Elisha Harrison son of Jonathan Harrison and Mercy Terry
Elisha Harrison Sr was born ca 1782 in Botetourt County, Virginia to Jonathan Harrison and Mercy Terry, daughter of William Terry.
When a young boy his parents removed to Tennessee (his parents died there) and while yet a young man Elisha went to Madison County, Kentucky where he married on 18 Aug 1805 to Ifa Baker.Her given name was spelled various ways including Ify, Ifah, etc., and two branches of descendants have stated that her nickname was Sook, short for Sookotosh.Ifa's father John Baker, known as John Renta Baker (he was born 24 Jan 1744) gave parental marriage consent for his daughter to marry since she was underage.Ifa Baker was born on 8 August 1790 or 1792 if one goes by the 1850 Ky census.The area that Elisha Harrison and Ifa Baker Harrison later resided was Estill County, Kentucky, where one of their sons was born, my ancestor William Canady Harrison was born on 1 November 1827.
Elisha Harrison died in 1848 in Estill County, Kentucky and his widow Ifa Baker Harrison lived with her son William Canady Harrison in her old age and died at his house in 1865 or 66. (correct date on her will).
William Canady Harrison married Elizabeth Gentry Gabbard in Madison County, Ky the daughter of Edward Gabbard and Sarah Bowman who had married in Clay County, Ky on 8 March 1817.Elizabeth Gentry Gabbard was the namesake of her maternal grandmother Bowman, ie Elizabeth Gentry, the wife of Elijah Bowman. (a side note, Edward Gabbard was the son of Jacob Gabbard and Margaret "Peggy" Smith, daughter of Edward Smith.Peggy Smith Gabbard named her son Edward after her father Edward Smith of Carter Co, TN).
After the Civil War,William C Harrison and Elizabeth Gentry Gabbard Harrison moved from Kentucky to Arkansas, settling first in Madison County and later at Bidville, Crawford County, Arkansas.William died at Bidville on 29 Dec 1892 from a heart attack, and is buried at the Bidville Cemetery.
His widow followed two of her sons to what was then Indian Territory, later Oklahoma, where she died at Locust Grove, Oklahoma on 15 April 1908.The sons were John Baker Harrison (named after his great-grandfather, ie the Revolutionary War soldier John Renta Baker who was the maternal grandfather of William Canady Harrison) and Jacob Gabbard Harrison (named after his great-grandfather, ie the Revolutionary War soldier Jacob Gabbard, who was the paternal grandfather of Elizabeth Gentry Gabbard Harrison).
One of the daughters of William and Elizabeth Harrison was Eliza Jane Harrison born 28 March 1858 in Jackson County, Kentucky.She was the namesake of her mother's sister Eliza Jane Gabbard Baker.Eliza Jane Harrison always went by her middle name JANE and she married on 3 May 1879 in Crawford County, Arkansas to Wesley Uriah Shepherd, and they raised their family at Bidville.He also used his middle name of Uriah and was sometimes called Rar.Wesley Uriah Shepherd was born 8 March 1855 to Rev William Silas Shepherd and Sarah Jane Peters.Uriah died on 29 April 1907 at Bidville, and his widow Jane Harrison Shepherd died from heart attack on 1 July 1932 at Bidville, Arkansas at the log house her father had built over 50 years previously when he homesteaded the land.
My grandfather was one of their younger sons, named James Elisha Shepherd, but he always went by Eli Shepherd.He told his daughter Roberta that he was named Elisha after his mother's brother Elisha Harrison, known as Uncle Eli Harrison, and his uncle Elisha had been named after his and Jane's paternal grandfather Elisha Harrison (who married Ifa Baker).Eli Shepherd was born 29 July 1893 at Bidville, Crawford County, Arkansas and died 21 March 1977 at Sebastian County, Arkansas.He married my grandmother Bertha Emiline Wood on 21 July 1917 at Bidville.She was the daughter of John Freeman Wood and Lydia Alice Hawkins, who was called Allie.
The older generations of my family gave me the naming patterns and I was able to substantiate that it was accurate based on documentation from public and private records.
Those related to this line, feel free to contact me.
David Travillion Bunton
613 South Commerce Ave
Russellville, AR 72801