Dr. David Lewis Phares

At noon on Wednesdays, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History hosts "History is Lunch."  Generally, it is an opportunity for an author of History (typically Mississippi History) to pitch his latest book.  Usually there is an accompanying slide show.  If I've got nothing keeping me at the office, I'll walk over and check it out.  It's a nine minute walk through the heart of downtown Jackson.  There have been some interesting topics and great speakers and I, more often than not, enjoy the hour.  I always learn something.  On the rare occasion, I'll even buy a book.

Today's topic was the book, Images in Mississippi Medicine a Photographic History of Medicine in Mississippi.  The authors, Dr. Luke Lampton and Karen Evers, spoke.  They currently edit the Journal of the Mississippi State Medical Association.  Dr. Lampton spoke about the early history of Medicine in Mississippi.  We saw many pictures of the enormous Lunatic Asylum that was located in Jackson where UMMC is now.  There was much discussion about Doctors who impacted the early life of Mississippi as a territory and eventually a State.  Many names and portraits were presented during the hour.  Several of the names were familiar or at least vaguely familiar. 

One familiar name was Arthur Guyton.  He wrote a Physiology book that is world renown.  I went to camp with a couple of his grandsons.  Guyton was one of the more recent people discussed.  

A photo of a horse drawn "ambulance" from 1909 was shown.  The owner/ operator was named Hiram Hardy.  He operated in Jackson.  That name rang a bell so I wrote it down thinking this person or one of his ancestors may be in my tree.  I'd check it out later.

Another name that rang that bell was "Phares."  Dr. Lampton spoke about David Lewis Phares from Woodville, MS.  He was born in 1817 and graduated from what became Centenary College in Louisiana.  He later achieved a Medical degree from Tulane in New Orleans.  He practiced in Wilkinson County, Mississippi for 40 years, started a couple colleges, and was instrumental in the formation of Mississippi State University.  He taught at MSU for nine years.  Among other things, he served on the first Board of Health for the State of Mississippi. He was an early bigwig in Mississippi Medicine.  There is a great bio of him HERE written by our speaker.

Looking at my tree a little later, I did find Dr. David Lewis Phares.  He had two siblings that married into the Noland family.  The Noland's are my people.  Ann Phares (1821-1892) married William Avery Noland (1810-1874) and Samuel Phares (1802-unk) married Sarah Ann Noland (1821-1880).  William and Sarah Ann Noland's father was Pierce A Noland III (1785-1842).  He and wife Nancy Palmer are one set of my 4th great grandparents. 

The image below is a detail from an original plat map from the extreme southwest corner of Mississippi.  I believe this was drawn up in the 1820's.  The property to the left of Pierce Noland's is labeled "William Phares."  He was David, Ann and Samuel's father.

The Phares and the Nolands were both American families with European backgrounds that moved from the east coast in the early 1780's.  They became Spanish land grant holders and neighbors in what eventually turned into the Territory of Mississippi.  This was an interesting time in Mississippi and Louisiana history when the land was changing hands between colonial powers.  Pierce Noland III was likely born on that property when it was Spanish held.  As a teen, he saw it fall under the jurisdiction of the United States. 

The straight line on the south side of the Phares and Noland properties at the bottom of the map is the 31st parallel.  This portion is sometimes called the Ellicott line- named for the man that George Washington asked to survey it.  Today it is the boundary between Mississippi and Louisiana.  At the time when the Noland's and the Phares' lived there, it was the border between the Mississippi Territory (United States) and Spanish West Florida.  It was an international boundary.  Another couple miles west on the Mississippi River was Fort Adams, the official Southern "Port of Entry" for the United States on the Mississippi River.  Pierce Noland II (5th great grandfather) is supposedly buried at Fort Adams.  More likely, he was buried on his property and the death was documented at Fort Adams as it would have been the local seat of government.

The Phares and Noland families lived and farmed this land when Andrew Ellicott's survey crew came through in October of 1798.  Pierce III was 13 years old.  Ellicott's journals indicate he had a falling out with his co-leader, Thomas Freeman at Thompson's creek.  You will notice on the map that Thompson's creek crossed the 31'st parallel on Noland's property.  Freeman stormed off at that point and left the party.  He later led the 1806 Freeman-Custis Red River Expedition as requested by Thomas Jefferson.  I wonder if my Noland's were witness to the argument between Ellicott and Freeman.  It was in their backyard, afterall.

That's my connection with the esteemed Dr. David Lewis Phares.  Our families were neighbors and married into each other way back when.  I don't share an ancestor with him as far as I know, but some of my cousins do.

That other guy that sounded familiar in today's History is Lunch program, Hiram Hardy, is likely not related either.  He is not in my tree but he sounded familiar because Hiram Hardy Hargrove is in my tree.  Hargrove was the first husband of my great great grandmother, Ann Emelia Scarborough.  After his death she married Rev. William McBride.  Hargrove was from Georgia and died in Louisiana, but did have property in Mississippi.  I don't know about Hiram Hardy, the ambulance operator's background, but it could be that he and Hiram Hardy Hargrove were both named for an earlier Hiram Hardy.  Who knows!

Here is a link to the book that was highlighted at today's History is Lunch...

https://www.msmaonline.com/Public/Journal_MSMA/Images_in_Mississippi_Medicine/Public/Journal/Images_Book.aspx?hkey=5291961e-b1b9-4d23-b2f1-94625e4b2e0c

Aunt Cora's Reminiscences

Cora Inez McBride Walters was the first child of John Sherwood McBride and Medora McGinty McBride.  She passed away in Ruston in 1984.  She was 95.  My grandfather, William McGinty McBride Sr., was a younger brother, making her my great aunt.  The following writing was found on her typing table after her death.  I got it from Aunt Ann Chilcutt the other day.  It's transcribed here...

When John Sherwood McBride finished his medical course in Louisville, Kentucky he decided to practice medicine in the village of Gansville, La.  It was good to be near his family who had moved there from Vernon, La.  Then, too, he wanted to renew his acquaintance with a certain young lady.  he probably wooed her with quotations from some of his beloved poems.  On the flyleaf of a lovely book of Tennyson's poems is written, "To Miss Medora McGinty, Christmas 1885".  So they married and started housekeeping in a small log house about a mile or so north of the village.

I was born October 20, 1888, the first child of John Sherwood and Medora McGinty McBride.  Before I was old enough to remember we moved to a more pretentious log house south of the village and almost in sight of it.  This house was in a wide open space something like a pasture about 100 yards or more from the big road.  There was a trough made of planks that extended from a spring on one side of the land to a mill on the other side.  The water formed a pond here and it was sometimes used for a church baptistry.

In our fenced-in front yard was some shrubbery and five tall arborvitae trees spaced like sentinels watching over us.  Two or three steps led up to the long front porch.  A wide hall extended through the length of the house to the back porch.  There were two bedrooms on each side of the hall.  One of them on the right opened into the kitchen.  The first on the left was our parlor.  There was a fireplace at one end and in the center a round table on which was a large family Bible and an album of pictures.  In another corner of the room was a bed for company.  On the bolster were two pillows standing upright.  On the sham of one was embroidered in red, "I slept and dreamed that life is beauty" and the other was embroidered "I woke and found that life is duty."

I was named Cora Inez and had red hair like my father. When I was eleven months and fifteen days old a little sister was born.  She was named Pearl and she, too, had red hair.  She was so tiny she might not have lived if it had not been for Papa's prayers and Grandma's care.  The next year little dark-haired Mary Josephine joined our family.  How proud our parents were when little Douglas Culpepper arrived.  Then (about a year later) tragedy struck.  Mama had the measles and the little sister that arrived at that time didn't survive.  Another little red haired sister brought joy to our family the next year.  She was named Lila Dale. 

We had no store-bought clothes.  My mother had a chart by which she could cut patterns and she was a good seamstress.  The only stockings I remember ever having were long black-ribbed ones.  Seems to me the famoshanters we wore were of brown material and the center was quilted. 

Papa was kept very busy riding long distances in the country to treat his patients.  Sometimes when he returned he would stop his horse at the front gate and say "Who has been here since I have been gone... a pretty little boy with red shoes on?"  Sometimes Mama would sit on the front porch and while nursing a baby would softly sing a hymn.  The Baptist church was about 100 yards across the road from us.  We could attend Sunday School there on Sunday afternoons.  A cousin would play the organ and the young folks would sing.

 It was sad to hear the church bell tolling when one of Papa's patients died and the body was being brought to the cemetery in a wagon.  When we developed colds Papa would say, "Dodie, give her a dose of castor oil."  One of the foulest of medicines and we had no orange juice to camouflage it.  When we had chills and fever we were given a capsule of quinine.  I couldn't swallow mine so my quinine was put in a spoon of slippery elm goo.  This was made by soaking the elm bark in water.  There was no vaccine for whooping cough so we were given a toddy.  Boils were lanced. 

Although we had no running water, electricity or screens we were right healthy.  We could fan some of the table with a peach tree witch and we could sleep under a mosquito net if we wished.

A black woman helped Mama with some of the work.  She milked the cows down at the barn and taught me to milk by having me squeeze the water out of a dripping wet cloth.  I don't remember ever drinking a glass of milk. 

I never had toast for breakfast but hot biscuits with the bacon and eggs.  Don't remember ever being urged to eat. 

When Papa was away from home for several weeks taking a refresher course young Dr. Talbot stayed with us and took over his practice.  He was fun to have around as long as he didn't treat us.  He liked to tease Pearl.  My Papa's sister, Kate, visited and helped us some at that time.  When she and the doctor married we called him "Uncle Doctor." 

The village school was in the Baptist church.  It was so convenient for me to go there.  No one had to watch me cross the road for there were no cars.  One of my aunts was my teacher and taught me my ABC's.  I soon learned a little spelling and reading.  Pearl and Mary soon entered.  We were there for several years.  There was no playground equipment so at recess we could go through the back door and through the unfenced and unkept cemetery to a pine thicket and make play houses with the pine needles. 

One day Papa said that we could not go to school in the church for it was against the law for church and state to mix.  So we had to walk a mile or so to a one-room school house.  Like the school in the church it was ungraded.   just a place to learn a little more reading, writing and arithmetic.  There was no playground equipment.  just long strong vines attached to the tops of trees.  They made good swings but Papa told me not to swing because I might fall and break my arm. 

We didn't go to this school long before Grandpa McGinty passed away.  That meant that Grandma would be alone except when Uncle Herschel, her young son, would be home from his store in the village.  So Mama and Papa decided to live with her. 

This place was a children's paradise.  There was a big persimmon tree on the side of the road as we came in.  In the orchard was a huge pecan tree, several fig trees, a variety of apples, peaches and pears.  We could swing on the low limbs of the large elm tree in the back yard.  There was an ash hopper where lye was collected to make delicious hominy.  We were careful to stay away from the bee hives on a nearby bench.  There was a smoke house, a cider press and an iron pot.  Soap was made in this pot. 

Over the side yard fence was a meadow often dotted with little blue daisies and other wild flowers.  At the bottom of it was a covered spring where the black woman boiled and batted our clothes.  Had to walk back up the hill to hang them on the line in the back yard. 

A trough built with planks ran from the spring a few yards to a pond by Grandpa's gin.  It was fun to play around the spring and watch the farmers bringing cotton to be ginned. 

When school time came we had to walk another mile or so to a one-room school in Possum Neck.  As I walked along I sometimes studied my multiplications.  On my way home I could sometimes find huckleberries on the side of the road. 

Our teacher taught us to parse sentences, one of which was "I saw a man digging a well with a Roman nose."  This, too, was an ungraded school.  I always was so glad for school to open.

I enjoyed going somewhere.  Once Uncle Herschel took the three of us, I think, to visit Uncle Cyrus and his family in Montgomery, La.  As we traveled mile after mile we saw no one nor saw a house.  There were tall pine trees on both sides of the road and scattered beneath them were large pine cones. 

Sometimes we went to Dugdemonia to a fish fry.  The men fished and the ladies kept the children out of the creek.  We enjoyed it very much even though the chiggers feasted on us. 

Sometimes we went to visit Great Grandma Stinson.  She lived in a two-story house on the other side of the village.  Great Aunt Josie who lived with her was an unusual person.  She kept her curly hair cut short long before the movie stars started the style.  She  spent much time growing flowers in her front yard.  The upper story of the house was one big open room.  In this Aunt Josie had installed hammocks made of barrel staves, and we did enjoy swinging in them.  Great Uncle Alex had many grape arbors and we were allowed to feast on the grapes.  When we came in for dinner I noticed that Great Grandma's teaspoons were different from ours.  had never seen copper colored ones before.  Seems to me at this time Grandma's advice to us was to "never write in a letter what you wouldn't want the whole world to see. 

Papa read scriptures to us and explained it when we didn't understand.  Mama bought a copy of Aunt Charlotte's Bible stories and we enjoyed reading it.  Was so easy to understand.  Papa also liked to read "It is Never Too Late to Mend." 

Mama could play hymns on our pump organ.  One song at that time I especially liked was "I'll Remember You Love in My Prayers."  The first stanzas were, "When the curtains of night are pinned back by the stars and the beautiful moon leaps the skies and the dew drops of heaven are kissing the rose, it is then that memory flies." 

Another red-haired baby brother joined our family and he was named McGinty.  Now there were six of us and we were growing up so fast.  Mama and Papa were really concerned about our future.  There was such little schooling, no library and no advantages. After much discussion they decided we better move.  They had heard that Ruston was a growing town and had good schools.  Mama hadn't regained her health and had a swollen leg and Papa told her we couldn't move until it was lanced and healed.  I don't know who helped with the operation;  probably Pearl held the lamp. 

When McGinty was six weeks old Mama was able to travel.  One fine morning the horses were hitched to the three-seated hack and after we were tucked in with our numerous bags we drove on through the village about eight miles to the big road and on to Ruston to seek knowledge.

That was the end of Aunt Cora's narrative.  A quick google search found that you could buy those pillow shams with the pithy phrase patterned on them out of the 1897 Sears and Roebuck catalogue.  You had to do the cross stitch work yourself.  The verse was from a poem by Ellen Sturgis Hooper published in 1840.

Aunt Cora lived a long life.  Born in 1888, she witnessed a lot of changes, but what is amazing to me is her first-hand references reached much further back.  Her Great Grandmother Stinson, who she mentions visiting on the other side of the village (Gansville), was Eliza Lamkin Stinson.

Eliza was born in Wilcox County, Alabama two years after it became a State and only eight years after the horrific massacre at Fort Mims.  Eliza was born 40 years before the start of the Civil War!  Her husband was too old to fight in it.  Eliza could have sat Cora on her knee and told her about Eliza's own father who was born in Virginia during the Revolutionary War and who served during the War of 1812.  Those connections are reaching way back for a woman who died in 1984.

3d Model of Sentell home in Collinsburg ca 1935

I built this digital model based on photos posted below.  None of the photos showed the rear of the house very well.  The look of the rear gallery and milk room is an educated guess.  If you click on the image below it should load up the 3D view and let you twirl the model around.

3D Warehouse Link

The Sentell home at Collinsburg was built shortly after the Civil War and burned completely in a matter of minutes in 1939.

Floor Plan by Ann McBride Chilcutt

Elevation by Ann McBride Chilcutt

Site Plan by Eugenia McBride Bridges

DNA cousins

Ancestry shows I have matching DNA with over 82,000 "cousins." I check my new matches frequently to see who has popped up.  As of today, of the 82,000 people on Ancestry that I share DNA with, 1,064 of them have an ancestor in their tree that matches one in mine.  So, we know we have matching DNA and we are pretty sure of where that DNA came from.  Some of my matches share more than one ancestor pair with me.  That makes them a "double" cousin.  I have lost count of the number of double cousins.  Surprisingly, there are a few triple cousins also.  A good number of these cousins match both my maternal and paternal sides.  I have found this most common with the Culpeper and Cleveland families.  Culpeper's are a paternal line while the Cleveland's are on my mother's side.  The two families shared a very similar migration path from Colonial times across the southeast.  They intermingled a good bit.

Ancestry is unable to deduce a common ancestor for the vast majority of my cousin matches.  This is generally because many people's trees are not filled out beyond a couple or three generations.  Sometimes I am able to determine if the match is maternal or paternal or even narrow down to a family line based on our common cousin matches (that is, people that share DNA with both me and the cousin match in question).  If a bunch of them show a connection to a certain family line, the original match is likely in that line as well.

Beyond immediate family and a few 2nd cousins, I have only recognized one or two of the matches that have shown up in my list of 82,000 cousins.  One was a friend of a friend that I met on a couple occasions before seeing his name in my match list.  His profile showed that he was from Mississippi and I figured it must be him.  Sure enough, it was him.  I expected to see a lot more of that, but so far it's been extremely rare.

Sometimes I will add a DNA cousin match to my Tree.  I'll do this if I have been corresponding with that person or they are part of a family I'm particularly working on.  I will fill out my tree enough that I can include them.   It typically involves a lot of lateral additions.  I designate those DNA matching cousins in my tree with a special graphic.  I've got about 40 of those folks now. Here's the graphic and a list of the individuals it's assigned to...

DNA matches that I have also included in my tree at ancestry

I'd guess about one in ten ancestry.com users attach a photo of themselves to their profile.  This is the only reason I noticed the following two cousin matches.  They are both wearing uniforms that caught my attention.

Screenshot from DNA match list

I like baseball but I don't really follow it and would have let Curtis Montague Schilling's name pass right by, but the uniform in his photo was a giveaway.  Curt was a pitcher with the Phillies when they won the world series in 1993.  He has also played with the Boston Red Sox and the Arizona Diamondbacks.  He retired in 2009.  According to wiki he has done some sports and political commentary on radio since then.

According to Ancestry.com, he and I share 7.5 centimorgans of one DNA segment.  That's not a lot, but it's enough to register a match.  We also currently share 4 common cousin matches.  Two of those I have identified on my mother's side of the family.  Specifically up the Keller, Dickson, Cleveland lines.  So, likely, Curt and I have a common ancestor in one of those families 6 or more generations back.  His tree is private, so I can't get more specific information.

Screenshot from DNA match list

The other uniform I noticed was a Starfleet uniform from the United Federation of Planets.  Truthfully, I had to google that also.  I did recognize the uniform from the Star Trek TV show series and I knew enough to say that his red shirt signified his role as engineering or security aboard ship.  Chris Doohan is the match.  Turns out he is an actor who appeared on "Star Trek The Motion Picture" and Star Trek Into Darkness."  He also played "Scotty" in "Star Trek Continues," a web based series.

His father, coincidentally, was James Doohan, the Canadian actor who played the original "Scotty" in the television series.  I suspect Chris' small DNA connection with me, however, is through his American mother, Janet Young.  Chris' father, James had parents from Ireland.  If our connection is through him it would be way back many generations because my people have been in the states a long time.  That's why I figure the connection is through Janet Young.  I figured we would connect on my father's side due to the Young family being in my paternal branches, but this may not be the case.  We share only one DNA cousin who is most likely related to me on my mother's side.  Chris Doohan's tree is public, but there are only 3 people in it, so determining our common ancestor is not possible at this time.

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.