Mary Ellen Rogers Randles

The third child born to Rev. Elijah Rogers and Katherine Clack Rogers was Mary Ellen Rogers, born in Sevier County, Tennessee on Sept. 24, 1799. Not many records usually exist for women from that time, but Mary Ellen was lucky to be part of families which had a lot of pride as their descendants wrote about them.  I've recently written blogs about her two older brothers, Robert H. Rogers, and my great times three grandfather Micajah Clack Rogers.

One descendant's writing shared this about the early families who settled in western North Carolina which became east Tennessee.

The Randles, Clacks, and Rogers came from Virginia about the same time.  A group marriage took place in a fort in 1791. Rhoda Clack married James Randles Sr., Elizabeth Randles married George Rogers, and Mary Randles married Raleigh Clack in 1791.  In 1794 Katherine Clack married Elijah Rogers. SOURCE: "The Saga of the Herd Family" by G. Ronald Herd.

Raleigh Clack was the son of Spencer and Mary Beavers Clack.  Katherine Clack Rogers was his sister.

George Rogers was the son of Henry Rogers and Elizabeth Langford Rogers, and the brother of Rev. Elijah Rogers.

Historians say the Randles, Clacks and Rogers all came to Tennessee (then North Carolina) at the same time, with the Hufaker family.  A letter indicates that Richard Randles (John Randle's grandfather) and his family came to the Sevier County area around the spring of 1786.

Mary Ellen Rogers married John (Jack or Jacky) Randles, the son of Rhoda Clack Randles (1776-1840) and James Randles (1768-1816) in Sevier County, TN in 1816.  John (Jack) Randles had served as a private in the War of 1812, as had Mary's two older brothers, Micajah and Robert Rogers.

By 1828 they had their first 6 children.

Then in the early 1830s they moved to Wayne County, Kentucky.  Then about 1837 they moved to Missouri, settling on the Niangua River in what was then Polk County, but now is Dallas County. John was a farmer in a bend of the river, and became the first county assessor after Dallas County was formed in 1841.  This information comes from "The Saga of the Herd Family by G. Ronald Herd," as shared on Ancestry by RosalieBennettChruma in 2015.

A bit of difference in Missouri's history was found on Wikipedia (which isn't always accurate either.) It says the county was originally called Niangua,in 1842, then renamed Dallas County in 1844.

Mary's last daughter (of her 8 children)  was born in 1840 in Missouri.  Though all of her children (listed at this time on Ancestry) lived to adulthood, three of them died before Mary did in 1869. Her husband only outlived her by 3 years.

I'm not sure who of the Randles was the ancestor of G. Ronald Herd.  If I have time, I may trace their tree. But for now I want to find out more about my Great Aunts and Uncles - the siblings of GGG Grandfather Micajah Rogers.