Re: Jeremiah Bentley b1759 15th VA at Valley Forge AM REV VET # S39192
-
In reply to:
Re: Jeremiah Bentley b1759 15th VA at Valley Forge AM REV VET # S39192
George Ferdinand Bentley 10/23/10
Hi George,
Thanks for your response.Untangling the Lawrence Co., TN Lindsey's and sorting them into correct lineages is proving very difficult, given the fact that there were multiple generations of orphans and not many records that give family data.I have recently received about three hundred pages of documents from the Lawrence County Archives, which includes nearly all the Lindsey family information they have on file.Even with all that is in the documents, straightening out the lines will be difficult.
First, about Alonzo Lindsey, who seems to have done the most work to try to find his ancestors:I have the complete memoir, which is a handwritten document of 24 pages, numbered by Alonzo. There is an additional page, which was the original first page, which Alonzo rewrote and replaced.I also have a typed transcript of the document, which does not include the original first page.The handwritten document includes the death date of his mother.Even if it didn't, the last few pages make it clear that the document was written closer to the end of Alonzo's life.
The last few pages include information about Alonzo's marriage and family.Alonzo gave the death date of his wife, Etha Jane Hagan, as April 26, 1924.He stated that at the time of his writing, he was living with his two children William and Daniel, and two grandchildren, Mary and Dan, Jr.So Alonzo's autobiography had to have been written after 1924.
The original first page included information that told of his ill health as a young child.Alonzo wrote "...Throughout childhood, boyhood, and in early manhood, my health was poor.After I grew old enough to attend schools, I was sent to various places, all in the hope that I might gain normal health.My first experience was at Jackson Academy, 2 years, (a girls school) at Lawrenceburg.A little later I went to Pleasant Grove Academy, Pleasant Grove Tennessee, and boarded at the residence of Jno Ramsey (brother to my stepfather)...My health, which had always been poor, seemed even worse, and hoping that mountain air might help, Uncle Jasper Bailey suggested that I come to Nashville and then sent me to Burnell College, located at Spences Van Buren County, Tennessee..."
So Alonzo spent much time away at boarding schools.His interest in family history seems to have developed at a later stage in his life, as evidenced in other documents.
In another memoir, typed on Western Union letterhead and dated July 21, 1927, Alonzo wrote..."Solinah (my mother) married Edward Newton Lindsey, whose father Edward volunteered and was a member of Andrew Jackson's forces from Tennessee to fight Creek Indians in Florida in 1813, he was killed somewhere in Florida, at that time my father Edward Newton was a very small boy, not old enough to think of relatives or know the value of Genealogy.One reason why I don't know more of my ancestors perhaps because my mother married about one year after her father Johnson Bailey moved to Lawrence county, and about 1837 or 1838 all of the Lindsey connection (Lindsey family) moved to southwestern Missouri and to Arkansas, of course my mother may have or may not have heard of this removal as it occured two or three years before her father's removal from Maury county, and they were in Maury only about two years, as near as we can locate their whereabouts, and of course didn't have time to get much acquainted, even with the Maury county people, much less the Lawrence or Giles county people.After I was grown and later married, I ascertained, more or less by accident, the name of one of the Lindsey family, who was ten years old when his father and kinmen moved from Lawrence county to Louisburg, Mo. and through him learned some little of the family...[note by Susan, there is quite a passage here about the Dallas Co., MO Lindsey's]..."One of my father's sisters born at Wilmington, N.C. Matilda who married Daniel Bentley, another sister Elizabeth married Dan. Kelly, pioneer forgeman of Lawrence county, another Keziah married Tannehill Tracy, all three and their husbands and nearly all, if not all, their children have died, one of them living that I know of, N. F. Tracy, now in the Ardmore Confederate home, about 87 years old.He served in the same company & regiment I did. 3rd"
In the above statement, there are a couple of errors. Matilda Lindsey was born in South Carolina, per 1850 census data, and Elizabeth Lindsey married James Kelly, not Daniel Kelly (per Lawrence Co. marriage records).Alonzo's family records are riddled with errors, so I can only use them as a general guide.
Alonzo had some correspondence with James A. Welch of Tuscumbia, AL, who was related somehow. In a letter to Alonzo written in 1931, James stated ..."I knew James Kelly who married Rebecca Elizabeth Lindsey.I knew of Jerry Lindsey who married Polly Kelly a sister of the said James Kelly - Also, knew Tannehill Tracy, whose first wife was a Lindsey, think he was living with a second wife when I knew him.I recall that you came to my house to see Aunt Eliza Kelly who was a daugher of Tracy by his Lindsey wife..."
So here is a cousin giving Alonzo family information.Again, there are some errors.Polly Kelly, the sister of James Kelly married Elliot Lindsey, not Jerry Lindsey, who was Elliot's son.I believe that Elliot also went by Alex Lindsey, because there is an 1818 Maury Co. marriage record for Alexander Lindsey and Mary Kelly.And in an 1866 equity case over the land that Mary Kelly Lindsey was living on as the widow of Elliot Lindsey, it was stated by a neighbor who had lived on adjacent land for 40 years, that he remembered when Alex Lindsey bought the land, and that Mary Lindsey had been living on the land ever since Alex died.
I have belabored the point about the Lindsey family history being garbled by Alonzo and his cousins.This is probably more Lindsey family information than you ever wanted.But it is part of the problem in trying to sort them out.
Now to your questions.
1)Do you have "Proof" of the c1777 DOB for Hannah widow Lindsey and/or her maiden name and POB? Answer: No. Hannah married Ezekiel Lindsey in Laurens Co., SC.Ezekiel was not married in 1790, but the 1800 census showed that he was married, and that he had two young sons. Ezekiel Lindsey sold his Laurens Co. land in 1804, and Hannah Lindsey released her dower rights. So if Hannah was Ezekiel's wife on the 1800 census, and they had two sons, they probably were married by 1796, giving her a DOB ca. 1776, if she was 20 when she was married. This fits well with Ann Bentley on the census. If Hannah was Ann Bentley, then she was born in North Carolina.I have seen Brashears as a maiden name for Hannah, but never any evidence offered.
2)Do you have her name as "Ann" in conjunction with Ezekiel? Answer: I have never seen her as Ann, only Hannah, in conjunction with Ezekiel, or her children, or any records. I only recently began to wonder who this Ann Bentley on the 1850 census was (Do you have any ideas?), and I began to wonder if it could be Hannah because of Matilda Rackley Lindsey living with her, and because she lived next to Lindsey's.I thought perhaps she told the census taker her name was Hannah, and the census taker heard an old woman saying Anna, and then wrote it as Ann.
3)When Jeremiah Bentley died in 1841, being that his wife "Hannah" was named in his 1835 will, is there any record of succession possibly giving more information regarding her? Answer: In the Lawrence Co. information I received from the Archives, there was nothing about an estate record for Ann Bentley.Of course, I had requested Lindsey family information.So I will have to contact the archivist to see if there is something on record that could shed some light on Ann Bentley.A Mrs. Bentley purchased some items at the estate sale of Elliot Lindsey, but that does not give us any proof of anything other than she must have lived nearby, which we already know from the census records.
4)Please list the correct children (as you have them) of Edward LINDSEY & Catherine HIGGINS, and their DOBs. (I did note that Alonzo's memoir [written c1877 at age 36] is somewhat vague, but his mother was still alive and didn't die until 1880 when he was almost 40). He grew up and was well educated with Lindsey cousins... and wrote his memoir when still young.Answer: I have already addressed the fact that Alonzo's memoirs were written much later in life (after 1924), and that he stated he did not know much about his family history.I will answer about the children with #5.
5)Please list the correct children (as you have them) of Ezekiel LINDSEY and Hannah ______, and their DOBs.
Answer to the query about the children of Edward and Ezekiel Lindsey: I believe that we might have to settle for some of the children being those of "either or" Edward and Ezekiel.And although there is some circumstantial evidence of Higgins being the maiden name of Catherine Lindsey, it has not been proved that Higgins was her father's surname.
One of the documents I received from the Lawrence County Archives was a letter written by Alonzo's son, Daniel A. Lindsey, to Irene Donohoe (a distant Lindsey cousin).The letter was undated, but it had to have been written after 1949, because Daniel mentioned writing to the General Services Administration, which was created in 1949. In the letter Daniel stated that Martha Lindsey (daughter of Edward A. Lindsey, another son of Alonzo) had found some notes in Edward's files that were written by Alonzo Lindsey.Daniel wrote that the notes stated that ..."Starling Lindsey (the elder) and Edward Newton Lindsey were first cousins - which makes it quite evident that the list I sent you of Edward Newton's brothers & sisters was not correct in every particular.In another memo are references to "Aunty Becky" and "Aunt Keziah"-so it would appear that at least those two were children of Edward L."...
So from Daniel's letter about Alonzo's notes, I think we can place Rebecca Elizabeth and Keziah Lindsey as children of Edward Lindsey who died in 1814.
The 1800 census for Laurens Co., SC showed that Edward Lindsey had one young daughter and Ezekiel had two young sons.So from this, and from Daniel Lindsey's letter about Alonzo's notes, I think we can place Starling Lindsey (b. ca. 1797, married in 1816) and Alexander Elliot Lindsey (married in 1818) as children of Ezekiel.
I don't know enough about the others at this time to place them with any certainty.Ezekiel Lindsey's 1808 probate papers did not state any names of his children.And Edward Lindsey was put to death by firing squad in 1815 for leading a mutiny in 1814.I have not been able to find any probate records for him in Maury Co., where he was living until his death.I also have not found out what happened to his widow, Catherine.
I imagine that the widows Hannah and Catherine helped each other to raise their orphaned children, and that the children grew up together. The lines between siblings and cousins may have become blurred.Most of the children married in Lawrence County, so that doesn't help to sort them either.
Perhaps it will turn out that Ann Bentley was Hannah Lindsey Bentley, and there will be some record for her that might name some heirs.
I wish I could be more definitive, but I have not found any source records that can help to nail these Lindsey's down.
Sincerely,
Susan