THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Last week’s column began the
story of
Kizziah Souther Humphries and her husband John.
This couple came to Union County to settle in the mid- to
late-1830’s,
and remained here until the 1850’s (exact time of departure unknown to
this
writer). By 1860 the family was recorded
in the Monroe County, TN census, and later in Blount County, TN. In their life story, we observe the strong
influence of family upon migration patterns.
Kizziah’s brother, Joseph, had preceded her family’s move to
Union
County. Her brothers John, Jesse and Hix
would also make the move from North Carolina to the 16th
District of
Union County. But it seems that Kizziah
and John’s move to Tennessee was not precipitated by other family moves
prior
to theirs that we can pinpoint.
Kizziah was the mother of thirteen
children. Part One of their family saga
traced her children through the first four, and their marriages, namely
Jesse
who married Charlotte Duckworth, Jane who married Wiley Dean, Catherine, nicknamed “Katie”, who married John
Hix, and Willis who married Mary Johnson.
We saw how Humphries had various spellings in official records,
mainly
with the “H” (so often a silent initial letter) omitted, so that to
find these
children of Kizziah and John, I had to search not only the “H” section
of
copied records, but also the “U” section.
We can get an approximate date of Kizziah and John Humphries’
move to
Union by the births of their children.
The first two, Jesse (b. 1833) and Jane (b. 1835) were born in
North
Carolina; the third, Catherine, was born in Georgia about 1837, which
dates
their move to Union prior to that date. The last three were born after
their
move to Tennessee.
Continuing with Kizziah and John’s
children (the fifth through the thirteenth) in this Part 2 of their
family
saga, we will give highlights and where they scattered geographically.
James Humphries (1840-?) married Sarah
Ann Alman. They lived in McMinn County,
TN, moved to Cherokee County, NC for a period, where Sarah Ann died,
and then
James returned to McMinn County. When James’s next-to-youngest brother,
Joseph,
was interviewed in 1931 by Tennessee genealogist Will Parham of Blount
County,
TN, he told the historian that the family Bible in which Kizziah and
John had
recorded births and deaths of family members was in possession of his
brother
James in McMinn County, TN. It would be
interesting to know if the family pages of this Bible have been
preserved. James and Sarah Ann had
children J.Harve,
Jesse, Hugh, Georgia, Lillie and Paralee.
Phillip Humphries (1841-?) married
Cordie Parker. He had an interesting
life to say the least. A soldier (in the
Confederate Army) during the Civil War, it is believed that the
traumatic experiences
there left him nervous and restless. He
became an itinerant preacher and went from Arkaquah District in Union
County
all the way to Texas, returning on the long trek periodically to warn
any who
would listen along the way to the “coming catastrophe,” the end-times
and the
hardships to be endured. He was finally
placed in a Soldiers’ Home in North Carolina where he died. Known children of Phillip and Cordie Parker
Humphries were Joseph, James, Louise and Maggie, and perhaps others
whose names
were not known by his brother Joseph in 1931.
John Humphries (1843-1862?) remained
single. Joseph stated this brother died
in 1862. However, Mrs. Don (Ruth)
Carroll, wife of one of Nancy Ann Humphries Carroll’s grandchildren who
submitted Chapter 10 in Watson Dyer’s “Souther Family History” (1988)
stated
that she found a record of a John Humphries with wife Mary, and an
eleven-month
old son, Robert, in the 1870 Blount County, TN census.
The age of this John would have about matched
the age of Kizziah and John’s son, named for his father.
Joseph Humphries was giving the family information
when he was 80, and without benefit of written records.
There is, therefore, a question about the
John Humphries found in that 1870 census, with Joseph’s remembrance of
his
brother dying in 1862. Mysteries are
rampant in the search for family history.
Noah, eighth child of Kizziah and
John, (b. 1845) married first to Jane Wilkins and second to Rebecca
Wilhoit. Joseph stated in 1931: “Noah’s two boys are working near the
Pendergrass
Marble Quarry near Knoxville, TN. He had
five girls; one lives near Neubert’s Springs in Knox County.” (p. 289,
Souther
book). However, the Georgia Southers
have a little different story. They say
Noah went west to Texas and bought land for a farm there.
Later, oil was discovered on Noah’s property,
thus making him a rich man. He had at
least five daughters, names unknown, by his first wife Jane Wilkins,
and two
sons, John and Benjamin, born to his second wife, Rebecca Wilhoit.
Sarah, ninth child of Kizziah and
John, (b. 1847-?) married James Gooden on February 21 in Blount County,
TN. They had known children, John,
Thomas and Joseph. In the 1880 Blount
County census, the Gooden family lived four houses from her brother,
Joseph. In
1931 Joseph stated that Sarah and James Gooden moved later to Walker
County,
Georgia where they remained the rest of their lives.
Mary, known as “Polly” (b. 1848-?)
married Tillman Walker Davis on February 14, 1873 in Sevier County, Tn. They had two known children, Theodore and
Thomas. They may have moved to Missouri,
because her brother Joseph stated in 1931 that Mary’s children lived in
that
state.
Nancy Ann Humphries (1851-1882)
married William Pinkney Willis Carroll on September 17, 1874 in Sevier
County,
TN. Willis joined the Union Army during
the Civil War. After Nancy’s death
Willis married again. Nancy Ann and
Willis had two sons, William Joseph and John Houston Carroll.
Joseph F. Humphries (1852-1936)
married twice. His first bride was Mary
Ann Carroll (1849-1910) whom he married January 6, 1872 in Blount
County,
Tn. He married, second, Rachel
Walker. This is the son of Kizziah and
John who gave an account of the family in 1931 to Will Parham,
genealogist, and
to whom we owe much credit for family tree information.
With him, he and his descendants changed the
spelling of their surname to the more-commonly used form, Humphrey. Joseph and Mary Ann had these eleven
children: George, Sarah, John, Jacob
Houston, James, Mary Belle, Samuel Henry, Josiah, Richard, William C.,
and
Brown Melton. Joseph or his descendants
did a masterful job listing Joseph’s family.
Pages 296 through 304 of Dyer’s “Souther Family History” are
replete
with a listing of Joseph’s descendants.
David Humphries (1854-?) married but
did not have children. In Joseph’s
account of the thirteen children of his parents, John and Kizziah
Souther
Humphries, he did not elaborate on this youngest of their large family.
We can only imagine the uncertainties
John and Kizziah Humphries faced in their multiple moves from North
Carolina to
North Georgia to the Monroe and Blount County, Tennessee area, and the
hardships of survival, feeding, caring for and schooling a large family
during
the trying times of the Civil War and its aftermath.
We salute them and their hardiness, a tribute
to many like them who paved paths through the wilderness in the
nineteenth
century.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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