Sarah Whitlock Bryson, sixth child of Abner Bryson and Nancy Whitlock was born 18 January 1818 in Cumberland County, Kentucky. This date of birth, along with a death date of 3 November 1893, is stated in the DAR lineages of several descendants of Sarah and her first husband John Strode Lander, all of whom were descendants of the Revolutionary patriot John Strode.[1]
As the DAR lineages I’ve just cited state, Sarah Whitlock Bryson married John Strode Lander, son of William Lander and Letitia Strode, in Christian County in 1837. I have not found a marriage record. This information is also indicated in David Lander’s History of the Lander Family of Virginia and Kentucky, which states the following (see the digital image at the head of the posting):[2]
John Strode Lander was born near Winchester, Kentucky, August, 1792. Instead of going to war with Great Britain in 1812, as he might have done, he married Elizabeth Haggard, September 10 of that year, and his descendants connect with the American Revolution through his wife and mother. He moved to Christian County and bought a farm eight miles west of Hopkinsville. He dealt extensively in live stock, and took many premiums at the county fairs. In politics he was a Democrat, and in religion a Baptist. Unfortunately his residence was destroyed by fire and all of its contents were consumed including the family Bible and record.
His first wife died in 1835, the mother of eight children. Two years later he married Sarah W. Bryson, by whom he had three more children. John S. died January 6, 1846, and his second wife died in Missouri, in 1894, after having married a Mr. Thompson, and had two children by him.
We’ve met John Strode Lander and wife Sarah Whitlock Bryson in a previous posting which notes that the Lander family lived about ten miles west of Hopkinsville in the vicinity of Sinking Fork, where Abner Bryson and his family also lived, and on 3 October 1839, John Strode Lander was, along with Elijah C. Cravens and John W. Cook, an appraiser of Abner Bryson’s estate, and when the sale of Abner’s estate was held the same day, John S. Lander was a buyer.[3]
As the posting I’ve just linked also states, in May 1842 John and his wife Sarah filed suit in Christian County circuit court against the other heirs of Abner Bryson, appealing for an equitable distribution of Abner’s land, and a set of documents in Christian County circuit court’s order books and deed books shows the land being divided per a court order resulting from this lawsuit. Christian County circuit court minutes for 20 May 1843 and a set of deeds made 16 December 1842 and recorded in the county’s deed books name Abner Bryson’s children and show how the 537 acres he died holding in Christian County were divided.[4]
As David Lander’s biography of John Strode Lander that I’ve cited above states, John was born in August 1792 near Winchester in Clark County, Kentucky, and died 6 January 1846 in Christian County. The DAR lineages I cited previously give a birthdate of 27 August 1792.[5] John is buried in the William Lander Farm graveyard at Gracey in Christian County, with a tombstone marking his grave, but one that appears from the photo of it at his Find a Grave memorial page to be now too eroded to read.[6] Gracey is ten miles west of Hopkinsville.
In 1850, Sarah (32) appears as head of her household in Christian County, with her three children by John — Nancy M. (11), Virginia C. (9), and Thomas W. (7) — in the household.[7] A young man working on Sarah’s farm, William Woosley (19), is also enumerated in the household.
On 17 January 1855 in Christian County, Sarah remarried to James F. Thompson, son of John Thompson and Amy Bobbitt.[8] James and Sarah were married by Nicholas Lacy, a Baptist minister.[9] An Edward Lander whom I can’t place was a witness to the marriage.
At some point between 2 August 1856, when James F. Thompson gave bond with William Lewis Crumbaugh in Lyon County, Kentucky, for William’s marriage to Virginia C. Lander, Sarah’s daughter by John Strode Lander,[10] and 8 April 1858, when James and Sarah’s daughter Anna Elizabeth Thompson was born, the Thompson family moved to Cooper County, Missouri.[11] From all that I can determine, James F. and Sarah Whitlock Bryson Thompson then remained in Cooper County for the rest of their lives, first in Palestine township, where they are enumerated on the federal census in 1860, then in Kelly township, where they appear on the census in 1870 and 1880.[12] I have not found death and burial information for either James or Sarah, other than the statement in the DAR lineages cited previously that Sarah died 3 November 1893 or, as David Lander states in his history of the Lander family, in 1894.[13] A number of online family trees show Sarah dying in Texas, but I have no seen record placing her there at any time and am inclined to think she died in Cooper County, Missouri.
Federal censuses from 1850 through 1880 give James F. Thompson a birth year of either 1813 or 1814 and state that he was born in Kentucky. A number of records place his father John Thompson at Hopkinsville in Christian County, Kentucky, by the date of James’s birth, so it’s likely that he was born there. Numerous published family trees give James a death date of 27 February 1892 and state that he died in Cooper County, Missouri. I have not found a source for that death information. I have also not found burial records for either James or his wife Sarah Whitlock Bryson.
Sarah Whitlock Bryson was named, I think, for her aunt Sarah Whitlock Brooks, the one sibling of Sarah’s mother Nancy Whitlock Bryson who lived close to Nancy in Kentucky after the Whitlock family moved from Wythe County, Virginia, to Cumberland County, Kentucky, and in the case of Sarah and husband to Thomas Brooks, to adjoining Wayne County.
The children of Sarah Whitlock Bryson and husband John Strode Lander were as follows:
1. Nancy M. Lander was born in 1839 in Christian County, Kentucky. As noted above, she’s in her mother Sarah’s household in Christian County in 1850. Nancy went to Missouri with her mother and Sarah’s second husband James F. Thompson and appears on the 1860 federal census in their household in Cooper County. This is the last record I find for her. I assume that she died between 1860 and 1870 in Cooper County, Missouri.
2. Virginia C. Lander was born 14 September 1840 in Christian County, Kentucky, and died 14 May 1918 at Eddyville in Lyon County, Kentucky.[14] On 3 August 1856 in Lyon County, Virginia married William Lewis Crumbaugh, son of Eli Crumbaugh and Elizabeth Townsend.[15] As noted above, Virginia’s step-father James F. Thompson gave bond for this marriage with William L. Crumbaugh. Virginia and husband William are buried in River View cemetery at Eddyville in Lyon County with a tombstone giving their years of birth and death.[16] William Lewis Crumbaugh was born 25 April 1835 at Russellville in Logan County, Kentucky, and died at Eddyville 13 March 1925.[17]
3. Thomas W. Lander was born in 1844 in Christian County, Kentucky, and died 15 August 1905 in Travis County, Texas. Thomas’s death certificate states that he died at the Confederate Home Hospital in Travis County on 16 August 1905, aged 61.[18]
On 30 March 1904, Thomas filed an affidavit in Travis County applying for a pension for his service as a private of Co. K, 21st Regiment of Texas Cavalry (CSA), during the Civil War. The affidavit states that Thomas was aged 60 and provides details of Thomas’s Civil War service. It’s signed T.W. Lander.[19]
Biographical notes about Thomas at alihodge151’s Ancestry tree “Hodge Family Tree” transcribe information found in Roster of Texas Confederate Home held by Texas State Library, crediting Peggy Chapman with transcribing this information. This source states that Thomas was born in Kentucky and came to Texas in 1856, living at Victoria, Texas. He was admitted to the Confederate Home in February 1899 and then again on 1 August 1905.
Thomas evidently moved to Texas from Christian County, Kentucky, with his half-sister Cornelia Julia Lander, a daughter of John Strode Lander by his first wife Elizabeth Haggard, and Cornelia’s husband John James Hord. John J. Hord and Cornelia J. Lander married in Christian County on 5 July 1853. By 1860, they had moved to Goliad in Goliad County, Texas, where they’re enumerated on the federal census with Thomas W. Lander living in their household.[20] Living next to them is Cornelia’s brother (and Thomas’s half-brother) Isaac Newton Lander with wife Ann. Victoria, where Thomas subsequently lived, is 25 miles east of Goliad.
Numerous online family trees give Thomas W. Lander a wife whom he purportedly married in Minnesota. I find no record that he was in Minnesota at any point or that he married. Many of these trees also state that he was born in 1840. As the sources I’ve cited above all indicate, he was born in 1844. When he enlisted in the 21st Texas Cavalry at Goliad on 1 March 1862, he gave his age as 18, indicating a birth year of 1844.[21]
Thomas is buried in the Texas State cemetery at Austin, Travis County, with a tombstone stating his date of death.[22] His Find a Grave memorial page transcribes the date of death on the tombstone as 15 November 1905, but his death certificate, a copy of which is on the same page, states that he died 16 November 1905.
Quite a few published family trees give Thomas W. Lander a middle name William. I have seen no document spelling out his middle name. I’m inclined to think his mother Sarah named him Thomas Whitlock Lander for her grandfather Thomas Whitlock.
The children of Sarah Whitlock Bryson and husband James Franklin Thompson were as follows:
1. James Franklin Thompson was born in 1856 in Christian County, Kentucky. He’s enumerated in his parents’ household federal censuses in Cooper County, Missouri, from 1860 to 1880, but I find no record of him after his appearance on the 1880 census.
2. Anna Elizabeth Thompson was born 8 April 1858 in Cooper County, Missouri, and died 13 December 1925 at Otterville in Cooper County.[23] On 23 December 1884 in Cooper County, she married Charles Ellsworth Briggs, son of Andrew Jackson Briggs and Sarah Elizabeth Outhouse.[24] Charles was born 13 January 1862 and died 3 June 1892.[25]
Following Charles’s death, Annie remarried on 30 December 1896 in Cooper County to Frank Henry Cruse, son of Henry and Mary Jane Cruse.[26] Frank was born 12 June 1867 at Carthage in Hancock County, Illinois, and died 25 January 1922 at Pilot Grove in Cooper County, Missouri.[27] Annie is buried along with both of her husbands in Mount Vernon cemetery at Pilot Grove.[28]
[1] See DAR lineage of Virginia Caswell Bennett (#102921) and of Mary Crumbaugh Bennett (#105233). I’m citing these lineages in accord with the stipulation of the DAR published on the pages I’m linking at the national DAR website that one may cite this material in genealogical scholarship.
[2] David Lander, History of the Lander Family of Virginia and Kentucky (Chicago: Regan, 1926), p. 142.
[3] Christian County, Kentucky, Will Bk. K, pp. 550-3, 577-581.
[4] Christian County, Kentucky, Circuit Court Order Bk. W, pp. 42-4; Christian County, Kentucky, Deed Bk. 30, pp. 80-95.
[5] See supra, n. 1.
[6] See Find a Grave memorial page of John Strode Lander, William Lander Farm graveyard, Gracey, Christian County, Kentucky, created by David Lander and maintained by Pam Witherow, with a tombstone photo by David Lander. The memorial page gives John a middle name William. I have not seen any documents showing him with this middle name — only with the middle name Strode.
[7] 1850 federal census, Christian County, Kentucky, district 1, p. 459A (dwelling 418/family 466; 5 September).
[8] See Christian County, Kentucky, Marriage Bk. 2, p. 261; Certificate Bk. 13, p. 92; and the marriage license and certificate in Christian County’s loose-papers marriage file.
[9] See “Death of Rev. N. Lacy,” Hopkinsville Kentuckian (15 January 1895), p. 1, col. 3, noting that Nicholas Lacy had married 364 couples in his fifty years as a minister.
[10] Lyon County, Kentucky, Marriage Bk. 1, p. 159.
[11] See death certificate of Annie Elizabeth Cruse, Cooper County, Missouri, 1925, #35906, available digitally at Ancestry in the database Missouri, U.S., Death Certificates, 1910-1969, which states that Annie Elizabeth, daughter of Frank Thompson and Sarah Whitlock [sic], was born 8 April 1858 in Cooper County, Missouri. Annie Elizabeth’s daughter Sarah Pauline Briggs Streit provided this information.
[12] 1860 federal census, Cooper County, Missouri, Palestine township, Syracuse post office, p. 530 (dwelling/family 886; 27 July); 1870 federal census, Cooper County, Missouri, Kelly township, Otterville post office, p. 424A (dwelling 16/family 17; 26 July); 1880 federal census, Cooper County, Missouri, Kelly township, p. 356A (ED 140; dwelling 235/family 238; 12 June).
[13] See supra, n. 1 and 2.
[14] Virginia’s dates of birth and death are stated on her death certificate: see death certificate of Virginia Crumbaugh, Lyon County, Kentucky, 1925, #13960, available digitally at Ancestry database Kentucky, U.S., Death Records, 1852-1965. The death certificate states that she was born in Lyon County, Kentucky, but other records place her parents in Christian County at the time of her birth. The informant was her husband William Lewis Crumbaugh.
[15] See supra, n. 10.
[16] See Find a Grave memorial page of Virginia Lander Crumbaugh, created by Muriel Brooks, with a tombstone photo by Muriel Brooks. See also her obituary, “Mrs. W.L. Crumbaugh,” Courier-Journal (Louisville) (16 May 1918), p. 5, col. 8.
[17] See also the biography of William Lewis Crumbaugh in Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, vol. 1 (Chicago: Lewis), 1904), pp. 13-4; and his obituary, “Ex-Lyon County Judge Is Dead,” Courier-Journal (Louisville) (14 March 1925), p. 6, col. 4.
[18] See Travis County, Texas, Death Certificates 1905, #57041, available digitally in Ancestry database Texas, U.S., Death Certificates, 1903-1982. The death certificate is erroneously indexed as the death certificate of F.W. and not T.W. Lander. It provides no place of birth.
[19] See Confederate Pension Application file held by Texas State Library, #10492, available digitally at the Confederate Pension Applications section of the Texas State Library website.
[20] 1860 federal census, Goliad County, Texas, Goliad post office, p. 49 (dwelling 196/family 201 [the numbers are crossed out]; 17 July).
[21] NARA, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Texas, RG 109, available digitally at Fold3.
[22] See Find a Grave memorial page of T.W. Lander, created by Bev, maintained by Imagraver, with a tombstone photo by Art Stafford.
[23] These dates and places of birth and death are stated on her death certificate: see supra, n. 11.
[24] Cooper County, Missouri, Marriage Bk.1, p. 336. The marriage record gives her first name as Anna.
[25] These dates of birth and death are stated on the tombstone of Charles Ellsworth Briggs: see Find a Grave memorial page of Charles Ellsworth Briggs, Mount Vernon cemetery, Pilot Grove, Cooper County, Missouri, created by grandmacarol with a tombstone photo by grandmacarol.
[26] Cooper County, Missouri, Marriage Bk. 4, p. 68.
[27] These dates are on Frank’s tombstone: see Find a Grave memorial page of Frank Henry Cruse, Mount Vernon cemetery, Pilot Grove, Cooper County, Missouri, created by grandmacarol with a tombstone photo by grandmacarol. See also Frank’s obituary, “A Popular Pilot Grove Man,” Tipton [Missouri] Times, (27 January 1922), p. 1, col. 4.
[28] See Find a Grave memorial page of Annie Elizabeth Thompson Cruse, Mount Vernon cemetery, Pilot Grove, Cooper County, Missouri, created by grandmacarol with a tombstone photo by grandmacarol. The tombstone gives Annie’s year of birth as 1856, but as noted above, it’s recorded on her death certificate as 1858, with her daughter Sarah Pauline Briggs Streit as informant: see supra, n. 11.
Begats and Bequeathals 