Birth anniversaries compiled to today...

Aug 25.
Ralph Farnum II (1601-1642)
My nine times great grandfather on Ada Swasey Rogers tree.
I NEED TO DO RESEARCH ON HIM, AN IMMIGRANT FROM ENGLAND TO ANDOVER MA)

Aug 24.
Cyntha Cannon Rogers (1800-Nov 24 1855)
My 3 times great grandmother on George Rogers family tree.
(SEE THIS BLOG HERE)

Aug 20.
George Tyler Granger (1804-after 1870)
Lumber merchant and surveyor
My 3 times great grandfather on Ada Swasey Rogers tree.
(SEE BLOG FOR A LETTER HE WROTE HERE.)

Aug 12.
Joseph Swasey (baptized on Aug 12, 1714 - 1801
my 5 times great grandfather on Ada Swasey Rogers tree.
(SEE BLOG HERE)

Aug 11.
Jonathan Bowers, Captain (1673-1750)
my 6 times great grandfather on Ada Swasey Rogers tree.
(SEE BLOG HERE, AND HERE.)

Aug 8.
Josiah Beers 1693-1763)
My 7 times great grandfather on Eugenia Booth tree.
(SEE BLOG HERE)

Aug. 7.
Jacob Granger (1735-4 Feb, 1795)
5 times great grandfather on Swasey tree
(SEE BLOG HERE)

Aug. 1.
Anna Curtiss Booth (1697- 18 May 1733)
My 7 times great grandmother
(SEE BLOG HERE)
In Booth family tree.

See, I did do some research this month on my ancestors.  Then I took a break.  I'll be back soon!

What if Martha Clack married A. Hightower?

Sometimes I find that plugging in information which isn't substantiated by facts/documents, will bring me to something that either a. proves it full of hogwash, or b. proves it to be true, or c. leaves me with egg on my face for even supposing such a thing!

So today I'm going to suppose Martha Kennon Clack could have married Austin Hightower.  And when I look at how many different dates are given for the siblings of Spencer Clack, she has some Ancestry trees giving her date of birth as 1741 to 1745 and as late as 1751.  The only catch to these earlier dates is that her mother, Mary Kennon Clack, was born 1n 1728, and got married in 1743.  That would put Martha's birth until her mother was at least 15 years old.

One set of trees uses Richmond, Wise County VA as her birth place, while another set says Brunswick County, VA.  Since all the other Clacks of her generation were born in Brunswick, that would be my first preference.

There is one record which lists Austin Hightower as marrying Martha (no maiden name) in 1861.  Austin was born in 1698 on this one record that a exists for Martha.

Austin has records of a marriage to Jane Oldham, in 1744. And they had 3 children.

So I'm fortunately visiting the Chatham County seat in Pittsboro NC, and today (the 23rd) will go to the library and talk to a genealogist.  Since Martha Hightower, as well as Auston, has been listed as dying in Chatham County NC, maybe I can find out where their graves would have been located.

And I did find a bit more information about the son of Auston Hightower, named Henry.  He was part of the American Revolution, but on the Tory side, and was hung for having "murdered" a patriot.

I saw the original will of Auston Hightower (and he signed his name spelling it that way.  So I've changed my records to reflect that spelling (though of course nobody else will probably.)

And since my guess is that Martha is a sister of Spencer Clack, then she's only my aunt six times great.

Yes, more of Spencer Clack's siblings

Looking at Spencer Clack's siblings (part 3)... (See this link for the start of this series)

Ann Clack Robinson 1745-1800
Spencer Clack 1746-1832
Martha (Patty) Kennon Clack (between 1748-60) - (around 1793-1818,) unknown if she married Hightower, d. maybe in NC
James Clack (1750 or 56) -1834
John Sterling Clack 1758-1798
Richard Clack 1763-1806
Agnes Bolling Clack 1771-1803


Richard Clack 1763-12 Jan 1806. He was born in what is now Loudon County, VA.

In 1786 in Brunswick County VA, he married Anne Hardaway who had been born in Prince George County VA in 1759 but their marriage, 14, Sept of 1786 was in Brunswick County VA.  She died sometime before 1794.  They had no children (at least recorded through Ancestry.)

Richard married again in 1794 to Amy Maclin or McLain or Mclain. They had at least 4 and maybe 6 children.  The tree gets a bit fuzzy at this point, without birth or death dates, so it's hard to see if the names that are listed really belong to these parents.   Richard died in 1806, and Amy in 1808.  Richard's death was in Brunswick County VA, and we don't know where Amy died.  Richard apparently left a will, naming at least 2 children, and mentioning there were others who weren't named.

The last of the Clack siblings is Agnes Bolling Clack Jones, born in 1771 in Brunswick County, VA.
She married William Jones on 14 Feb. 1792 in Brunswick VA.  But ancestry has listed another William Jones, one who married Elizabeth somebody else and died in Georgia.  I couldn't find out much about Agnes and her family.  The other William Jones came from Prince George County, VA (same birth and death dates) and had parents listed.  One from Mecklenburg County VA didn't have parents listed, but same dates.  And being married in Brunswick County VA may just mean that that is where Agnes lived.  There are 2 listings for their marriage, but none for their children (if any) nor even definite death places or dates.

So today's pursuit of cousins has ended.

More of Spencer Clack's siblings...John Sterling Clack

John Sterling Clack 1758-1798

Well, there appears to be some hanky panky going on. He's got 3 wives listed, and the first one was still alive when he married the third.  She also is mother to a whole lot of children that were born where he never lived that I know of.  One John Sterling who served in the Revolutionary War had a wife (or maybe daughter) named Mary who applied for his pension in Connecticut.  I don't think I'll consider her married to my John Sterling of VA and TN.

He was in the Revolutionary War.  That much is known.  Maybe he went by Sterling as well as John Clack.

There were probably 2 men, both of whom had families of Clack children.  Only one was brother to Spencer Clack of Sevierville.

One of them lived until 1831.
One of them died in 1798

One of them married Sarah Sally Standifer, and died in Pulaski, Giles County, TN.

One of them married Ann Eppes Walker and remained in VA where he died in 1798.

I can't keep them separate yet.  So many Ancestry Trees name one or the other wife, one or the other date and place of death.

Here are some interesting notes from a Family Chronicle, probably written in 1928 by a 84 year old grandson of the John Sterling Clack of Pulaski, Giles County, TN.  It was entered into Ancestry trees by "jgbg2016, Trophy Club, Denton TX in Jan 2017.  I don't know when or where it was published.

But based on this information, I'm going to remove Anne Eppes Walker as being married to our John Sterling.  It's not likely that our John had a wife and children in VA while being in Giles County TN.  It's a long ways away.

...this is the largest that the photos will enlarge.  I am saving here pages 649-652, and combined 655-56.

The author interviewed Col Spencer D. Clack (not Hon Lt. Spencer Clack) but a grandson of John Sterling Clack.

The above information includes why he has been so hard to flesh out. Pulaski, Giles County, TN is the home of the original Klu Klux Klan.  And John's son and grandson apparently were active members.

I'm so sorry, but every family has this kind of branch.  It has been cut off apparently by some of my relatives...perhaps cousins who just took the information out, left me wondering what ever happened to those children.  Now I know why.  These poor befuddled and racist men had fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, and for them the war was continuing.  I do not feel sorry for them.  They have been misled and committed atrocities against black people too numerous to list.  Indeed, I dare say they haven't ever been written down.  The KKK knows how it is a evil monster, and so hides from public view.

James Clack, another sibling of Spencer Clack

Looking at Spencer Clack's siblings, part 2... (See this link for the start of this series)

Ann Clack Robinson 1745-1800
Spencer Clack 1746-1832
Martha (Patty) Kennon Clack (between 1748-60) - (around 1793-1818,) unknown if she married Hightower, d. maybe in NC *
James Clack (1750 or 56) -1837
John Sterling Clack 1758-1798
Richard Clack 1763-1806
Agnes Bolling Clack 1771-1803

James Clack died in 1837, but could have been born in 1750 or 1756, according to those Ancestry trees.

But I just found out there's a memorial marker to him in Dance Cemetery in Lynchburg, Moore County, TN.  And that gives me more firm dates to go on for his life.  Cha-ching, I can now change my questioning dates.   It says 1756-1837.  I'm going with that.  (However, often headstones have incorrect dates, so I'll be open to finding any written documents about his dates of birth and death.)  But it also says he was a Revolutionary Soldier.

"In Memory of James Clack born Jun 1756 - died Oct 1837, "A Revolutionary Soldier"

I looked at the list of people buried in the Dance cemetery, hoping to find some relatives.  You never know.  And of the 41 listed graves, it says 80% have been photographed.  I love when families name their children with old family names, and this research has proved this out.

There's a 1 year old James Clack Smith. Died in 1839.

A Mary Kennon Brown Smith died in 1840 when she was 35 (unknown if she was James' mother.)   Her children listed at "Find a Grave" for this site are: Mary Ann Clack Smith Martin 1826-1909, Martha Elizabeth Fisher Smith Harris 1829-1851, and Agness Bolling Smith Fuller 1832-1898.

Dance Cemetery, Moore County, TN

There are 2 family names I recognize...first daughter has Clack as a middle name, and last daughter is named after Agnes Bolling, a Virginia ancestor.  Not to mention Mary Kennon Brown Smith has the other ancestral name Kennon as well.

Mary Kennon Brown Smith...a.k.a. Mary Kennon Browne Clack Smith.

There be some relations in here, I'm thinking.  And the fact that the markers look so similar is also suggestive that one family had them made for their relatives.

I clicked on Mary Clack Smith's husband's link, and he was buried in Arkansas.  But it also gives this information (which notably isn't an original source, but might be considered first person account of those who knew her.)

"Dr. William Flournoy Smith, husband of Mary Kennon Browne Clack (daughter of James Clack & Sally Dickens), married October 29, 1823, Granville County, NC."

This may not be an original source, but here's the rest of the posting at "Find a Grave" for Dr. Smith.  It would have been nice if it had been included under Mary Kennon Brown Smith's listing (where I've now added it with her name.)

Notes for MARY KENNON BROWNE CLACK: 

"Mary Wilson Brown Dickens Hicks wrote this about her cousin & uncle. Her parents, William & Nancy Dickens reared Mary Clack to womanhood & was looked upon as an elder sister amongst my fathers children. Uncle Clack, Mary's father, was a constant visitor at my fathers house & he was a gentleman of the old school--one of the most refined, pious men I ever remember to have seen. His daughter Mary was the sole object of his deepest affection. I have often, in after years, thought how self sacrificing he was, doting on her as he did; surrounded with wealth and comfort at home; yet he allowed her to reside with my parents, fifteen miles from him, in order that she might have the benefit of my mother's care, in whose ability to raise daughters he had the utmost confidence. My cousin was married in my father's house."

From The Village Messenger, Fayetteville, Tennessee, Vol. 4, No. 27, December 7, 1827 

So James' daughter was Mary Clack who was cared for by her father fostering her with a nearby family, the Dickens.  Unfortunately for us, no Dickens were buried in the Dance cemetery (according to the list). There may be a connection to the Dance family through a Sarah Smith Dance (1793-1863) but that's just a bit too far removed from my Clack search for me to go further with her family ties.  There are no other Clacks that I've found, and the rest of the Smiths don't seem to be connected to Clacks.  I wish the Dickens were somehow part of the information.

There are still some questions to be answered. If she was a Clack, why does her grave leave that name off, just saying Mary Kennon Brown Smith?  And the 1827 article doesn't include any information about her husband, Dr. Smith.  This would have been a rather important marriage name, so is there some explanation?

So I've added a new wife to James Clack, that of Sally Dickens.  Let's see what that turns up.  There was one wife that had no substantiating data, named Jane McClin...so I was never sure if she'd married James, had the daughter, or was a later marriage.  Still looking...

OK, I've found the bond listed in Granville, NC for the marriage of Sally Dickens to James Clack on Nov. 26, 1804.  Original written document!  Whoo-hoo!

Their only child, Mary Kennon Brown Smith Clack lived from 27 Aug 1805 till 20 Dec. 1840.  Since her first daughter has Clack in her name, I checked her "Find a Grave Site" and it lists her parents as Mary Clack Smith and William Smith.

It's beginning to sound like Mary Kennon Brown Smith was the same woman as Mary Kennon Clack Smith.  But if she didn't want to carry the Clack name, she still used it in her children's names!  And she never let go of the Kennon either.  This is pure conjecture, but it sure is beyond coincidence.

Back to Mrs. James (Sally Dickens) Clack.  I want to see if she wasn't a deceased sister of the Dickens family who raised James and Sally's daughter, Mary K.

When I finally found Sally's parents, I found where the Brown in Mary Kennon Brown's name came from, it was her grandmother's maiden name!  Mary's mother, Sally died in 1808, when Mary was just 3.  There were many siblings of her mothers...now to find the ones who lived down the road from James Clack. Unfortunately none of Sally's brothers was named William.  So maybe a cousin?

That will mean going back a generation into Col. Robert Dickens (or Dickins) family.  Do I want to spend the time? Yes, because I want to connect the cousins.

So yes, Col. Robert Dickins did have a son William Dickins, (17732-1845).  And the next step is to see who he married. YES, a Nancy Pullian, who he married in 1810, in Granville Co., NC.

So that ties up the beginning of the life of Uncle James Clack.  I have to quit for tonight, because twice I tried to add all the children of William and Nancy Dickins to my ancestry tree, and they didn't come up.  When Ancestry starts mis-behaving like this, I won't waste my time.

* I've changed my mind and decided to go with the Martha Kennon Clack Hightower approximate facts for now.  So now I will update the information given above on a later date!

Spencer Clack's siblings' families

Lt. Spencer Clack has been given a lot of my blog time...Try these subjects if you want some background:
In honor of Spencer Clack's Death July 9
Spencer Clack Memorials by the Little Pigeon River, Sevierville TN
Mary Beavers Clack and her children
Spencer Clack, founding father, Sevierville TN and Revolutionary War soldier

Today I will be looking at his younger siblings, since he was the first son born into the John Clack family. I already gave you a post on  Col. John Clack which mentioned how the children were born in different Virginia counties.  But the dates of their births are pretty wishy washy.

Ann Clack Robinson 1745-1800
Spencer Clack 1746-1832
Martha (Patty) Kennon Clack (between 1748-60) - (around 1793-1818,) unknown if she married Hightower, d. either in NC or GA?
James Clack (1750 or 56) -1834
John Sterling Clack 1758-1798
Richard Clack 1763-1806
Agnes Bolling Clack 1771-1803

I spent a good couple of hours looking at how many Ancestry trees combined Martha Clack (whether she had Patty or Polly as a nick-name or not) and another couple of Marthas who were named in wills.  I thought she might have been the Martha married to Austin (Augustino) Hightower (his second wife.)  It is too bad that his first wife was named Jane Oldham, and someone decided that her name must have been Martha Jane.  I'm going with the guess that there were 2 different women.  But there's no evidence.  And since someone thinks his last 3 children were born to the second wife, our Martha might have only been 13 when she married a man who had 3 children already and was (ahem) 63.  (But her birth date also might be in question, so maybe she was older) So as of now, I'm skeptical of her being THAT Martha, who died in Chatham County, NC in 1793.

The other Martha was definitely Martha Rivers, not Clack, so that whole family isn't related to me.  I may never find out, but Martha Rivers Broadnax did have a daughter who's given a K. as middle initial, which could have stood for Kennon, but the Rivers Martha is the one who was her mom, not my Martha Clack (whose mom had been a Kennon.)

And now let's hope the rest of the siblings have easy to follow notes on their lives.

Ann Clack Robinson, born to Col. John (1721-1784) and Mary Kennon Clack (1728-1794) on 12 April, 1745.  But her birth could have been as late as 1748.  In Brunswick County, VA...which is where she married Burwell Robinson on 9 Feb 1766.  They had 8 children.  They moved around 1783 to Warren County NC, where one daughter was born, but their last 2 children were born back in VA.   However Ann returned to Warren County NC by the time she died 12 March 1800.  Burwell outlived her  until 1816, and there's a hand written will of his desires, including leaving a ferry and an acre of land at the landing in Warren County NC to his son Clack.

The Robinson's other children were
Elizabeth, Mary Polly, Lucy, John, Nancy Anna Robinson Claiborne, James, and Henry.

I dare say the other daughters also married, but I haven't gone off in that direction to find out.  The Claiborne name is already in my Rogers Family tree, so I'm glad to see that marriage, though not to the other Claibornes that I've got already. Nancy Anna's husband was George Ravenscoft Claiborne, (1782-1833) and I haven't ever heard of him.

More on other siblings tomorrow...

Amy Cowell Sherburne Ferber Ayers

NOTE: a repost from my other blog...gathering the more recent blog posts into one place for access and organization!

I want to look a bit further into the ancestry of the Ayers family.

Amy Cowell's mother was written about a few years ago, when I was tracing the oldest matriarchs I could find.  Look HERE for that post including Agnes Harvey Cowell Snell (1617-1681). I can't find any real records that tie her to the Thomas Harvey who also lived in Portsmouth NH, apparently in the same neighborhood, which is recorded in The descendants of Charles Glidden of Portsmouth and Exeter, New Hampshire. This is apparently a publication from 2005 by Ancestry.com. (And the source of it was - Original data: Chamberlain, George Walter,. The descendants of Charles Glidden of Portsmouth and Exeter, New Hampshire. Boston: unknown, 1925.)  It says on page 44, under Gliddens, that...

Mr. Thomas Harvey was settled at Portsmouth as early as 1664 having married a daughter of David Kelley of Boston. Mrs. Agnes Cowell was the widow of Edward Cowell whose home on the water front stood about thirty feet from Charles Gliddens "shop." ...the neighborhood in which Charles Glidden resided in Portsmouth from about 1662 to 1668, contained the most prominent men in New Hampshire..."

Since Agnes Harvey had married Edward Cowell in 1640, (or possibly 1645) probably in Suffolk MA, and they raised their 4 children in Portsmouth, this quote above only substantiates a bit of their life that took place on the waterfront until Edward's death in 1677. So though Mr. Gliddens left around 1668, Agnes wasn't a widow until 1677....thus whoever wrote the information given above wasn't very particular about her married status at the time he described, but relied upon his knowledge that she became widowed.

These dates are based on probate records.  The people in Portsmouth apparently wanted to keep track of the property of the Cowells, which then went to Amy Cowell Sherburne Ferber Ayers.  Incidentally I just read the original record of an inventory of Agnes Snell's estate which was taken in Dec. of 1681, and in May of 1682 was witnessed by Jethro Ferber (the son-in-law of Agnes Snell.)

Don't you wonder if the property might have had some influence in how widow Agnes Cowell married at age 64 just before she died that year, in 1681, and then her new husband apparently died that year as well?  We'll never know probably, but I'm pretty sure a widow could keep her own property if it was willed to her by her husband.

And now I'm very curious about this Charles Gliddens and what was his "shop?" Time to go searching... (blacksmith, it says in the below document.) Don't miss the footnote which speaks of
Thomas Harvey.

Ah, I've found the original edition of that source which confused Mrs. Edward (Agnes) Cowell as being a widow in 1640.  It seems that citation came first from Brewster's Rambles about Portsmouth, 1859. 

So I'm including these 2 pages of this wonderful find.  At least to me it's wonderful to see how people were interested in these documents, and thus preserved that information over the centuries...it was also again published in 1925.  Pg. 44 (below) is where he speaks of Agnes Cowell.

I haven't got much to connect Agnes to Thomas Harvey, who at least was a neighbor in Portsmouth.  So until I find who her parents REALLY were, I'm going to see if there's anything to suggest that she was really Agnes Harvey before marrying Edward Cowell.

However, my Ancestry chart information says her father. Thomas Harvey was born before 1595 in England and died after 1650.  The Glidden document says he married a daughter of David Kelly of Boston, and settled in Portsmouth in 1664.  This would put him closer to Agnes' age than that of her father.

Since Agnes had died before her husband's (Cowell) estate was probated, in 1682, her daughter Amy and then husband Jethro Ferber were to care for her youngest son, by order of the court.  The inventory of the estate had been provided at Edward Cowell's death in 1677, but upon Agnes' death in 1681, the courts did a probate, though she also had left a will. They said Amy and Jethro Ferber were to care for and educate Amy's youngest brother, Samuel Cowell until he was 14. This was decided in April of 1682.

Why didn't Edward Cowell, Jr. the oldest son have this responsibility? He had married and moved to the Boston area by the time his youngest brother Samuel was born.  The court had no jurisdiction in Boston, is my guess...but there are numerous reasons possible. One might have been that Amy and Jethro Furber/Ferber were there and wanted to raise her brother.  They also had their own baby in 1682.  And then Jethro died that year.  Or maybe not.  One source gives that as his death year.

Another source doesn't have a year, and is questionable.  But I don't think I'll go into it now.  It gave him different parents' names and was written in 1905 by a clerk of the same name as the supposed mother of Jethro.  Only 200 some years later.

Amy remarried within a couple of years and had 2 more children, one of which became my great times 6 grandmother.