A man named Carroll

Carroll Witty, that is, my 3 times great grandfather on my mother's maternal side, the Booth Family Tree.

We reviewed the lives of most of his children in the last week.  I'd deleted the new one added in Ancestry, born in 1858, named Permella Witty, born in Marshall TX - died in Fort Worth, TX.  No other information is given on her, and so I'll not add her to the tree, making an 11th child.  It's one of those circular source kind of references, each tree lists another one as the source of the name and information, giving nothing new, and listing each other back again.  Actually sounds a bit fishy to me. And if I put her on my tree, then someone can look at it and think I believe she belonged as a child of Carroll and Susie Hoke Witty.

I have already covered much of the patriarch of the family's life.  But let's see if there's anything that isn't in the stories and photos, the background from one place to another where he traveled.  My old blog Here speaks of Carroll and his daughter Eugenia, and others in my family.

I just logged into Ancestry and found an Alabama agricultural census for 1850 had been added, with Carroll Witty having no land, either improved or unimproved, and no value of a farm, but $100 value for farm implements.  For the same year the federal census said he had a household of 8 persons.  He was 31, his wife Susan Hoke Witty was 32, and he had children; John C. 6. James 5, Martha E. 3, Mary 2, Thomas 0, and Joseph Hoke, 57 (his father-in-law).

The population census for the same year includes his brother (Andrew) Jackson Witty living next listing to his.  Jackson did own land.  And his household was very interesting.  Jackson was 35 and his wife Emily was 26, and his mother Elizabeth Wells (Witty) lived with them, age 75 and not using her married name, and perhaps a cousin Sarah Wills 35 and unknown relationship Carlin Wills 26, and a mis-transcribed person Matilda Collins, 9 (listed as Marilda Colling).

I must salute Carroll Witty for taking his family to Texas, for being a entrepreneur and starting a new community (with partners) and for being a man with a mission.  He may have been a farmer in 1850, but by 1852 he was in Marshall TX, and by 1860 all the way in Hill County, Subdivision, TX.

This is a man who traveled far, as well as had a big family.  Though his 2 oldest sons took part in the Civil War, (and one died in it) there's no record that he did.  His family grew up, and daughters and sons married and moved away, and he continued to be a farmer.  In the 1870 census he had property valued at $1000 and his youngest 3 as teenagers were living at home as well as his oldest son James who was a stock raiser (perhaps cattle.)

He and his wife Susan appear in the 1880 census, with just their daughter Susan at 20 living with them, as well as a niece, Freby Moore, age 21.  This is another census taker's error in that he is listed a "Terrell Witty" clearly in the handwritten form.  And their daughter Susan Witty had married in 1877 to James Moore...but for some reason was living with her parents and using her maiden name.  And whoever Freby Moore was, she was born in Alabama.  Perhaps James' sister?   Susan and James didn't have a child until 1885.

But this Uncle James Moore (b. 1856 Marshall TX) was interesting in that he lived after his wife Susie died in 1902, and remarried to have more children.  He also lived until 1932, and here's a great photo of him in his corn field in 1930.

James Joseph Moore 1854-1932

And I haven't found the connection yet, but his mother was Mary Grace Hoke Moore, while his wife, Susie's mother had been Susan Elizabeth Hoke Witty, none other than Carroll's wife.