The Third Generation in Winter Garden

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James Alexander Reaves was born on May 4, 1861, just before his father Daniel Asbury Reaves joined the 3rd Florida Infantry.  As a young boy, James arrived in Winter Garden with his parents, younger sister and brother along with his baby brother that was not yet a year old. James himself was only eight.

On June 4, 1884, James married Jimmie Tellula Donnie Letson.  Jimmie was born April 24, 1864 to Sethiel J. Letson and MaryAnn E. Dearing.  Her father, like James’ father Daniel was a Civil War Veteran.  By 1887 when James’ parents along with most of his siblings returned north to settle in Bradford County, Florida, James remained at Reaves Settlement in Winter Garden along with his younger brother Mark Bryan Reaves.  James was an established citrus grower and farmer who had acquired a vast amount of land.

James and Jimmie had nine (9) children.

Alberta (Ada Belle) Reaves was born in May of 1885. She would marry Dudley Lanier Clyatt by 1908, in Worthington Springs, Union County, Florida.  Dudley was the brother of Samuel “Dee” Reaves’ wife, Mattie.

Olin Reaves was born November 8, 1887, in Winter Garden, Florida.  He died November 18, 1906.

James Glover Reaves was born September 7, 1889, in Winter Garden, Florida.  James Glover married Minnie Ada Walker, and they had five girls.  He died October 21, 1973 in Micanopy, Alachua County, Florida.

Ida Reaves was born 1891, in Winter Garden, Florida.  She married W.D. Martin from High Springs, Alachua County, Florida.  She died January 16, 1980.

Irvin Raleigh Reaves was born July 16, 1892, in Winter Garden Florida.  Irvin married Winnie Roberson and established his residence in Marion County, Florida.

Mabel Claire Reaves was born March 30, 1894 in Winter Garden, Florida.  She married Edwin F. Johnson and had four children.  Mabel and Edwin Johnson remained at Reaves Settlement (Beulah) until their deaths.  They are buried at Beulah Cemetery, in Winter Garden, Florida.

Creasy Reaves was born in 1896 in Winter Garden, Florida.  She married Albert Bronson and they had three children.  Creasy died in 1936, at the young age of forty, in Winter Garden, Florida.   She is also buried at Beulah Cemetery.

Sethiel Asbury Reaves was born in March 21, 1898, in Winter Garden, Florida.  He married Sallie Frances Martin and died May 3, 1973, Marion County, Florida.

Mamie Mildred Reaves was born March 5, 1900, in Winter Garden, Florida.  She married William Eugene Hendry and had five children.  She died November 4, 1933, in Highlands, Florida.

James Alexander Reaves died May 9, 1939.  His wife Jimmie continued to live in Winter Garden, until her death in May of 1951.  They are both buried in the Beulah Cemetery in Winter Garden, along with many other Reaves ancestors.  Many generations of their descendants remain in Winter Garden, Florida today.

The Second Son – Daniel Asbury Reaves

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Rev. Daniel Asbury Reaves, the Second Son

Rev. Daniel Asbury Reaves, the Second Son

Company H of the Third Florida Infantry consisted of one hundred and thirty two (132) volunteers from Jefferson County, Florida.  The “H” company was called “The Jefferson Rifles” and would include three (3) Reaves brothers under the command of Captain William Girardeau.

Samuel J. Reaves, the third son of Rev. and Mrs. Rawlins Reaves would be the first of the three brothers to fall, Samuel died May 9, 1862, in Gainesville Florida.  Just over six months later, during the Battle of Stones River, which sometimes is called the Battle of Murfreesboro, James Alexander Reaves sustained serious injury. The bloody battle was fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee.  Of the major battles of the Civil War, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides.  James was taken to Foard Hospital in Chattanooga, where he died from his wounds on January 12, 1863.  Soon, the family of Rev, Rawlins Reaves would hear the wretched news once more, this time of their eldest son’s death.

The only surviving Reaves brother of the Jefferson Rifles would continue with the Confederates through Tennessee.  Daniel Asbury Reaves was the second to eldest son of Rev. and Mrs. Rawlins Reaves, a twenty five year old ordained Methodist Minister, like his father.  He married Lucretia Ann Sledge, some three or so years before the war started and before his enlistment had seen his first son born, which was named after Daniel’s older brother James Alexander.   Daniel Asbury Reaves would be wounded on September 20 1863 at the Battle of Chickamauga.  He would be the only brother of the three that would return home to Monticello, in Jefferson County, Florida.  On April 15, 1865 he signed an order swearing to not bear arms against the United States of America.

After the war the clan of Rev. and Mrs. Rawlins Reaves along with their now adult children moved two-hundred miles south to establish Reaves Settlement, just outside of the small town of Winter Garden in Central Florida.  Daniel Asbury Reaves and Lucretia (Creasy) Ann Sledge would follow, just after the birth of their fourth child in 1869.

Daniel Asbury Reaves and Lucretia (Creasy) Ann Sledge would have a total of eight (8) children.

James Alexander Reaves – born May 4, 1861 in Monticello, Florida married Jimmie Tellula Donnie Letson in 1884.  He died in 1939, Winter Garden, Florida.

Sallie Crew Reaves– born October 23, 1864 in Monticello, Florida married Orville Leroy “Jeff” Mizelle in 1889.  Sallie died February 15, 1949 in Lake Butler, Union county, Florida.

Samuel Darius “Dee” Reaves– born 1867 in Monticello, Florida, married Martha “Mattie” Jane Clyatt in 1891.

Rollins Green Reaves– born in 1869, married Iva May Knight in 1911.

Hester Elizabeth (Hattie) Reaves– born 1872, Hattie married William Townsend McIntosh in 1890.

Richard Mathis Reaves– born 1874, Richard married Rosa Bell Carver in 1897.  In 1930, after his first wife’s death, he would marry Lou Dugger.  Richard died April 28, 1952.

Whitmel Tison Reaves – born 1876, married Hattie Vanola Blair about 1904, and later he would marry Rosa Crews.  Whitmel died November 25, 1954.

Edwin Bryan Reaves – born June 10, 1881, and  married Rita Jane Watson in 1930.  He died August 26 1941.

In 1887, Daniel Asbury and Creasy Ann Sledge would move all of their family except their oldest son James, who was already established in Winter Garden, north to an area west of Worthington Springs, in then Bradford County, Florida, where they would live out the rest of his life.

Rev. Daniel Asbury Reaves

Rawlins L. Reaves, a Florida Pioneer

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Rev. Rawlins L Reaves, a traveling Methodist Minister

Rev. Rawlins L Reaves, a traveling Methodist Minister

Like many other pioneering  families in Florida, the Reaves family migrated south from the Carolinas.  Prior to the Revolutionary War the Reaves clan owned and operated Reaves Ferry in Horry County, South Carolina.  Mark Reaves and Spicy Ann Smith Reaves are both buried in the Reaves Family Cemetery in Horry County, South Carolina.  They had eleven (11) children.

Rawlins Lowndes Reaves was the youngest child of Mark Reaves and Spicy Ann Smith Reaves.  Rawlins married Delilah Ann Gilbert, in Thomasville Georgia after attending ministerial school in January of 1834.   They remained in Thomas, Georgia until 1843-44, when they moved their family to the town of Monticello, located in Jefferson County,  FL.  For over thirty-five years Rawlins preached the word of God, traveling throughout southern Georgia and parts of North and Central Florida.

Rawlins Lowndes Reaves and Delilah Ann Gilbert Reaves had eleven (11) children.

James Alexander Reaves – Born in Georgia in 1834.  James served in Company H, 3rd Florida Infantry Regiment, CSA, and died January 12, 1863 at Foard Hospital from wounds sustained in Chattanooga, TN.

Daniel Asbury Reaves – Born in Georgia in 1836, he married Lucretia (Creasy) Ann Sledge in 1858.   On April 25, 1862 he joined Company H, 3rd Florida Infantry Regiment, CSA, and was wounded at Chickamauga on September 20 1863. Daniel served in the war until April 15, 1865.  He died October 30, 1902, Worthington Springs, Union County, Florida.

Elizabeth “Bessy” Herd Reaves  – Born in Georgia in 1839 she married G W Jeffcoat and moved to St. Lucie County, Florida where she died in 1921.

Samuel Johnson Reaves – Born in Georgia in 1841, he served in Company H, 3rd Florida Infantry Regiment, CSA, until his death May 9, 1862, Gainesville Florida.

Richard Gilbert Reaves – Born 1844 in Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida.   He married Jane E. (Jenny) Taff, and died July 1, 1912, Bradford County, Florida.

Mark Bryan Reaves – Born 1846 in Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida,  he married Catherine F. Reams in 1870. He Died June 1, 1924, in Winter Garden, Orange County, Florida.

Joshua Thomas Reaves – Born 1848, Monticello, Jefferson County, Fl.  and died January 6, 1930, Kissimmee, Osceola County, Florida.

Solomon Reaves – Born 1850 in Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida.  Married Alice A. Speer in 1874.  His date and place of death is unknown at this time.

Spicy A. Reaves – Born 1852 in Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida.  She married E. Lewis Daniel Overstreet in 1872.  She died December 13 1910, Kissimmee, Osceola County, Florida.

Martha Matilda Reaves – Born in Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida in 1854.  She married William Pinkney Reams in 1874 and she died in 1910.

Rawlins Lowndes Reaves, Jr. – Born 1857, Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida   He married Emma Leticia Martin in 1879 and he died March 5, 1941, in Winter Garden, Orange County, Florida.

After the civil war, Rawlins Lowndes Reaves Sr. relocated his now mostly adult family from Monticello, Florida, in Jefferson County, some 220 miles south through unsettled territory to establish Reaves settlement located just west of Winter Garden, Florida in 1867.

After Delilah’s death in 1876, Rawlins Sr. married Augusta Ann Stanly in 1878.  They had two additional children.

John Lattimore Reaves – Born 1879, Winter Garden, FL

Rosabelle Reaves – Born 1882, Winter Garden, FL

Rawlins Lowndes Reaves died February 1, 1901, in Winter Garden, Florida, where many of his descendants still live today.  However, Reaves settlement is now known as Beulah and Reaves road remains a major road in the community.  Rawlins Lowndes Reaves was my gr. gr. gr. great-grandfather.

Christmas Past

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Christmas Customs

An article from The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter, vol. 16, no. 4, winter of 1995-96 written by Emma L. Powers, a historian in the department of Historical Research at Colonial Williamsburg.

Christmas in colonial Virginia was very different from our twentieth-century celebration. Eighteenth-century customs don’t take long to recount: church, dinner, dancing, some evergreens, visiting–and more and better of these very same for those who could afford more. It’s certainly a short list, I tell myself, as I plan meals, go shopping, bake cookies, write three hundred cards, stuff stockings, and dog-ear or recycle the hundreds of catalogs that begin arriving at my house in October.

Attend church, stick some holly on the window panes, fix a great dinner, go to one party, visit or be visited. It sounds so refreshingly easy and simple and quick. But I’d miss a tree with lots of lights and all my favorite ornaments collected over the years. And if there were only one special meal, how could I hope to eat my fill of turkey and goose, both mince-pie and fruitcake, shrimp as well as oysters? Materialist that I am, I would surely be disappointed if there were no packages to open on the morning of December 25.

Our present Christmas customs derive from a wide array of inspirations, nearly as various and numerous as the immigrants who settled this vast country. Most of the ways Americans celebrate the midwinter holiday came about in the nineteenth century, but we’re extraordinarily attached to our traditions and feel sure that they must be very old and supremely significant. What follows is a capsule history of some of our most loved Christmas customs. Perhaps both residents and visitors will enjoy learning the background of one or more of these rites. I offer them in the spirit of the season: with best wishes for continuing health and happiness to all!

Christmas, a children’s holiday? No eighteenth-century sources highlight the importance of children at Christmastime–or of Christmas to children in particular. For instance, Philip Vickers Fithian’s December 18, 1773, diary entry about exciting holiday events mentions: “the Balls, the Fox-hunts, the fine entertainments. . .” None was meant for kids, and the youngsters were cordially not invited to attend. Sally Cary Fairfax was old enough to keep a journal and old enough to attend a ball at Christmas 1771, so she was not one of the “tiny tots with their eyes all aglow.” The emphasis on Christmas as a magical time for children came about in the nineteenth century. We must thank the Dutch and Germans in particular for centering Christmas in the home and within the family circle.

Gift giving. Williamsburg shopkeepers of the eighteenth century placed ads noting items appropriate as holiday gifts, but New Year’s was as likely a time as December 25 for bestowing gifts. Cash tips, little books, and sweets in small quantities were given by masters or parents to dependents, whether slaves, servants, apprentices, or children. It seems to have worked in only one direction: children and others did not give gifts to their superiors. Gift-giving traditions from several European countries also worked in this one-way fashion; for example, St. Nicholas filled children’s wooden shoes with fruit and candy in both old and New Amsterdam. (Eventually, of course, “stockings hung by the chimney with care” replaced wooden shoes.) We must attribute the exchange of gifts among equals and from dependents to superiors to good old American influences. Both twentieth-century affluence and diligent marketing has made it the norm in the last fifty years or so.

Santa Claus too is an American invention, although an amalgam of American, Dutch, and English traditions: partly the lean, ascetic Saint Nicholas, he is also related to the bacchanalian Father Christmas. While many countries and ethnic groups have a Christmastime gift bringer, the “right jolly old elf” dressed in red and fur and driving his sleigh and reindeer sprang from the pen and imagination of New Yorker Clement Clark Moore. In his 1823 poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas,” Moore created the new look for the Christmas gift-giver. Cartoonist Thomas Nast completed the vision with his 1860s drawings that still define how we see Santa.

Christmas cards. Printers have been cashing in on Christmas since the eighteenth century–at least in London and other large cities. Schoolboys (and I do mean only the young males) filled in with their best penmanship pages pre-printed with special holiday borders. “Christmas pieces” they were called. But the Christmas card per se was a nineteenth-century English invention.

Garlands and greens. Decorations for the midwinter holidays consisted of whatever natural materials looked attractive at the bleakest time of year–evergreens, berries, forced blossoms–and the necessary candles and fires. In ancient times, Romans celebrated their Saturnalia with displays of lights and hardy greenery formed into wreaths and sprays. Christian churches have long been decorated for Christmas. The tradition goes back so far that no one knows for certain when or where it began.

No early Virginia sources tell us how, or even if, colonists decorated their homes for the holidays, so we must rely on eighteenth-century English prints. Of the precious few–only half a dozen–that show interior Christmas decorations, a large cluster of mistletoe is always the major feature for obvious reasons. Otherwise, plain sprigs of holly or bay fill vases and other containers of all sorts or stand flat against window panes. (I cannot tell for sure how these last were attached; perhaps the stems were merely stuck between the glass and the wooden muntins.)

Christmas trees. If we had to choose the one outstanding symbol of Christmas, of course it must be the gaily decorated evergreen tree with a star at the very top. German in origin, “Tannenbaum”:; gained acceptance in England and the United States only very slowly. The first written reference to a Christmas tree dates from the seventeenth century when a candle-lighted tree astonished residents of Strasbourg. I have found nothing recorded in the eighteenth century about holiday trees in Europe or North America. By the nineteenth century a few of the ” German toys” use Charles Dickens’s phrase) appeared in London. But these foreign oddities were not yet accepted. When a print of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s very domestic circle around a decorated tree at Windsor Castle appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1848, the custom truly caught on.

At about the same time, Charles Minnegerode, a German professor at the College of William and Mary, trimmed a small evergreen to delight the children at the St. George Tucker House. Martha Vandergrift, aged 95, recalled the grand occasion, and her story appeared in the Richmond News Leader on December 25, 1928. Presumably Mrs. Vandergrift remembered the tree and who decorated it more clearly than she did the date. The newspaper gave 1845 as the time, three years after Minnegerode’s arrival in Williamsburg. Perhaps the first Christmas tree cheered the Tucker household as early as 1842.

Christmas foods and beverages. Everyone wants more and better things to eat and drink for a celebration. Finances nearly always control the possibilities. In eighteenth century Virginia, of course, the rich had more on the table at Christmas and on any other day, too, but even the gentry faced limits in winter. December was the right time for slaughtering, so fresh meat of all sorts they had, as well as some seafood. Preserving fruits and vegetables was problematic for a December holiday. Then as now, beef, goose, ham, and turkey counted as holiday favorites; some households also insisted on fish, oysters, mincemeat pies, and brandied peaches. No one dish epitomized the Christmas feast in colonial Virginia.

Wines, brandy, rum punches, and other alcoholic beverages went plentifully around the table on December 25 in well-to-do households. Others had less because they could afford less. Slave owners gave out portions of rum and other liquors to their workers at Christmastime, partly as a holiday treat (one the slaves may have come to expect and even demand) and partly to keep slaves at the home quarter during their few days off work. People with a quantity of alcohol in them were more likely to stay close to home than to run away or travel long distances to visit family.

Length of the Christmas season. Eighteenth-century Anglicans prepared to celebrate the Nativity during Advent, a penitential season in the church’s calendar. December 25, not a movable feast, began a festive season of considerable duration. The twelve days of Christmas lasted until January 6, also called Twelfth Day or Epiphany. Colonial Virginians thought Twelfth Night a good occasion for balls, parties, and weddings. There seems to have been no special notice of New Year’s Eve in colonial days. (Maybe that is to be expected since Times Square was not yet built and Guy Lombardo had not been born.) Most music historians agree that the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” with all its confusing rigmarole of lords a-leaping and swans a-swimming was meant to teach children their numbers and has no strong holiday connection.

In the late 1990s the Christmas season seems to begin right after Halloween and comes to a screeching halt by Christmas dinner (or with the first tears or first worn-out battery, whichever comes first). We emphasize the build-up, the preparation, the anticipation. Celebrants in the eighteenth century saw Christmas Day itself as only the first day of festivities. Probably because customs then were fewer and preparations simpler, colonial Virginians looked to the twelve days beyond December 25 as a way to extend and more fully savor the most joyful season of the year.

 

Sixth Grade Graduation Test of 1890

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Could you pass the 6th Grade Final Exam given in 1890?

It was a handwritten essay test using no notes or reference material. Everything must come out of your head in one sit down session in front of the teacher. There is a time limit of four hours. Many parents took education very seriously as they had to pay taxes for the schools whether their kids went or not. If you failed it as a twelve (12) year old you are considered unsuitable for school and must do hard work on the farm all day for the next six years without pay. Also if you fail it you will have a free trip to the woodshed where father will administer a thorough switching to your bare butt with a willow switch.

Instructions
Using correct spelling, grammar and good hand writing elaborate on the answers in essay form.

U.S. History
1. Name the parts of the Bill of Rights and explain which rights they protect.
2. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
3. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
4. Tell what you can of the history of Michigan.
5. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
6. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865?

Geography
1. Name each of the states in the USA and give its capital.
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate?
3. Describe the mountains of N.A.
4. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
5. Describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, and Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10.Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth.

Arithmetic
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cents per bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 1 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $.20 per inch?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?
10.Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

Grammar
1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of do, lie, lay and run.
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principle marks of Punctuation.

Orthography
1. Give two rules for spelling words with final ‘e’. Name two exceptions under each rule.
2. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
3. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: Bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, and super.
4. Use the following correctly in sentences, Cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, and rays.
5. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Did you pass?

First Thanksgiving

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As a student in America’s public school system you are taught “Thanksgiving” began on the shores of Plymouth, in present-day Massachusetts, in the year of 1621. However, historical documents describe an earlier record of a “Day of Thanksgiving” celebrated on the shores of the James River, in 1619 when a group of 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred on the North bank of the James River, near Herring Creek in an area then known as Charles Cittie.

On the day of their arrival, December 4, 1619, Captain John Woodleaf held a service of thanksgiving and declared, “Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

The Charter of Berkeley Plantation specifies that “the first day of its occupants arrival shall be observed yearly as a “day of thanksgiving to God”. Berkley Hundred is located about 20 miles upstream from Jamestown, where the first permanent settlement of Virginia was established on May 14, 1607.

The Genealogy Christmas Gift

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The realization of my husband’s unknown ancestry becomes my quest, ‘To find the stories of his Ancestors past’.   He has very little information about who they were or where they came from, so I dig in hard to see what I can find.  It becomes like a hidden treasure map to me, soon finding one then the next with many of the men in his direct paternal line being men of elevated standing during their time.  One is the youngest state attorney ever appointed, another a senator, the next a war hero-if I may, who his opponent could never hold, but one in the same as the Lieutenant who lost several cousins riding with him in Florida’s First Calvary.  Proudly reporting back to my husband, with one find then the next, I easily go back several generations, finding more and more.  The hunt becomes an addiction.  Who or what will I find next?

For Christmas of 2007, we give my father in-law a family tree of his direct paternal lineage going back to the 1600’s, and in return I receive the best gift I could ask for.  Not a gift as a package would be, but a request to find a new story.  My father in-law wants to know about the Minorcan heritage he always heard of through his grandmother’s line, the Senator’s wife, who became the third female to take and pass the Florida bar.

Her name is Nancy L. Langford, born September 22, 1879, Bradford County, Florida.  Her father John Alexander Langford, born Columbia County, Florida November 26, 1837. Her mother, Nancy Alice Roberts, born in 1844.  I continue up the maternal line with Roberts leading me to John J. Roberts her father and Sarah “Sallie” Sweat, her mother, the beginning of a new line to explore, the Sweats.

Buried not far from where we currently live on old family property, we go to the cemetery and find their graves.  The question of the Minorcan heritage again surfaces.  Could Sallie Sweat be of Minorcan descent?

Maybe it was pronounced Sweet?  Sweat could be Sweet I thought.  In genealogy we find there can be many variations in a single generation, depending on who records the entry.  Not far to our east is St. Augustine, where many Minorcans lived in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, when Florida was a Spanish Territory.  Could it be so simple?

As a genealogist, we search for facts that can be supported by records or documents such as birth records, a last will and testament, a census, tax and land records and even the local telegraph.  With a very clear documented history, Sarah “Sallie” Sweat’s father is John Sweat, born c. 1794 Burke, Bulloch County, Georgia (Pioneers of Wiregrass, 1850 Columbia County, Florida Federal Census.) John Sweat married Charlotte Moore, (Pioneers of Wiregrass.;  and then I find them in 1850 Columbia County, Florida (Federal Census).  John Sweat dies in 1868, New River County, which is now known as Bradford County, Florida.  John served in the Indian Wars as a private in Captain Jonathan Knight’s company of Lowndes County Militia, 1840. (Pioneers of Wiregrass)  Is this another clue?   Jonathan Knight is my husband’s fourth generation direct paternal great grandfather.  Soon after arriving in Florida, John Sweat served as a Justice of the Peace in Columbia County, Florida from 1845 to 1847 (source: Pioneers of Wiregrass.)

Further,  I trace back another generation to Nathan (sometimes written Nathaniel) Sweat, R.S., born between c.1753-1760 of Marion District, South Carolina.   Nathan is listed in Captain Robert Lide’s Company of Volunteer Militia who signed a petition to the Council of Safety of South Carolina on 9 October 1775. He was counted as white in 1790, head of a Beaufort District, South Carolina, a household of one white male over 16, one white male under 16, and four white females [SC:11].  Next I find another reference to a Nathan Sweat in a book by Genealogist/Historian Paul Heinegg, called “Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.”

Free African Americans?  But Nathan Sweat, R.S. is listed as white in the census of 1790 Beaufort, SC.  Is this the same Sweat family?

Looking in the Georgia Black Book, I find on page 90 a Nathan Sweat, son of Nathan Sweat (R.S.) being arrested and gives his physical description.
Sweat, Nathan – Cattle Stealing, 7 Jan 1836 Appling Co., Farmer Georgia 39 yrs.,  6’2″
Dark complexion, dark hair, dark eyes. He is pardoned 30 Nov 1837.

John’s father Nathan had at least seven children, and one was named Nathan, Jr.   With my interest now peeked, my search intensifies.  According to the Reverend Alexander Gregg, Rector of St. David’s Church in Cheraw, South Carolina, William was the father of Nathan, James and William Sweat. [Gregg, History of the Old Cheraws, 101, 311, 312].   William Sweat marries Lucy Turbeville/Turbevil, c. 1750, South Carolina. Reverend Gregg’s account also lists William Sweat as a Mulatto/Melungeon.

Until this point, every census has listed  their race as White.  I now realize the Sweat line is not of a Minorcan heritage at all, it is documented to be Melungeon.

Melungeon-(pron.) is a term traditionally applied to one of a number of tri-racial isolate groups.

Tri-racial-(pron.) describes populations thought to be of mixed European, sub Saharan African and Native American Ancestry.

On 23 July 1763 William Sweat is named as executor and son-in-law of John Turbeville who mentions his daughter Lucy Sweat and grandson Nathan Sweat in his Craven County, South Carolina will (which was proved 3 August the same year.) [WB RR: 55].   On the 16th July, 1772, William receives a grant of 150 acres on Three Creeks in Craven County, Beaufort District of South Carolina.  William Sweat dies 23 Jul 1783, in Hunt’s  Bluff, Cheraw District, Chesterfield, SC.   He becomes known as William Sweat of Hunt’s Bluff.

Who is William Sweat of Old Cheraw? His father was also named William Sweat.  He was born in 1690, Surry County, Virginia.  Surry County…….this is a new clue.  Note: Part of James City County, VA became Surry County, VA.

Next a simple google.com search sends me into a tale-spin!

From the Minutes of the Governor’s Council.

17 October 1640: James City Court: “Whereas Robert Sweat hath begotten with child a negro woman servant belonging unto Lieutenant Sheppard, the court hath therefore ordered that the said negro woman shall be whipt at the whipping post and the said Sweat shall tomorrow in the forenoon do public penance for his offence at James City church in the time of divine service according to the laws of England in that case provided.” [Virginia Council and General Court Records 1640-1641, in “Virginia Magazine of History” Vol. II, p. 281] This was a general law against fornication that applied to all members of the colony.   Note that she was a servant and not a slave.

Within six months, she again is brought before the court, but this time by her husband.

March 31, 1641-Suit of John Gowen;

“Whereas it appeareth to the court that John Gowen, being a negro servant
unto William Evans, was permitted by his said master to keep hogs and make
the best benefit thereof to himself provided that the said Evans might have
half the increase which was accordingly rendered unto him by the said negro
and the other half reserved for his own benefit: And whereas the said negro
having a young child of a negro woman belonging to Lt. Robert Sheppard which
he desired should be made a Christian and be taught and exercised in the
church of England, by reason whereof he, the said negro did for his said
child purchase its freedom of Lt. Sheppard with the good liking and consent
of Tho: Gooman’s overseer as by the deposition of the said Sheppard and Ewens
appeareth, the court hath therefore ordered that the child shall be free from
the said Evans or his assigns and to be and remain at the disposing and
education of the said Gowen and the child’s godfather who undertaketh to see
it brought up in the Christian religion as aforesaid.”

My heart sinks.  Who is this woman?  What is her story?  How did she find herself in such a situation?

Subscribe to my blog and continue to read my discovery of her story.

DNA – the ultimate ancestry search

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Could William Kirkland from Edgefield, SC be of North Carolina Cherokee descent?

Could William Kirkland from Edgefield, SC be of North Carolina Cherokee descent?

DNA results can even surprise a family historian and professional Genealogist.  DNA is a must if you want to discover your TRUE identity.  When the Kinfolk Detective receives unexpected DNA results a new search took flight.  Surnames which were believed to be English, Irish, and Scottish, are ultimately only Partially European with the balance being Jewish, African, Middle Eastern and Asian.

Hall, Blount, Baker, Davis, Brazel, Moore, Kirkland and Creed are my Paternal surnames and Graves, Witty, Davis, Roberts, Johnson, Erikson, Reaves, and Letson  are my Maternal.   Now, after receiving these DNA results I will begin a new journey to find the origin of each of the surnames in these four generations.  (By the fifth generation the amount of a specific strain would be non-reportable.)

I will begin with my Paternal gr. great grandparents Kirkland and Creed.    These surnames are in my fathers maternal line, and his mother’s maternal grandparents.    William Kirkland married Angeline Irine Creed in 1875.  According to an 1900 census, Born in South Carolina, William Kirkland was 52 years of age.  His wife of twenty-five years born in Georgia was 49 years of age and they were residing in Sawdust, Tattnall County, Georgia with ten of their children.  My grandmothers, mother was their youngest at the age of one.  Lucky for me, my 97-year-old grandmother is living and has a powerful memory.  After questioning her, I find she remembers her mother telling her that her grandmother was a North Carolina Cherokee.  Could this be a strain I’m looking for?

I search the internet, looking specifically for South Asian DNA with the population being Southeast Indian, North Indian and Middle Eastern DNA with the population being from Bedouin, and Mozabite.  I find there are several suggestions of North Carolina Cherokee Indian.  Could this be the link?  After a Google search with the keywords Kirkland and North Carolina Indian,  I find Nathan Kirkland “Cheesequire” who was a Cherokee Indian chief who lived to be 135 years of age reported to have descendants living in Edgefield, SC, where William Kirkland was born.  Could this be a clue?  Could William Kirkland be of North Carolina Cherokee descent?

Continue to follow  under my “exploring DNA” category.

message boards

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When you hit a brick wall, chances are you are not the first one to hit the same bricks.   Check out the message boards at http://ancestry.com they can be quite useful.  Many family historians and genealogist use these message boards as a means of HELP, and we can all use a little help now and then.  Read, Read, Read! Each question asked and answered can be a clue.  It may not apply now, but read it anyway.  It might put two pieces of a puzzle together one day when your looking another direction.  You should check message boards for each and every surname in your family tree.  Sometimes you can find interesting information, maybe even a story  that was passed down and was lucky enough to find its way to pencil and paper.

Fold3.com a military website

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If your searching for a male ancestor born 16-30 years prior to any war, check out http://FOLD3.com.  This is a military website that can provide immense information.  Looking for my husbands great-grandfather’s military records I made a HUGE discovery.  His name was Daniel Burnett Knight, born in 1833 and the oldest son of nine siblings.     From Fold3’s carded records much information can be learned.   Age, Rank-in/Rank-out, location enlisted, battles fought, injuries as well as all the other members enlisted in the same company.

On October 17, 1861, in Middleburg, Florida, at the age of 27, Daniel Burnett Knight enlisted under the command of Captain Summerlin to Florida’s First Calvary, Company C,  entering with the rank of 3rd Lieutenant.  As I explore the other members of Company C, I realize many are first and second cousins to Lt. D.B. Knight, all enlisting the same day, in Middleburg, FL.  The further I dig, I find the deaths of three brothers, Lt. Knight’s first cousins, who were killed under his command at Missionary Ridge where the confederates took serious casualties.  What a sobering letter he must have written to his Aunt and Uncle reporting the deaths of their three boys.  Then I find a father’s signature signing for his three son’s belongings and pay.   I can’t imagine the grief they withstood.

Looking through each card whether a receipt or a commission, injury, or illness a forgotten story emerges.  I find a letter that was written to the wife of a General who was captured along with Daniel Burnett Knight at Missionary Ridge.  The letter explains that Lt. Knight escaped the Unions grips and made if back to the Confederate camp without further issue, telling information of the captured officers condition to be passed on to their loved ones.  Riveting stuff!

Would I have found this information without FOLD3?  Maybe, maybe not, but its a great website to start with even with the minimal membership costs.  Its a great tool!