Our nation has very good record keeping through the
1600s and 1700s of historical events, taxpayers' lists, those who paid church
tithings and those removed from a church for various reasons. There are Bills of
Sale for slaves purchased and land records and church weddings. Marriages needed
a witness and someone to pay the bond, so the man and the woman and her parent's
names were recorded and documented. So in our genealogy when we come upon a man
with his unknown wife, we may assume that he married an indian maiden and gave
her a Biblical name.
My mother's line has two connections to the original
Mayflower, to Edward Doty, a servant himself and also to Samuel Fuller. Miles
Standish performed some of the marriages of the new settlers. We are fortunate
that the passenger list was written and it is also added to the internet for us
to learn from.
William Bosman, a sheriff in Maryland 1600s, claimed to
be of the Nottaway tribe and of course we do not know who he
married.
Our grandfathers
fought for our nation's independence and were rewarded with tracts of land for
their service. Some were soldiers in battle and some were patriots who helped
with food, shelter and medicine.
The LDS research page once had Elmore Anderson listed
as a full blood Cherokee of Onslow North Carolina. He may have had many sons
such as Elijah, Elisha, Edmond, and Eleazor, who named their own children the
same, as did Eleazor Brack.
John Stephens, as it's been written by his researchers,
married a full blood and migrated to Alabama.
Mordecai Bozeman had an unknown wife with sons named
Peter, John and James, according to the book "Sketches", but maybe there were
other children we do not know about. John married an indian and in 1823 bought
land in Choctaw Territory in Mississippi. Peter was in Montgomery, Alabama
before 1828 and died in 1829, and his widow died in 1838. Peter had married
Sarah Brown in 1786 and had 3 daughters by 1790, about the time their first son
Meade was born. Jesse M. was born in 1793, Peter E. was born in 1807, and my
William Henry was born in 1802.
Peter's daughter Lucy married Sterling Campbell,
Ellenor married Vincent Joiner and the other may have married one of the other
popular names we study or she may have died young. But I seem to feel she
married Benjamin Lewis who first owned the land of Hope Hull where Peter moved
them. The Bozemans traveled to the same spot and they must have good reason.
Benjamin Lewis also audited Peter's final estate along with John Stacy, who's
son had married Jesse's daughter, Sarah Bozeman.
About 1800 Peter lived beside a Jesse, who may have
been his brother, because in 1826 there is a Margaret Boosman there. The
archives list many Bosemans/ Bozemans who battled in the war such as Henry,
Gabriel, Isaac, Jacob and then land to the heirs of Jesse so I have to wonder if
that was Mordecai's first name, because Peter did name his second son Jesse
M.
Many others
received land for their service to the War and later migrated south such as John
Stephens, the Sellers, Carters, Hill, Anderson, Brack, Mills, Fenn, Stone,
Weatherford, Dillard, oh so many wagon trains filled with supplies and
food.
They brought their cows and hogs and their seeds for
crops, and a spinning wheel along with many other small tools. They first came
to the land office in Georgia that was selling lands in Alabama, before the
state developed its own land offices.
Then down the Federal Road which was a trail through
the Creek Nation, which was mostly peaceful some of the time. Alabama Territory
was still full of several indian tribes and wild animals.
Most land sold for $2.00 per acre - some ventured out
to Texas but found it still too violent and came back. One cousin John Bozeman
went to Montana and became famous in history.
Another distant cousin became a doctor and has a photo
hanging in the Alabama Archives building, but I think this connection takes us
back to Mordecai and his many brothers born in the 1700s in the very early
settlements of North Carolina.
The SC Archives had many records on our families, such
as Ralph Bozeman's bill of sale for the purchase of a slave or other church
records and town meetings and who attended or those who made witness as to
others claiming to have served in the War.
The record keeping is amazing. They even have the pay
stubs for the shillings paid to Mordecai. There is a book, the South Carolina
Roster, which lists the many names we study, as soldiers and patriots of the
War, even Peter, John, Jesse, Phillip, Philemon. North Carolina honored a
Gabriel, Jacob and Isaac. Capt. George Little is also listed in the Roster, from
my father's line.
Then there are Pension Lists as well.
One fascinating item of this history is that Peter was
captured at the fall of Charleston as well as my daddy's ancestor, George
Little. George did not go to Alabama but his brothers did. George went to
Tennessee and then Kentucky and some of the Weatherfords went to Kentucky, but
Charles Weatherford went to Alabama while his daddy, Martin settled in
Georgia.
The 1830 census of Alabama is awesome as it shows our
many families living so near each other and intermarried, as the court records
began here and marriage bonds documented, as well as the Land Deeds. Peter
Bozeman had written letters in 1828 recorded in Montgomery, insisting he was an
Invalid of the war, and one is signed by Elisha Stephens as a witness. In 1829
another document is signed by his widow Sarah Brown Bozeman, giving son Jesse
permission as the administrator, and it is also signed by Henry.
Then in 1838 many of these families are named on the
estate sale so although there is no record yet of land owned by Peter, it was
all divided equally amongst his heirs, then the neighbors purchased the
miscellaneous items.
Peter's son Meade died about 1821 so was not listed.
Meade's sons were with their Aunt Ellenor; they were also named Jesse and Peter
and this Peter eventually went to Mississippi to see his Uncle John and soon
joined the Mississippi Calvary in the Civil War.
I have found an Anderson Sellers and an Anderson
Moseley and believe that the first wife of Jesse M. Bozeman to probably be a
Lucy Anderson and their child named Jesse Anderson Bozeman. Jesse A. married
Missouri Flinn and he served in the Civil War. Lucy had a daughter named Lucy
who married Thomas Randolph Carter but he called her Lacey and put that on her
tombstone, a very tall monument. The Carters had first settled in Talladega
before he came to Hope Hull. His grandfather John Carter was in the War too. John and
his brother Thomas served in the American Revolution with John Wise who had
a lovely daughter named Elizabeth. She married John Carter and had a son, John
Wise Carter and they all moved to Talladega, but she eventually went back to SC.
She had several sons who explored the south and some of her family went back to
SC with her.
John Wise Carter had an unknown wife too and
their son T. R. moved to the Bozeman plantation in Montgomery where he is buried
by Lacey and many of their children. Only two of their children survived,
William and Lucy. Lucy married a Calloway and William stayed with them. The old
farm house burned down but they rebuilt it and remained on that land for a
while. One of their children was a mailman and your Aunt Sissy Brooks knew him
or just knew of him but had many stories to tell me about the family because she
connects to the second wife of T. R. When I found Aunt Sissy on a census,
both of her widowed grannies were living in their home.
William Henry had married Martha Hill, a daughter of
John Hill in SC and they migrated with Peter as well. Another amazing estate
record found in the archives.
John Hill settled in Dublin where we find Hills Chapel
and the family cemetery where Martha's son, Peter
Edward, born 1834 is buried
beside Robert L. Hill and Alice Lorena Stephens Bozeman. The church sign has a
dedication at the bottom referring to William Hill. Dora Dillard Bozeman's
granddaughter Dora Stubbs met us there and shared so much information, as well
as many of the Gibsons in that area. They said over fifty graves are in that
private family cemetery going back to the first John Hill but we just could not
uncover all of the debris which had collected since 1800.
We know nothing about the wife of the first John Hill;
the mother of Martha. After William died and Jesse petitioned the court for the
Widows Dowry, all recorded in Montgomery and listed the heirs, Martha wanted to
move closer to her own family down the road, so she left Hope Hull and moved to
Dublin near John Hill. Most of the other women on that census page are about her
age, also born in SC, and could be her sisters, as they shared many of the same
names of their own children. John Hill witnessed a document for Nancy Jane
Anderson Bozeman to file for a widows pension when Peter Edward died. She
was the mother of my grandpa John Thomas Bozeman, and oh my, very many
named a son John Thomas.
Surely Peter stayed in
touch with his brother John
of Mississippi, as the children seemed to visit back and forth. Sterling
Campbell may have died young as we find Lucy with her children living in
Talladega in a later census. The Campbells and Calloways were also all over the
place in many documents. A Norman Campbell married Martha's daughter and I am
thinking oh no, not a cousin!
Peter's grandson, Jesse A. married Missouri Flinn, a
daughter of Bunberry Flinn. Bunberry worked for Abner McGee, a local
contractor.
The Bozemans were farmers and contractors and had their
own grist mill. But the Civil War caused a great loss. Much of the south was
burned down and destroyed, so it was a long hard struggle to come back,
especially with the many illnesses and epidemics that were spread. Between Hope
Hull and Maxwell AFB our Uncle Robert Bozeman owned a farm where he created the
Memorial Cemetery, where most of my mom's family is buried, at the curve of
Bozeman and Simmons Roads.
Others
from South Carolina were the Broadway
families, Lee, Cooper, Mills, Moon, McClain, Fenn, Stone
all intermarried with our ancestors and I have many documents
following their awesome journey.
One record shows Abner Broadway as a deserter yet
another shows us that he was in fact a prisoner
of war, while several in his family were also soldiers of the revolution. Gideon
Moon's daughter Elizabeth married a Charles McClain around 1750 in Virginia and
they migrated to SC, with descendants marrying Bozeman in Alabama.
Nathaniel Dillard and several Stephens plantations once
existed in this area. Many of the
Stephens families migrated to Florida and many other families explored the west.
Some went back to the Carolinas.
Wagon Tracks book written by Doyle Fenn...
Fenn, Stone, Carter, all intermarried with the Bozeman
and McClain clan and many of them had unknown wives as well, but they also all
served their country and make us proud. The Carters were many and my grandpa
Carter said they were Cherokee; his mother was Annie Stone, and she married
several times, having several children. Her first husband William Fenn came from
a family born in Georgia in the early 1800s while there still many indians in
the territory. Annie also married a Dasher and a Carter, who may or may not be
connected to the above mentioned John Wise Carter.
Annie's grandchild, Anne Carter, married Frank Cochran,
the son of Frank D. Cochran and Luella Coonfield, both with ancestors who were
also of a strong military background. The mother of Frank D. was Clora Jane
Miller, as written in Milo Custer's book, The Rev. Alexander Miller of Virginia.
Alexander born in the 1700s is also listed online in cemetery records of
Rockingham, Virginia.
Luella's parents were Lattie Little and Benjamin
Coonfield. The Coonfields are found in Kentucky tax records and then in Indiana
Early settlers books. The Littles as well are written about in several Kentucky
history books as the counties developed, and how Captain George Little had to
pay no taxes there in 1802 because of his injuries in the War.
Perhaps he was an Invalid. Perhaps that is why Peter
Bozeman tried so hard to establish that fact for himself.
Clora Jane's mother was Mary Clara Parker of New York
Indian Territory, bringing in the other ancestors's names like Sara Tefft of
Rhode Island history and a Sarah White, an indian.
Charles Weatherford's mother was an indian. He is
written in Charlotte VA history paying his church tithings and also as the
father of Catherine who married John Wright in 1811 and their daughter,
Catherine Wright married Hiram Lucius Little in Kentucky. Many of the
Weatherfords moved into the Carolinas and Georgia.
Martin was in GA and he was the father of Charles.
Martin led the Creeks in a battle there. Charles went to Alabama and married
Sehoy, having children Catherine and William. Wm became Chief Red Eagle. As
Charles left his family in VA, I did find a younger Charles there on a census,
near a Patsy with three daughters. Patsy may have been the abandoned wife. She
followed her children into Kentucky. Patsy was quite probably the mother
of Catherine and Martha.
Charles may have had other wives or consorts or many
other children as he traveled.
His father Martin also remarried and had another son
named Charles born in Georgia. Martin and his family went back and forth
to the Bahamas.
What a messed up family!
Catherine Wright's sister, Martha, also married a
Little. His name was Douglass and he became a lawyer and a judge as written in
the KY history books. Catherine and Hiram had several children and he was a
surgeon in the civil war. After she died the children were reared by Martha and
Hiram went to Tennessee to visit his Uncle John, where he met and married a 14
yr old Rebecca and moved on to Meridian Texas. One of Catherine's children was
John Wright Little. My daddy's sister Bernice Cochran told me that John refused
indian land in Oklahoma.
Many family researchers before us worked on finding
more information on that.
Martha and Douglass named a son Lucius Powhatan Little
yet they had no connection to that town.
When the Civil War began, we had ancestors in the north
and in the south. The Littles were many in the Union Army, the Coonfields,
Millers and Parkers, and Frank D. Cochran's father, Jacob Benjamin Cochran of
Ohio born in 1822. Jacob's father and grandfather were the only two Cochrans on
military lands in Guernsey Ohio in 1820.
Luella's son Frank served in the Korean War, was
wounded and then stationed in Alabama's Maxwell AFB and while in town he met my
mother Anne Carter. I married a Brooks and did his family tree as well.
He and his mother were very pale and had fuzzy hair,
yet one of his brothers had black hair and very dark skin. His mother had a
granny, near Kowaliga, Mary Angeline Partridge Thornton, who was an indian from
Georgia.
However, the Brooks came out of Tennessee, with a long
lineage of early settlers of that area, where Sequoiya wrote his alphabet. John
Brooks married a beautiful dark Annie Ballard of Tennesssee before they moved to
Montgomery. Their son James married Susie Cooper.
Chambers County was a popular settlement for several of
our family names where I found one of my husband's GGG great grandfather
Elijah LEE. From GA he married Malinda Phillips and had a
daughter named Sara who married a neighbor, Charner P. Cooper. It's been
said that LEE served in the War of 1812 but I would sure love to know who his
parents were. His son James served in the Confederacy and is buried near
him at the Old Harmony Church.
Notice how so many full names of the wives are known
and some are not.
clue!!!
