his pursuers.  He had killed his dog, so he might not be betrayed by that faithful animal, and while thus concealed the savages came to the log.  Here they sat down to get their wind, and he listened to what they would do to John Heard when they caught him.

The body of Frost was decently buried, and the night after these ghouls of the woods had opened the grave and taken the body to the crest of Frost's Hill and impaled it upon a stake.  Such was their hatred of the man who helped to plan and carry out the trick which has come down in history as Waldron's Ruse.  This boulder still cleaves to its pasture side and is known as Ambush Rock.

Major Charles Frost was a well known leader and Indian fighter in his day.  At the time of the ambush he was the highest ranking military officer in Maine.  According to the Eliot Historical Society, the heavy granite stone used to mark his final resting place and secure his remains from further desecration is the oldest grave marker in the state.

Waldron's Ruse, mentioned in the passage, refers to a deception carried out by Richard Waldron (militia leader) and Charles Frost during King Philip's War (1676) where about 400 Indians were convinced to pitch a mock battle with the militia.  After the Indians had fired their guns, they were quickly forced to surrender their weapons to a fully armed militia.  The Indians were marched to Boston and those not executed were sold into slavery.  Most were shipped to the Caribbean.  The remaining Native population in the Colony were set on revenge.

In 1897, the village of Eliot created the Eliot Historical Society with the intent of commemorating the 200th anniversary of the ambush.  A ceremony was held.  Songs were sung; speeches and poems were read.  In 1915 a bronze plaque was placed on the boulder at the site of the ambush.  The plaque lists the people killed during the ambush, including Phebe Heard.  In 2018, a full 321 years after the event, the boulder is still marked and the story is still told.

Ambush Rock as it appears today

--Lineage from Phebe Heard--

Phebe Littlefield (1670-1697) who married John Heard (1667-1751)

[mother of]

Shua Heard (1694-) who married Nathan Bartlett (1691-1775)

[mother of]

Phebe Bartlett (1721-1805) who married John Dennett (1716-1787)

[mother of]

Phebe Dennett (1744-1799) who married Henry Sherburne (1737-1823)

[mother of]

Samuel Sherburne (1770-1819) who married Ursule Rose DuBois (1768-1824)

[father of]

Eugene Amedee Sherburne (1802-1860) who married Margaret Newton Lindsay (1816-1852)

[father of]

Charles Brashear Sherburne (1841-1913) who married Patience Elizabeth Young (1841-1892)

[father of]

Annie Eliza Sherburne (1876-1915) who married Nathaniel William Sentell (1866-1936)

[mother of]

Annie Lou Sentell (1903-1990) who married William McGinty McBride Sr (1899-1963)

[mother of]

William McGinty McBride Jr (1929-2016) who married Marjorie Catherine Keller

[father of]

John Sentell McBride who married Karen Nell Cochran

Ancestor Birthplace Chart

I created this chart a while back and updated it as necessary over the past couple of years.  It is essentially an ancestral fan chart.  Each flag represents the birthplace of each respective ancestor.  The chart shows 4th great grandparents and down.  The tabulation at the upper left indicates what states and countries are represented and the number of times they show up.  I'm represented by the big Louisiana state flag in the middle.  Of course the chart is also accurate for my 4 siblings.

See larger version at link below...

>>>>>>>PDF FILE LINK<<<<<<<

Captain Isaac Townsend and the Battle of New Orleans

Four times great grandfather Isaac Townsend was a 29 year old Captain under Col. Alexander DeClouet's Reg't in the Louisiana Militia during the Battle of New Orleans. The Reg't served under Gen'l David B. Morgan, who was over all the Louisiana units. Isaac and his company served on the unfortunate west bank during the Battle of New Orleans.

While the east bank was an overwhelming victory for Andrew Jackson celebrated for decades as the "Glorious 8th of January," the simultaneous action on the west bank was a near disaster. Morgan's Kentucky units and the Louisiana units under his command were routed and nearly overrun by the advancing British army and it has been a sore point in American history ever since.

General Morgan caught a lot of heat, initially, from Andrew Jackson. The press, at the time, excoriated him; so much so, that he wrote a public letter in defense of his own honor describing, in detail, his actions, and that of his men. Morgan generally deflected the blame from himself and directed it toward the Kentuckians who fell under his command.

Gen'l Morgan's letter describes the rout, how his men, in panicked retreat, could not be convinced to stop and fight. Then he says,

"When the retreat became general, and no hopes entertained of being able to halt them, I rode forward and endeavored to make a stand at Jourdan's Canal, but without effect; and at Flood's Canal made another attempt, and succeeding in getting Capt. Townsend of the drafted militia of Louisiana with about sixty or seventy men of different corps to make a short stand."

Powell A. Casey also mentions this episode in his book, Louisiana in the War of 1812. He credits Capt. Townsend with slowing the British advance enough to allow time for the retreating American artillery men to spike the cannons before fleeing. One reason the British were on the West bank was to gain control of those American cannon positions which were fixed toward the main battle on the east bank.  Ultimately, they wished to reach the opposing bank at New Orleans and from there, bombard the city into submission.  This did not happen thanks primarily to the massive defeat on the east bank, but also, I believe, in small part to the men under Isaac's command on the West bank.

When an artillery unit is in danger of being overrun and there is no time to remove the guns in retreat, an order would be issued to spike the cannons.  This action renders the cannons inoperable so that the enemy can't use the weapons on the retreating units.  Spiking a cannon consists of blocking the vent and touch hole at the rear of the cannon so that ignition can't pass to the charge inside the bore.  Generally, you would hammer a metal wire or spike into the touch hole and break it off even at the top making it very difficult to remove.

My impression is that Townsend's action during that chaotic retreat was significant. He provided cover to allow for the Artillery unit's timely retreat-- had they not been allowed to spike the cannons, the British would have controlled the canons intact, able to create havoc on Jackson's line across the river.  Fortunately, by this time, the east bank victory was won and the advancing British on the west bank were compelled to retreat back to their suffering main body on the east bank.

Louisiana State Gazette (New Orleans) 2 Feb 1826

In 1826, The Louisiana legislature elected Isaac Townsend "Brigadier General" of the 7th Brigade, 3rd Division of Louisiana Militia. He maintained the post for two years. (See page 13 of Official Journal of the Proceedings of House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana at the ... General Assembly ... published 1827 University of Chicago).

Isaac was born in 1786 to a Quaker household in New Castle, Delaware.  The book, The Plains and the People, says he came to Louisiana in 1811 and that he was a hatter by trade.  I haven't found any evidence that any other family came with him.

He established himself quickly in his new home.  Isaac married in 1813 to 17 year old Phoebe Carl of East Baton Rouge Parish.  Phoebe had been born not far from Niagara falls in Canada to an American couple that sided with the British during the American Revolution.  Phoebe's father, Jonas, served as a Lieutenant in his Majesty's service under James De Lancey (The Outlaw of the Bronx) in New York during the war.  He was imprisoned by the Patriots for a time and eventually escaped with his wife to Canada.  After rearing four children on grant lands in Canada, the family migrated down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, resided a short time in New Madrid, Missouri and eventually arrived at Buhler's Plains in East Baton Rouge about the same time as Isaac Townsend.  While in New Madrid, Phoebe's father is found to have signed a petition, along with many of his neighbors, stating favor in Governor Wilkinson of the Louisiana and Missouri territory.  In 1810, Jonas and family were buying lots in the city of Baton Rouge.

By the time Isaac participated in the Battle of New Orleans, he was established at Buhler's Plains with Phoebe and their four month old daughter, 3x great grandmother, Eliza Ann Townsend.  In 1828 Isaac resigned his position as Brigadier General with the 7th Division of Louisiana Militia.  He is next found as one of the incorporating members of The Plains Presbyterian Church, founded by an act of the State legislature in 1833. Isaac died two years later at age 49.  

I found Isaac's gravestone in a neglected cemetery about 900 feet west-northwest of the Annison Plantation house in Zachary, Louisiana.  A neighborhood is building all around the grove of woods where these graves are located.  No effort has been made to maintain the graves in a very long time.  Over the years, falling trees and limbs have done a number on the headstones.  I have only identified three markers.  Isaac's headstone is in several pieces-- some under a couple inches of dirt. After some effort, I was able to puzzle-piece it together..  The gravestone indicates Isaac's death occurred on January 28, 1835.

SACRED to the memory of
Isaac Townsend who departed this life January 28, 1835
in the 49th year of his age

He was survived by his wife, Phoebe who remained in the Buhler's Plains area for the remainder of her life.  They had 7 children in all.  The 1870 census shows Phoebe at 74 years of age living in her eldest daughter's home.  She passed away the following year.  The family remained active in the Plains Presbyterian Church for many years.  Phoebe and Isaac's daughter, Eliza Ann wrote a history of the church in 1890.

-Lineage from Isaac Townsend-

ISAAC TOWNSEND SR (1786-1835) who married Phoebe Carl (1796-1871)

(father of)

ELIZA ANN TOWNSEND (1814-1895) who married David Young (1806-1884)

(mother of)

PATIENCE ELIZABETH YOUNG (1841-1892) who married Charles Brashear Sherburne (1841-1913)

(mother of)

ANNIE ELIZA SHERBURNE (1876-1915) who married Nathaniel William Sentell (1886-1936)

(mother of)

ANNIE LOU SENTELL (1903-1990) who married William McGinty McBride (1899-1963)

(mother of)

WILLIAM MCGINTY MCBRIDE JR. (1929-2016) who married Marjorie Catherine Keller

(father of)

JOHN SENTELL MCBRIDE

Louisa and John McBride of Holmes County, Mississippi

Original Plat Map showing John's property in 1833.

In October of 1820, Andrew Jackson and Thomas Hinds negotiated a treaty with the Choctaw Nation.  It was called the Treaty of Doak's Stand as it occurred at that location along the Natchez to Nashville Road.  The result provided for the settlement of a good sized chunk of land in what is now central Mississippi.

Location of John McBride's 1833 property acquisition

Third great grandfather, John McBride was one of the first white settlers to take advantage of the newly acquired lands.  John and his family were poised in north Alabama when the opportunity of fresh farm land presented itself.  Shortly after the treaty was signed, John and his wife, Louisa and their two infant children worked their way down the Natchez trace and settled on the south bank of Black Creek which defined the new border between the ceded lands in the young State of Mississippi and the remainder of the Choctaw Nation.  The new land started out as Hinds County. In 1823 that area became Yazoo County, Mississippi.  Today, this property is in Holmes County.  A biography of their son, Rev. William McBride, speaks of his parents, John and Louisa.  It states that they had no white neighbors within 70 miles and they soon became friendly with their Choctaw neighbors and learned to speak the language.

An early plat map drawn after the next land cession names and locates a Choctaw neighbor opposite Black Creek from John's property.  In pencil, the survey describes a reserve set aside for Kubbi Chubbux.  This was likely one of the many reserves set up for Choctaws wishing to remain on their already-cultivated lands instead of relocating to Oklahoma as prescribed in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit.  It's likely Kubbi Chubbux had lived on the property for some time before that 1830 treaty. Kubbi Chubbux and the McBride's were "across the creek" neighbors for many years.

Today the property originally settled by John and Louisa McBride is one mile west of Lexington in the middle of Holmes County, Mississippi.

John’s parents were James McBride and Sarah Ann Brock.  They were married in Tennessee in 1798 and were living there at the time of John's birth in 1800. Sarah bore 3 other children before her passing in January of 1806 at 27 years of age. John's siblings were Sherwood (1802), William (1803) and Keziah (1805).

John's father remarried in 1808 to another Sarah. She was Sarah Jackson, a North Carolina native. The family moved to Kelly’s Creek, a tributary of the Elk River in today's Lincoln County, Tennessee not far from the Alabama line. Sarah Jackson McBride gave James another set of 3 boys and one girl. These half-siblings of John include, in order of birth-- Daniel (1809), George Jefferson (1810), Solomon (1812) and then finally a girl, Mary (Polly) who was born in 1814 and eventually married William Hartsfield.

The 1850 census indicates that John's father, James, was born in Virginia in 1773. We know very little about James' father. What we do know comes from a letter written by John's oldest son, James Louis McBride (a grandson of James).

My great grandfather and granmother came from Ireland sometime between 17 hundred and twenty five and fifty before they married and granfather serves at prentiship as a blacksmith trade and then he married and settled in Virginia. They lived there till after the Revolution war and they then moved to Tennessee. I don't know how many children he raised. They raised several sons I never saw but 2 of them that was my granfather James and Uncle Daniel. James was my granfather. His first wife was a Brock. She had 4 children before she died, 3 sons and 1 daughter, John was the oldest, was my father, next Sharword then William next Kisey (Kesiah). 

My granfather second wife was a Jackson. She had 4 children 3 boys and 1 girl, Daniel, Jefferson and Solomon and Polly (Mary). 

My granfather fout threw the Revolutionary war. Great granfather and granmother lived till they was 93.

The letter indicates James had at least 3 brothers including one named Daniel. Unfortunately, James' father is not named. The letter also states James fought through the Revolutionary War but we know that James was born in Virginia in 1773 and would have been only 10 years old at the tail end of the war.  I can only assume it was James' father, possibly the immigrant from Ireland, that fought through the war.

John grew up along the Elk River in south Tennessee.  In September of 1814 all eligible men in the area were gearing up for war (as defacto members of the local militia)--  but John was just a couple months shy of 14 years old.  His father James served and his future father-in-law served and died on the return trip from the Battle of New Orleans.  The McBride farm was about 14 miles from Camp Blount in Fayetteville, Tennessee.  This camp was a major mustering ground for that part of Tennessee during the War of 1812.  This is where the famous Tennessee Volunteers came into being.

As John was only 14 years old, it was a surprise to find a general index card for a John McBride in the 2nd Reg't West Tennessee Militia.  This unit raised troops from John's district.  I believe this is our John as the card classifies him as "drummer."  It was very common at that time for what we would consider under-age boys to serve as drummers in military units.  I have yet to find specific service dates for John so I can't be certain what action, if any,  he saw. 

Likely, John would have been less familiar with military life and most familiar with farm life, growing up where and when he did.  The family had few neighbors around the farm at Kelly's Creek, but one family of consequence was the Joseph Street family. They had settled on Coldwater Creek within 5 miles of the McBride farm.

In 1819, John married Louisa Street, daughter of Lucinda “Nancy” Key and Joseph Street. Nancy was widowed at the time of her daughter's wedding. Joseph had died of illness three years earlier while serving with the Tennessee Militia at the Battle of New Orleans. John's in-laws had not been in Tennessee long, migrating from Georgia about 1810.  A few years after John and Louisa's wedding, John's sister, Keziah, married a brother of Louisa.

About the same time as John and Louisa's wedding, much of the McBride family moved to the Florence and Muscle Shoals area of Lauderdale County Alabama.  John's brother Sherwood patented land there in 1833 but had undoubtedly been there for several years as a number of the family's children claim Alabama births as early as 1820.  John Louis McBride, the writer of the above letter, claimed to be born in 1821 in Alabama.  It is likely John and Louisa lived near Sherwood and John's father during that time.  The first child of John and Louisa to claim a Mississippi birth is Elizabeth McBride born in 1824 so we can assume the family moved to Mississippi between 1820 and 1824.

The 1840 federal census and the 1841 Mississippi census shows John and Louisa in Holmes County, Mississippi. By then, they had 9 children, 4 boys and 5 girls. They are James Louis (1820), Lucinda (1822), Elizabeth (1824), Fannie (1827), John (1828), William (1829), Selita (1832), George (1834), Daniel (1836) and Mary (1837).  In 1843 they had their last child, a boy named Anderson McBride.

In December of 1855 three of John and Louisa's 10 children and their families joined a wagon train leaving Holmes County for Louisiana. They ferried across the Mississippi River on Christmas Eve. The families settled in Jackson Parish, Louisiana.  John and Louisa's descendants are well represented in Mississippi and Louisiana.  

Louisa passed away in 1857 on the farm in Holmes County. John, then 58 years old, married Olympia Muse Melton Walton. She was a widow originally from Georgia but had been a resident of Jackson Parish as shown in the 1850 census with one daughter, Elizabeth Walton.  The census of 1850 also seems to indicate that Olympia raised her first husband's two nephews, Sidney and George McCranie.  After Olympia and John's wedding, eleven year old Sidney shows up in their household enumerated in the 1860 census of Holmes County, Mississippi.  George McCranie became a prominent newspaper man in northeast Louisiana and was the first mayor of Monroe (1866-67).  Sidney was also a well respected citizen of Ruston.

Obit from the 23 Oct 1868 Lexington Advertiser

 John passed away in October of 1868 in Holmes County. He was 67 years old.  Mildred McBride Stinson, an early McBride family researcher, notes that John's death and that of Louisa's were attributed to pneumonia.  John is likely buried on his property near Lexington, Mississippi beside his first wife, Louisa.

Google Earth Image of original McBride property today.

All told, John spent about 48 years in Holmes County, Mississippi-- living, farming and raising his large family.  By 1866, the Holmes County tax rolls indicate he owned 548 acres- primarily adjacent to the original land patented on Black Creek. 

Turner Brashear

Turner Brashear is a 6th great uncle.  He was a brother to my 5th great grandfather, Tobias Brashear, who also settled in the Mississippi Territory.  This is my descent from Tobias...

Turner's story is interesting and integral to the development of Mississippi as a State.  He was witness to many of the foundational moments.

Shortly after control of the Mississippi Territory was loosed from the hands of the Spanish, the American gov’t sought to encourage overland travel, communication and commerce between the southern extremity of the territory (the Natchez district) and the burgeoning east coast. At the time, that meant making improvements to the Columbian Road or the “Natchez Trace” as it is known today.  This path linked Natchez with the growing settlement of Nashville in Tennessee.

The government sought to encourage proprietors to open Stands or Inns every so often along the route to make passage through the wilderness between Natchez and Nashville more hospitable and less dangerous. An Indian Agent and later Representative from Alabama, John McKee, noted in a diary entry of August 1, 1804-- “Mr. [Silas] Dinsmoor & Mr. Mitchell went out towards Natchez in order to look out for 3 or 4 places on the road suitable for stands or public houses.”

As the road meandered through the Choctaw Nation, use of any site chosen for the Stands required an agreement with the Choctaw. An 1805 treaty with the Choctaw allowed for the use of the property that was to become Brashear’s Stand. The following year a public house was advertised in the Natchez newspapers. One of Turner Brashear’s advertisements read, “The subscriber has opened a House of Entertainment and a Blacksmith Shop, on the Columbian road, 120 miles from Natchez, where travellers may rely on finding accommodations and supplies.” Turner was banking on the fact that a traveler four or five days out of Natchez would welcome the protection of a dry clean room in lieu of another night in the forest under an oilcloth.

By that time, Turner Brashear had been in the Mississippi Territory for nearly 25 years but he was a son of Maryland. Of French Huguenot descent, Turner was born a 5th generation American colonist. He and his 9 brothers and sisters were baptized at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The 243 year old church building and even older baptismal font in which they were baptized are still there today. 

In 1773 Turner’s father moved the whole family to the outskirts of civilization on the Monongahela River. A few years later they followed the troops of General George Rogers Clark down the Ohio River to Bullitt County Kentucky and then on to the settlements of Cahokia and Kaskaskia in the Illinois territory during the Northwest campaign of the Revolutionary War. Two of Turner’s older brothers served under Clark in that campaign. By 1785, the family moved down the Mississippi and settled in the Natchez District. 

One family member stayed in Bullitt County. Turner’s oldest brother, Marsham Brashear, and a cousin, William Brashear, opened a Stand on the Old Wilderness Road near the falls of the Ohio River. This Stand was not unlike the one Turner would open a few years later. In a gruesome testament to the persistent danger found in the wilderness of the territories, William’s body would be found scalped and mutilated not far from their Stand. Marsham stayed on and operated the Stand for many years.

Turner was a long time acquaintance of John McKee. Both had been agents for the Panton and Leslie Company of Pensacola in their younger years. Trading with native americans all over the wilderness of what is Mississippi, Alabama and Florida today, McKee and Brashear made contacts and developed relationships with many tribes. Eventually, Turner settled among the Choctaw. About 1787 a 23 year old Turner married Jane Hotitoka Apuckshunnubbee, daughter of the Choctaw Chief Apuckshunnubbee. Their union produced 5 children and provided Turner an influential place in Choctaw politics. 

This is a letter dated Sep 5 1813 from Turner Brashears, Choctaw Agency, to Governor Holmes asking that he provide the Cherokees, Chickasaws and Choctaws with ammunition as they have declared war on the encroaching war parties of the Creeks.

His unique position made him sought after by the powers at hand. He served in the employ of the Spanish Government as interpreter during negotiations with the Choctaw. In 1792 the Spanish Governor, Carondelet, wrote of Turner, 

“Of all the white traders in this Nation [Choctaw], the one I met most ardent to our interests is Mr. Turner Brashears with whom I have consulted from time to time on matters relative to my mission, and I have always found him a man of truth and influence in this Nation; he is also an intimate friend of Franchimastabe and in whom he places his greatest confidence, the reason why he sent him [Turner] to Natchez to confer with the Governor." 

In 1799 the Americans also recognised his standing. Turner’s friend John McKee wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of War James McHenry,

"...There ought to be an assistant agent- and an interpreter appointed in addition to John Pitchlyn. I would beg leave to recommend Turner Brashears providing he would accept as the additional interpreter- he is well qualified for the duties of Linguister, is a sober young man- has for some years past been an agent for Panton & Leslie Co. and has much influence with the Choctaws- his family lives in the Natchez district and is respected."

Turner did serve the American government as Choctaw interpreter for a number of years. He was paid an annual salary of $400. Turner’s signature is found on several important documents from the era including the 1816 Choctaw Treaty of Fort Stephens. 

His establishment on the Natchez Trace that became known widely as Brashears’ Stand played an important role in the early history of the area. While the original structure is long gone, it’s general location is now highlighted by the Natchez Trace Parkway as an historic site at milepost 104.5 at Ridgeland, Mississippi.

1807 Newspaper Ad out of Natchez

The Stand included a large farm, Blacksmith shop and open fields where race horses were likely housed during transit between race events held on both ends of the road and points beyond. As horse racing was very popular among gentlemen of the early 1800’s it can be expected that handlers would require board and provision for prize animals making the circuit at Brashear’s Stand.

With threats of an English invasion on the Gulf in 1813, Turner played host to the increased military traffic along the road outside his front door. We know that John Coffee stayed at Brashear’s Stand long enough to convene a courts martial there in 1814. After the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, Andrew Jackson’s returning troops used the Stand as a hospital. Brashear rented his rooms to six doctors (one to a room) who attended 300 or so of the sick and wounded encamped about the Stand. 

Turner and at least one son served in the Choctaw Regiment during the War of 1812. Turner held the rank of Major under Colonel John McKee in Andrew Jackson’s command.

General Index card for Turner Brashear

Turner is also frequently found among the records of the Choctaw Agency which was located about 4 miles west of Brashear’s Stand. He served as interim Agent between Silas Dinsmoor’s departure in 1816 and when John McKee resumed the role. A letter Turner wrote John McKee was found among the papers of William Clark, Governor of the Missouri Territory. Turner warned McKee about some effort to reinstate Dinsmoor as Agent. Turner refers to Dinsmoor or those who were seeking to reinstate him as a “snake in the grass” hinting at some strained relationships.

Turner Brashear, operated his Stand from 1805 until some time in the early 1820’s. His wife of 35 years passed away in 1822. A year later, Turner married another Choctaw that some believe was the sister of his first wife. She was Ocayemitta and they produced another three children. No evidence is found of him after the Census of 1830. It is assumed he passed away about 1831 near his daughter in Yazoo County, Mississippi. Some of his half-blood children remained in Mississippi while others made the trek west to Oklahoma. His descendants are scattered around the country.

National Park Service sign as it used to appear at Brashears Stand

Climbing the Keller family branches

James Jefferson R Keller

For the longest time, the shortest branch on my family tree was my mother's line-- the Keller family. Four generations back was as far as I could go. The line slammed to a halt on a river bank at a Civil War army encampment. The family story is that great great grandmother, Harriet Jane Ramsey Keller, received a letter from her husband, 26 year old James Jefferson R Keller stating that he was ill and encamped with the army beside a river. The family never heard from him again. Harriet was home with their two boys, William Thomas who was 6 at the time and James Jefferson (Jr) who was a year old. This letter is out there somewhere. I have found it described by two or three family members, but I’ve had no luck finding a copy of the actual letter.

Luckily, we do have service records for James Jefferson R Keller. They show he was mustered in the 10th Alabama Infantry Regiment on March 1st, 1862 at Gadsden, Alabama as a Private. The muster roll also tells us that James was a married 25 year old at the time of enlistment. Farming was listed as his occupation and his residence was marked as Duck Springs, Alabama which is about 10 miles north of Gadsden.

Of the 8 or 9 engagements listed on his unit’s muster rolls, James is only counted present at the Siege of Yorktown (Virginia) fought during April of 1862. The battle was generally inconclusive with the Confederates withdrawing to Williamsburg. I found a requisition form dated April 9, 1862 signed by a Sgt. James Keller of the 10th Alabama at Camp Winder. James had been promoted in the month or so he had been in the army. Camp Winder was at Richmond and served as a hospital consisting of 98 buildings and 125 acres of farmland. The next battle his unit participated in was the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862. James is not marked present. Presumably he was ill by that time and had been removed to an encampment to recover-- maybe back at Camp Winder. The family gets his letter but he is never heard from again. There are no records for James after April of 1862.

James M Keller

There was another James Keller in the 10th Alabama Infantry Regiment. Pvt. James M Keller served in the 10th Alabama from June to October 20, 1861 when he was medically discharged due to rheumatism that hampered his ability to perform the duties required of a soldier. James M Keller was 46 years old when he enlisted at Jacksonville, Alabama. I found the location significant. Jacksonville is 35 miles south southeast of James Jefferson R Keller’s 1861 residence at Duck Springs. James M was 20 years older than James Jefferson. The geography, the last name, the fact that they served in the same unit (albeit not concurrently) leads one to believe they were likely related. In fact, I see in cousin Ella Merle Emery’s files that she knew of James M Keller and even suggested they could be father/ son.

I have since found that James M did have a son named James, but he was James Austil Keller born 13 years after James Jefferson R Keller. I find it unlikely that James M would name two sons James. What seems more likely is that James M could be an uncle or cousin of James Jefferson.

Keller yDNA

This theory got a boost when we were able to test a Keller family member’s yDNA. In 2015 I contacted Ella Emery (mentioned earlier) about finding a Keller male who might test for us. My grandfather, Bill Keller had all girls, so I knew I would have to reach out to a cousin for this task. Ella was my mother’s first cousin on the Keller side and an established genealogy juggernaut. Ella suggested I contact Hugh Keller of Lonoke, Arkansas. He descends from one of my grandfather’s older brothers and he has an interest in genealogy and, in fact, had already done an autosomal DNA test. Hugh was graciously receptive and a few weeks later we had a Keller yDNA kit at the FTDNA website.

A couple yDNA cousins check in

In January of 2016 an email from FTDNA alerted me to a close yDNA match that had shown up for Hugh Keller. It was a Mike Keller from Oklahoma born in 1951. His sister Loretta administered the kit. I emailed Loretta and quickly found that Mike and Loretta descended from James M Keller of the 10th Alabama. Our suspicions were correct. James M is one of our Kellers. The circumstances of the match and the timeframe/ geography of the lives of the two men strongly suggested to me that James M was most likely an Uncle to James Jefferson. James M’s father would be James Jefferson’s grandfather.

Unfortunately, Loretta didn’t know much about James M’s father. James M Keller was their brick wall. He had survived the war and eventually passed away in 1898-- he lived long enough to be recorded in the 1880 census. It’s there we find an interesting tidbit, James M claimed his father was born in “England.” Another clue provided by Loretta is what her family had passed down via oral tradition. From Loretta...

...there is some family lore that I found interesting. I believe this would relate to the father of James M. Keller. My oldest aunt (born 1890’s) indicated she was told that their ancestor was shanghaied by the crew of a ship bound for America. When they reached the Virginia shore he jumped off and swam ashore.
Oddly enough in some Keller forum I visited years ago, someone doing research on the James M. Keller lineage said that according to their family lore their ancestor was shanghaied from Ireland by a ship bound for America. When they reached Virginia, the boy jumped ship and swam to shore and hid in the Keller family tobacco fields. He was found by servants of the family and brought to the house. The Keller family took him in and gave him their name. According to her the family that took him in is the line that Helen Keller derives from. As she also pointed out, if family lore proves true, we may not actually be “Kellers” at all.

Fascinating! We know that James M is of the Kellers that we descend thanks to yDNA testing and we know that our lineage came from England the generation before James M. As far as I know, my branch of the Keller line had passed no such story down. We knew nothing about any ancestor beyond James Jefferson R Keller who died in the Civil War but now we know that it is very likely, James Jefferson’s grandfather came from Britain. The “shanghaied” story is interesting but I’m always hearing how family lore is notoriously unreliable.

The month after corresponding with Loretta, I received the following email from another distant Keller cousin-- William Keller of Birmingham, Alabama…

I recently checked my DNA results and found that Hugh Keller and I may be related, because of ties to where they lived. My Keller great great grandfather moved from northwest Georgia to the Conway, Ark., area in the 1850s, before he and his family moved back east to north Alabama in 1860, southeast of Decatur, Ala. That ancestor was Alfred Burton Keller (1829-1910), and we think he had traveled to Arkansas with other members of his family and his wife’s family, the Tilleys. We also think his father was an immigrant from England, probably Thomas Keller, who shows up in Habersham County, Ga., in the early 1800s...

After some checking, I found that William Keller (actually the test belonged to his brother Thomas) did show up on Hugh Keller’s yDNA matches but Thomas’ test only included 12 markers. I had been focused on matches that tested 37 or more as they are more predictive of recent common ancestors. Thomas’ match at 12 markers is a good match, but only concludes there is a common paternal ancestor within the last great many umpteen generations. Based on 12 markers our common ancestor could be a 24th great grandfather-- so far back that it’s not particularly helpful. But, it very well could be a more recent ancestor. Our geography of our recent families and the few number of generations since immigration would lead me to conclude the connection is more recent. There is just no way of knowing for sure except by testing more markers.

What I did find eye-opening in William’s email (and I think what he was driving at) is the reference to Georgia and Conway, Arkansas. James Jefferson R Keller’s wife, Harriet Jane and her two sons made this same trip from Georgia to Conway, Arkansas 20 years after William’s ancestor’s family returned to north Georgia. Harriet moved and settled in 1881. One of her son’s returned to North Georgia not unlike Alfred’s family had done. This seems more than coincidental. Some of Alfred Burton Keller’s family did stay in Arkansas and would have been in the area when Harriet arrived- specifically some of his wife’s Tilley family.

William’s Alfred Burton Keller was born in 1828 and died in 1910. He claimed to have been born in Georgia like James M Keller. Interestingly, William’s email mentioned England. After researching Alfred Burton Keller, I found that he recorded twice on federal census forms (1880 and 1900) that his father was born in England. William further conjectured that a Thomas Keller of Habersham County Georgia might be Alfred’s father.

I began to theorize that James M. Keller and Alfred Burton Keller were brothers. They were born about 13 years apart in Georgia to a father born in England. Their descendants match yDNA. This would likely make them both uncles to my James Jefferson R Keller who was born in Georgia 20 years later.

There was another zinger from William’s email. The last paragraph contained this...

...Family legend has it that two Keller brothers jumped ship somewhere on the east coast

My two new cousins, William Keller of Birmingham and Loretta Keller of Oklahoma had no knowledge of each other. They had never communicated. Their families had not been in contact in all likelihood for at least 120 years yet they share a similar family lore. While it doesn’t prove anything, it sure is interesting.

James Jefferson R Keller’s father

In 1850, James Jefferson R Keller (15 years old) was living with his mother, his maternal grandmother, three brothers and one sister in Franklin County, Georgia. A father for that family was not enumerated in the 1850 census. James’ mother, Mary Ann (Oliver) Keller, was listed as head of household. The youngest brother was born in 1842, so we can assume Mary Ann’s husband (and James’ father) passed away between 1842 and 1850. The 1840 census should reveal a Keller family with 3 boys and one girl, a 32 year old mother and a 30-something father. Unfortunately, the 1840 census only names the head of household. Other members of the household are simply counted and sorted into an age range. It does not name them. So we can’t search for Mary Ann Keller as she was not the head of household.


Bordering Franklin County to the northwest is Habersham County, Georgia founded in 1818. Mary Ann’s mother, the widow Elizabeth Oliver, is found there in the 1840 census in Long’s district with her own household. Two rows down on the same census page we find Wm. M Keller with a family whose ages align with what we would expect of James Jefferson’s family in 1840 with the addition of one female aged 10-14. She would likely be an older sister of James Jefferson or a cousin helping out with chores. I think it is Polly Ann Keller who married Daniel Kester in Franklin county in 1841. Not sure that she is a sister, but seems plausible. On the same census page, five lines below Wm. M. Keller we find "Brazel Addison’s" family counted. James Jefferson’s sister, Rachel Keller, married a son of this Braziller Addison in 1852 just over in Franklin County. These connections are circumstantial but are convincing enough for me to believe William M Keller was Mary Ann’s husband and James’ father.

I’ve only found a couple other documents that may serve as evidence for William M Keller. They are tax role indices. Probate records or land records would be ideal. There is a property tax document from Franklin County (1832) with a William Keller listed. He is listed with Christopher Addison acting as agent. I’m not sure why William needed an agent. Maybe because William was living in the next county and needed someone to handle his affairs in Franklin County? Interestingly, this Christopher Addison’s niece (by marriage) became the spouse of our James Jefferson R Keller. If William M Keller is not James Jefferson R Keller’s father, he sure is running in the right circles.

James Jefferson R Keller’s grandfather

Given the assumption that William M Keller was James Jefferson's father, it follows that Alfred Burton Keller and James M Keller (the two lines put forward by yDNA evidence) were brothers of William M Keller.  It's also possible they were cousins, but both Alfred B and James M's families indicated their father was from England on subsequent census records.

Several of Alfred's descendants found at Ancestry.com indicate that Thomas Keller of Habersham County, Georgia is the father of Alfred.  Thomas is found in one census record, the 1830 census of Habersham County, Georgia.  Some of his neighbors in that 1830 census include the familiar Addison, and Chaffin families.  Coincidentally, I also found our Allen family and Cleveland families listed as neighbors of Thomas Keller although they don't tie in to the Keller line for several generations.

There are a number of factors that point to Thomas Keller being the probable father of our William M Keller other than his familiar 1830 neighbors.  Thomas Keller is widely acknowledged as being of English birth, though I haven't found specific proof.  He passes the "in the right place at the right time at the right age with the right name" test as well.  I think it's also telling that though admittedly common, the names "Thomas," "William," "James," and "George" occur with great frequency in all three families for generations.  Because of the foregoing circumstantial evidence, and the fact that our close yDNA cousins have earmarked him, I currently show Thomas Keller as William M Keller's father in my tree...

Naturally, this is a work in progress and subject to change.  You will notice some other Kellers in that tree.  Delilah and Mahalia Keller were sisters of Alfred B Keller.  All three of them married into the Tilley family.  This is the family that DNA cousin, William Keller of Birmingham, said went to Conway in the 1850's then most returned to Georgia.

Barnett A "Barney" Keller

On the left of the above image is the curious addition of Barnett A "Barney" Keller.  I added him to my tree because I have found autosomal DNA cousins that descend from him in my list of matches.  When I look at the common or "shared" matches of these "Barney Keller" DNA cousins I find, overwhelmingly, known Keller family cousins, so I'm sure Barnett Keller ties in to our Keller family somewhere.  I have not found a descendent of Barney who has tested yDNA.  That would help immensely.  

Like our James Jefferson R Keller, Barney died during the civil war.  In 1853, when our James Jefferson R Keller was 18 years old, Barney Keller named a son "James Jefferson Keller."  Maybe that name was more common than I figure, but it caught my eye.  Barney's son was born in Alexander County, North Carolina.  Barney, we believe, was born in Burke County, North Carolina.  Though most of what we know about our James Jefferson R Keller's family is out of Habersham and Franklin County, Georgia, his mother, Mary Ann Oliver, was born in North Carolina, so there is some connection with the State.

Much more research is required.  The lack of probate and marriage records pertaining to the early Keller families of North Carolina and Georgia is highly frustrating.  Hopefully more helpful documents will become available with time and we can nail down some of these relationships.  This is where it stands today.  I'll be updating as more evidence surfaces.