Re: Brown/Trewhitt--1800--TN
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In reply to:
Brown/Trewhitt--1800--TN
Renee Dauven 9/08/06
Renee and Dusti and other Fenton and James Brown family descendants
Every time I try to think about this, I get a headache.Renee, you wrote to me privately a few years ago about this and I never could get a good handle on what I wanted to answer.I too hope you are still out there in the ether and interested in spending some more time thinking about this.This post will be a ramble to anyone who is not a member of this family.I think the two of you will follow it?Hopefully others will pick up and find things to add from their research.I also hope you will tell me where you think my reasoning is off.There are admittedly many gaps in between known facts and my reasoning.
I have the census images for John and Elizabeth(s) Brown for 1850 and 1860 and also from Fenton and James and some of their descendants in Morgan and Cumberland Counties.I also have a few death records/certificates for some family members, including Fenton Brown and James Washington Brown.
My thoughts are:
Elizabeth Mumford, who was said in the newspaper article to be the daughter of Harriet Mumford, first married James Madison Trehitt (of variant spellings, depending on time and document).According to several un-sourced Internet trees, this Elizabeth Mumford was the daughter of Jesse Mumford with her mother unknown (could be Harriet?)Her birth date is estimated to be about 1771.That would make her in her seventies for the 1850 census, which would be consistent with her being the older Elizabeth Brown in that household.Could she be the one who married a James Brown after James Trewhitt died?Elizabeth Mumford had two sisters, Winnie or Winifred and Selah.Quite a few trees record their descendants in detail but with few sources.Then there is a notation in a place or two that Jesse Mumford also had a son, named Jesse, with a Native American woman.(Some of the trees make the Native American the mother of all four children.)Could this child be the Jesse Mumford, wolf trapper, living with John and the Elizabeth Browns in 1850—the brother of Elizabeth, Sr?
Then, I’m guessing that Elizabeth, Jr. in the 1850 census is the daughter of James and Elizabeth Trewhitt—perhaps married to a son (John) of the James Brown her mother married (or nephew or other male line relative).(Of course, for all we know, she could have been Elizabeth Smith or Jones and no relation to Elizabeth Brown, Sr. at all.I’m only guessing she is the daughter of Elizabeth, Sr.Maybe I’ve seen on some un-sourced tree that that Elizabeth Trewhitt married a Brown.)
It does seem likely that these Browns tie in with our Browns from Morgan and Cumberland Counties.If Elizabeth Sr. was born in the early to mid 1770’s, she would have been in her mid thirties to early forties when Fenton (c. 1807 as per 1850 census) and James (c. 1809 as per 1850 census) were born.So they could have been her children. I saw a date in one of those published trees for James Trewhitt's death before 1800, so when Elizabeth was still in her twenties.Elizabeth, Jr. born c1790 would have been in her late teens when Fenton and James were born.It seems that both could be candidates for their mother.
Though there are not very substantial clues in the names Fenton (seems like there should be) and James, it is interesting that Fenton M (Sr.) had a son born in Scott County on Feb 4, 1872 who was named Levi Truett Brown.That just doesn’t seem like coincidence to me.My instinct tells me they had to be connected in some way.Were Levi Truett and Fenton Brown half brothers or uncle/nephew?The name Jesse has been used a lot in the Brown family, which, of itself, doesn’t mean that much but taken with all the other things it is, at least, consistent with a connection.For that matter, my great-grandmother, daughter of Fenton J Brown and Eliza Baker was Harriet.
I’m not sure where the idea came from that James Brown, presumed brother of Fenton M Brown and husband of Sarah Johanna Hayes and father of James Washington Brown, had a first wife?I wonder if the person annotating that article had James mixed up with Fenton who did remarry to Francis Hicks after his wife Abbygail died.Joanie Hays is given as Fenton J Brown’s mother on his death certificate.(That would be Fenton the younger, born about 1827).Fenton was the oldest son with James W being the next oldest.And, in fact, tonight I just dug out James Washington Brown’s death certificate and his mother is listed as “Hays”, not Mumford or Trewitt.In this case, the closest relation that Elizabeth Mumford Trewhitt Brown could have been to Robert Selvidge Brown would have been his paternal great-grandmother.Maybe it was just easier to write “grandmother” in the margin?
So for my final speculation, I’m thinking it might be more likely that Elizabeth Mumford Trewhitt Brown was the mother of Fenton and James Brown.Perhaps then John Brown (husband of the younger Elizabeth in 1850) was a paternal half brother of James and Fenton.And, in fact, maybe Elizabeth was their maternal half sister.I’d almost bet that one or all of those ideas is correct.
Now all we need is a document or two to prove all that.
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Re: Brown/Trewhitt--1800--TN
Marshall Spencer 4/28/14