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The family name of this group has been spelled many different ways in the records that I have seen. In the Greene County, Georgia records, it is usually Reid. In those records, the patriarch is usually spelled Reubin Reid. In other places it is seen as Reed or Read, or even Reade. But they seem to have finally settled on Read by the time they get to Mississippi. I am trying to find proof of the parentage of "my" Annie Reed. She is known variously as Anny Reed, Amy Reed, Anna Reed, Anna Read, and probably many other spelling variants. I think "Amy" is just a mis-reading of "Anny". She married James Knowles 03 JAN 1806, in Greene County, Georgia. She was born probably about 1785, and died probably between the 1840 and 1850 census. I believe her to be the daughter of (or at least close relation to) Reuben Reed. I base this tentative conclusion on two things in particular. Firstly, there is the very important narrative given by Nathan Knoles in 1887. He mentions the surname REED three times:
Secondly (and see above), Jesse Knowles and his wife, Elizabeth (Reed) Knowles named one of their sons "Reuben Reed Knowles". I have always been of the opinion that Annie Reed and Elizabeth Reed were close relations, and probably sisters. Jesse Knowles married Elizabeth Reed 09 APR 1807, in Greene County, Georgia. This is the same place, and only a little more than a year after the marriage of James Knowles to Annie Reed. I think it should also be pointed out who the father of Annie and Elizabeth can NOT be. There are some suggestions online that they are the daughters of one George Reed (12 NOV 1760 - 15 MAY 1815). This really cannot be the case. Firstly, this Elizabeth Reed (daughter of George Reed) seems to have married John Wright Randleman, not Jesse Knowles. Secondly, this George Reed had two daughters who could have been referred to as "Annie". There was Hannah Reed and Ann Reed. Clearly, neither of these could be the wife of James Knowles, as Ann Reed was born 18 March 1808 (viz., AFTER her supposed marriage date), and Hannah Reed fares not much better in this respect, as she was born 10 March 1797. This would require her to have married just after her NINTH birthday, which is rather impossibly young, even by the standards of those days. Furthermore, the dates of birth are directly from the Bible of George Reed, and thus are not negotiable. Continuing the onomastic evidence, I note that Jesse Knowles and Elizabeth Reed are said to have had the following children:
Polly Owen Knowles, born 26 MAY 1810 I cannot vouch for any of these claims, but I can say that they generally agree well with the Nathan Knowles narrative (see above). I have found some other records which indicate that this list of children is at least generally correct. The reason I bring it up here is this - Jesse Knowles is brother of "my" James R. Knowles, and I believe Elizabeth Reed is sister to "my" Annie Reed, thus any naming pattern which hints at ancestral surnames for them (i.e., Jesse and Elizabeth) should apply equally well to me. So I am now trying to find links between Knowles and/or Reed and Owen, Reed (of course), Marvel (which connection is known, at least on one count), and Hamilton. Similarly, James R. Knowles and Annie (Reed) Knowles had (among others) children named Alberry and Barnet (see Nathan Knowles narrative, above; "Barnet" is probably William Barnett Knowles). So I would also be interested to find connections between and among those families. About all I can say about my Annie Reed is that she seems to have been born in North Carolina. I have been trying to find the 1880 census records for the children of Annie and Elizabeth to see where they will claim their mothers were born. Rhesa Knowles' 1880 census shows her as being born evidently in North Carolina. Marticia (Knowles) Montgomery (called "Matilda" in the Nathan Knowles narrative) similarly seemed to indicate that her mother was born in North Carolina. But there is not perfect agreement. The entry of Nancy (Knowles) Douglas shows both of her parents born in Tennessee, which is fairly interesting in its own right. And Kittie (Knowles) Boren says her parents were both born in Georgia. Finally, if I have the right entry for Barnet Knowles (and I really may NOT), his 1900 census entry seems to say his father was born in North Carolina and his mother born in South Carolina. This last seems pretty suspect to me. But the others seem pretty reasonable, given the other information; at least there is known Georgia and Tennessee habitation for the families. My line comes from Annie (REED) Knowles' daughter, Comfort (Knowles) Spore. I have her death certificate around here somewhere. When I uncover it again, I will scan it and put it here. On it is handwritten in the top margin, "Father: Jas. Knowles Mother: Annie Reed". I don't know who wrote that on the certificate (viz., whether it is original to the certificate or added later), because I received it at least second-hand. |
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You can find various places online that suggest that one or more of the daughters of Reuben Reed married Isham B. Cooper. Importantly, one of these daughters (Elizabeth) is said to be the same person who married Jesse Knoles. I am going to demonstrate that this exceptionally unlikely, if not impossible.
This Elizabeth shown in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 census records is clearly only slightly older than Isham, and was born 1805 or thereabouts. How could she possibly be the same one who married Jesse Knoles in Greene County, Georgia, on 09 April 1807? Are we to believe that she married Jesse Knoles at the age of 2 years old? Furthermore, if this Elizabeth Reed were to have married Jesse Knoles, and then Isham B. Cooper, and is evidently showing in both the 1870 and 1880 census, then who is this Elizabeth Knoles who is buried in Menard County, Illinois, with a gravestone that reads "wife of Jesse Knoles" and indicating a death year of 1868?
 
Look also at the age at death on that stone of Elizabeth. She was 74 years old in 1868. So her birth was 1793. That sounds about right for the marriage recorded to Jesse Knoles in Greene County, Georgia. It does NOT sound right for a person who is continually included in the census records as born about 1805. Clearly, the Elizabeth in the 1870 and 1880 census is not the same Elizabeth who married Jesse Knoles. So it is only possible if Isham married two different women with the name Elizabeth, but they having very different birth years, but the 1860 census inexplicably giving a terrible guess as to her birth year, and yet coincidentally being consistent with the age of the other Elizabeth. And even then, it would require Isham to be marrying a woman who is at least 15 years older than he is. I think the above scenario is unlikely enough to be discounted in its entirety. It seems much more likely that Isham had one wife named Elizabeth who was with him from at least 1860 to 1880, who was born about 1805, and who was not previously married to Jesse Knoles, and that assertions that this Elizabeth was married to Jesse Knoles are simple error. So it remains that Elizabeth Reed probably married Jesse Knoles, and nobody else. And thus it is likely that Annie Reed married James Knoles, and was the sister of Elizabeth. How Isham B. Cooper fits into this family is still unknown. Note the last entry of the 1850 census (above). It gives the name "Melinda Guthrie". I submit that if Isham is to have married any pair of sisters, it is much more likely that the sisters were Nancy Guthrie and Melinda Guthrie. Elsewhere online, you can find the marriage date of Isham B. Cooper to Melinda Guthrie as 07 March 1852. There are other possibilities, like Melinda Guthrie and Elizabeth Guthrie, or Melinda Guthrie and Polly Guthrie etc. But whatever is the case, his wife Elizabeth was not the same person who married Jesse Knoles, and thus she is not the same person as the Elizabeth, daughter of Reuben Reed. And thus if Isham married a sister of Elizabeth, she therefore would not have been a daughter of Reuben Reed.
I received in the last couple of days a package from the Special Collections folks at the University of Mississippi. I had ordered copies to be made and mailed to me from the Eugene Callaway Collection. This included what purports to be a copy of the Will of Reuben Reed, and also a couple of letters and some other things. If you have read the above, then you will have gathered that I rather expected the will to say something along the lines of "my daughter Mary Cooper", or some such, and no mention of any Ann, or, perhaps a mention of 'my daughter Annie Knowles", or some such. Well, it didn't happen. The will says "my daughter Polly Ann Cooper". So that is a rather severe blow to my theory. The only way to maintain the theory now is if Reuben had two daughters named Ann (pretty unlikely, but not unheard of), or if Annie ran off with Isham B. Cooper, and the Knowles family pretended she was dead (equally unlikely, if not more). So, it is back to the drawing board. I still believe my Annie (Reed) Knowles must be related to Reuben somehow. But how? The Will and letters make it clear that some of who would ordinarily be considered equal/proportionate heirs of Reuben Reed felt that the will was an injustice. I am not going to make any comment on that since I don't know. I will try to get a copy of the probated will to see if it is the same. What I do want to make note of is that the copy of what purports to be a copy of the will that I got started with description of items "aforesaid", but there was nothing aforesaid! It is as if a prior page, or section, is missing. For example, it says "county aforesaid" (presumably Pontotoc County, Mississippi), but it does not mention anywhere in the copy I have of the name of the county. | ||||||
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