description

Events of importance are at Living in Black Mountain NC
My own life and my opinions are shared at When I was 69.

REMEMBER: In North America, the month of September 1752 was exceptionally short, skipping 11 days, when the Gregorian Calendar was adapted from the old Julian one, which didn't have leap year days.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Large Family

52 Ancestors 52 weeks, Week 11 (March 11-17): Large Family

I'm thinking this post needs to have a household which had a lot of children in it...rather than show the many descendants of one person which means also "a large family!" 

I'll go to the Tennessee branch of my father's tree.

In Sevierville TN in the early nineteenth century, my grandfather times 4 greats, the Rev. Elijah Rogers had 10 children.  His wife was Catharine Clack Rogers.  They and most of their children are early entries in the Rogers Family Bible, which I've never seen.  But my grandfather typed the entries and gave copies to all his living sons, so I got the copy from my father, an early Xerox copy of the originally typed version.

I say most of the children, because later on another historian wrote telling of several other children of the Rogers, and that he was descendant among these other daughters.  I believe this information though at first it was difficult because they hadn't been included in the Family Bible. But I am pretty sure the Bible went to Texas with the oldest son, or perhaps the daughter that married at that time.  Letters were still being sent back and forth to Tennessee though.

If they were children of another wife, then they were born while Rev. Elijah was still married to Catharine Clack Rogers, and nobody has wanted to suggest such a thing, and I won't either.

But these new descendants had different names for the wife, calling her Buleah Fairfax and Aunt Katy.  Well, Katy is certainly a nick name for Katharine, so that part is believable.

Rev. Elijah and Katy had 10 children but they didn't all live to adulthood. 

Rev. Elijah Rogers 1774-1841
Katharine Clack Rogers 1778-1850
married in 1794

Micajah Clack Rogers 1795-1843
Robert Henderson Rogers 1796-1869
Mary Rogers Randles 1799-1869
Elizabeth Clack Rogers McCroskey  1805-1864
Matilda Langford Rogers Riggins 1807-1841
Caleb Butler Rogers 1809-probably died young
Dialtha Perry Rogers Mullendore 1810-1884
Amanda M. L. Rogers Henderson 1812-1876
Joshua Gist Rogers 1814 - probably died young
Henry Rogers 1815-1816 died in first year
Spencer Clack Rogers 1817-1886 

I'm pretty sure all the 7 surviving siblings married and had children.  My branch is the result of Micajah Clack Rogers being an early settler in Texas, and there are a lot of us that are Rogers Texans.

The 1840 Census of Sevier County TN shows:
Name
Elijah Regers
Home in 1840 (City, County, State)
Sevier, Tennessee
Free White Persons - Males - 5 thru 9
2
Free White Persons - Males - 60 thru 69
1
Free White Persons - Females - Under 5
2
Free White Persons - Females - 30 thru 39
1
Free White Persons - Females - 60 thru 69
1
Free White Persons - Females - 90 thru 99
1
Free Colored Persons - Females - 55 thru 99
1
Slaves - Males - Under 10
1
Slaves - Males - 10 thru 23
3
Slaves - Females - Under 10
2
Slaves - Females - 10 thru 23
1
Persons Employed in Agriculture
4
No. White Persons over 20 Who Cannot Read and Write
1
Free White Persons - Under 20
4
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49
1
Total Free White Persons
8
Total Free Colored Persons
1
Total Slaves
7
Total All Persons - Free White, Free Colored, Slaves
16
First I noticed a female over 90 years old.  I'll go looking for her on Ancestry. Also I find it interesting that they had 7 slaves in the household. And then there was one free colored woman over 55 years old. I wish I knew her story.  And only one family member over 20 could not read and write.  There are stories that it was Rev. Elijah who memorized the texts from the Bible when he prepared his sermons.

I know Rev. Rogers' property was near the junction of the rivers Little Pigeon and French Broad in Sevierville.  And there's a park where the original burying ground had been, with some markers in it.  His original one isn't there any more, but a newer one gives his dates.



The 90 year old female in the 1840 census is hard for me to figure out.  She would have to have been of their parent's generation to be that old when he was already 66 in 1840, and would die the next year. The only aunt by marriage on Rev. Elijah Rogers side that lived till 1840 was living in Kentucky, so I don't think she's likely.  

But Mary Beavers Clack, Kate Rogers' mother, did live until 1840.  She would die in that year, but had been born in 1745, so qualifies as being 95 years old.  She started receiving war pensions in 1836, and her husband, Lt. Spencer Sterling Clack died in 1832. (He was a Revolutionary War veteran.)

It is not certain whether her family name came from "de Beauvillers" or "Beiber," with French or German influence.




No comments:

Post a Comment

Looking forward to hearing from you! If you leave your email then others with similar family trees can contact you. Just commenting falls into the blogger dark hole; I'll gladly publish what you say just don't expect responses.