Ezekiel C. Green as Key Unlocking My Green Lineage as I Began Researching It

In researching my Green family line, I found Ezekiel at the same time I found his brother Samuel Kerr Green, who is my 3-great-grandfather. When I began working on this family line, I didn’t know anything about Samuel. I knew that my great-grandmother Mary Ann Green Lindsey was the daughter of a Zeke Green who had lived at some point in Coushatta, Red River Parish, Louisiana, and had owned a lumber mill at Campti in Natchitoches Parish. My uncle Henry Carlton Lindsey, who did years of research on the Lindsey family, provided me with that information.

I then discovered that Mary Ann’s death certificate reported her place of birth on 11 October 1861 as Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, information provided by her husband Alexander Cobb Lindsey when Mary Ann died, and that the death certificate gave her father’s name as Zeke Green. This bit of information pointed me to Pointe Coupee Parish for more research. I soon found indices of Louisiana marriage records stating that Ezekiel S. Green married Camilla Birdwell in Pointe Coupee Parish on 2 January 1853.

When I wrote the clerk of that parish to obtain a copy of this marriage record, I received a letter informing me that no such marriage record was to be found in the parish courthouse. I was living and teaching at the time in New Orleans, and decided to make the drive to the parish seat, New Roads, and look for this marriage record in the Pointe Coupee courthouse, since I was pretty certain it did exist and was archived there.

Sure enough, when I got to the courthouse, I found a file with documents recording the marriage of Ezekiel S. Green to Camilla Birdwell in Point Coupee Parish on the date given above. While I was in the courthouse, I thought I’d look around to see if I could spot other information about Ezekiel, who was a total blank to me other than his name, and the information that he was the father of my great-grandmother Mary Ann Green Lindsey, and that he had married Camilla Birdwell.

This is when I happened on the Pointe Coupee district court case file, Ezekiel S. Green vs. Samuel K. Green, showing that on 5 March 1856 in Pointe Coupee Parish, Ezekiel had filed suit against his father Samuel, who had withheld property from his son that Ezekiel had inherited from his mother Eliza Jane Smith — a case that eventually went to the Louisiana Supreme Court, as Samuel sought to bastardize Ezekiel in order to claim his son’s property.[2] The file for this case was chock full of important documents, many of which I photocopied on the spot.

I now had a father for my Ezekiel, another generation on my Green line. Then, as I continued rummaging through court documents held by the Pointe Coupee parish courthouse, I happened on another case, one entitled James K. Huey vs. Samuel K. Green, and as I looked through the documents in that case file, I discovered that, as administrator of the estate of Ezekiel Calhoun Green of Smithland, Kentucky, Huey had filed suit against Samuel Kerr Green, brother of Ezekiel, for a debt Samuel owed his brother Ezekiel incurred on a visit Samuel made to Smithland in 1837.[3] Inside the case file was a promissory note Samuel K. Green had written to Ezekiel C. Green at Smithland on 19 March 1837.

I now had another name to add to my Green family line — a brother to Samuel Kerr Green, whom I had just discovered as the father of my Ezekiel S. Green, an uncle from whom Ezekiel S. Green got his given name. As I began researching Ezekiel Calhoun Green, I quickly found that his tombstone in Smithland stated that he was born in 1795 in Pendleton District, South Carolina, a valuable discovery, since I had by this point determined that my Samuel K. Green had been born in South Carolina in 1790. I now had a specific place to focus on as I researched my Green family in South Carolina. Down the road, I’d find that Samuel and Ezekiel’s parents John Green and Jane Kerr left Pendleton District after selling their land there in 1818, moved to Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, then bought land in Bibb County, both dying there with estate documents naming Samuel and Ezekiel as their sons.

As I’ve stated in previous postings, when John Green and Jane Kerr moved their family from South Carolina to Alabama in 1818, it appears to me that Samuel K. Green, as their oldest son, and Ezekiel Calhoun Green, as his brother five years younger, did not accompany their parents and siblings to Alabama, but headed to Tennessee (in Samuel’s case) and Kentucky (in Ezekiel’s case) instead. As the posting I’ve just linked shows, Samuel had already, in fact, settled in Nashville, Tennessee, by November 1816 when he had formed a business partnership with John Young to engage in trading between Nashville and New Orleans.[4] I first catch sight of Ezekiel in Livingston County, Kentucky, records on 8 February 1820, when he signed as bondsman for the marriage of Joseph Brasher to Elizabeth Glass in that county.[5]

The database Tennessee State Marriage Index, 1780-2002, at FamilySearch contains a listing of a 7 November 1824 marriage of Ezekiel C. Green to Jane Linch in Wilson County. When I go to the original records for this marriage in Wilson County’s loose-papers marriage records, however, it’s clear to me that the surname of this Ezekiel was Greer/Grier, and not Green.

Early Records of Ezekiel in Smithland, 1832-5

On 3 December 1832, Ezekiel Calhoun Green received license in Livingston County to marry Mary Peet, with David J. Brown giving bond along with Ezekiel.[6] According to Joyce Woodyard’s abstract of the marriage file, it shows that James Alcorn, Mary’s guardian, gave consent for Mary, who was a minor, to marry Ezekiel Calhoun Green. The FamilySearch site does not have digitized loose-papers marriage records for Livingston County after 1822. Woodyard states that no return for this marriage was recorded in the loose-papers file. The marriage is listed in Livingston County’s marriage register with no other information than the names of the bride and groom and the date of the marriage — or of the bond.[7]

I have not been able to find much information about the Peet family. The 1810 federal census for Livingston County shows two Peet men living in the county in 1810, one with the given name Ransom and the other with the name Curtis. In 1820 and 1830, no one with this surname appears to be enumerated in Livingston County. I do not find this surname in the index to Livingston County deeds or probate records.

James Alcorn (1788-1859) was born in South Carolina, and had a son James Lusk Alcorn (1816-1894) who was a Mississippi governor and U.S. senator. As a biography of James L. Alcorn in the volume Portraits of Eminent Americans Now Living indicates, the elder James was a boatman and barge operator in Illinois before the family moved to Livingston County shortly before 1820.[8] This background would, I think, have linked Alcorn to Ezekiel Calhoun Green, whose brother Samuel, as noted above, operated barges and then a steamboat trading between Nashville and New Orleans in the period 1816-1821. The biography of James Lusk Alcorn I have just cited states that his father James Alcorn served at the battle of New Orleans in 1812 and supplied his barge to the war efforts there. As I’ll discuss in a later posting, one of Ezekiel C. Green’s sons whom he named Samuel Kerr Green after his brother was also a steamboat captain, and Ezekiel’s daughter Mary Musa Green married two steamboat men in a row.

About Ezekiel’s bondsman for his marriage to Mary Peet, I have almost no information. David J. Brown is enumerated in Smithland on the 1830 federal census, a census on which I don’t find Ezekiel C. Green listed. David J. Brown married Emeline Ferguson in Livingston County on 18 June 1829.[9] As we’ll soon see, Ezekiel had numerous dealings with a Ferguson family in Smithland over a number of years.

On 2 August 1833, Ezekiel Calhoun Green bought from Richard Olive, executor of James B. Ferguson, all living in Smithland, half of lot 7 in Smithland, which began on Water Street fifty feet from the corner of Water and Mill Streets. Ezekiel Calhoun Green paid $900 for the half lot. The deed was witnessed by Benjamin Barner and Henry Wells, and was proven and recorded on 9 August 1833.[10] 

James B. Ferguson had died in Livingston County on 14 November 1832, the day on which he made his will, which was proven at court in December 1832 by executors Henry J. Persons and Richard Olive.[11] The will identifies James as a resident of Smithland and names wife Katherine, along with James’s brothers William and Anthony and a nephew James Ferguson, as his heirs. I don’t know how or whether James B. Ferguson was related to the Emeline Ferguson who married David J. Brown in Livingston County in June 1829, but would think there was likely a kinship connection.

James Ferguson and wife Catherine (the spelling on her tombstone; née Given) are buried in Smithland cemetery, the cemetery in which Ezekiel C. Green is buried, with James’s tombstone stating that he was born 9 April 1788 and died 14 November 1832.[12] Brenda Joyce Jerome notes that James’s estate inventory suggests that he was a riverman or ferryman and shows him owning four keelboats.[13]

Livingston County deed records also indicate that James Ferguson and his executor Richard Olive (1803-1847) operated a business of some sort together in Smithland in the 1830s.[14] According to Brenda Joyce Jerome, Olive was a Smithland merchant who is buried in Smithland cemetery with a tombstone stating that he died 6 January 1847, aged 43 years, 2 months, and 28 days.[15] A two-story brick house Richard Olive built in 1841 on the north side of Court Street in Smithland is now on the National Register of Historic Places.[16]

Henry James Persons (1809-1837), James Ferguson’s other executor, was closely connected to Ezekiel Calhoun Green. Following Persons’ death, Ezekiel married Persons’ widow Anna, née Harrison. Ezekiel had previously married Anna’s sister Matilda Harrison, Mary Peet having died, it seems, prior to that marriage.

Finally, the Benjamin Barner (1790-1865) who was a witness to Richard Olive’s August 1833 deed to Ezekiel C. Green, is buried near Ezekiel and his wives Matilda and Louisa in Smithland cemetery.[17] Barner’s brother Sterling Mayes Barner (1792-1862) was the captain of the second steamboat to reach Nashville — another link to Ezekiel C. Green’s brother Samuel in Nashville.[18] Henry Wells, who, along with Benjamin Barner, witnessed the August 1833 deed of Richard Olive to Ezekiel Calhoun Green, was a brother-in-law of Benjamin and Sterling Barner, who married their sister Martha Barner. Wells was Benjamin Barner’s business partner.[19]

Smithland is sited in western Kentucky at the confluence of the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers. From early in the town’s history, its location made it a stopping point for river traffic heading up and down the Ohio River and along the Cumberland River. The trade in which Ezekiel’s brother Samuel was engaged between Nashville and New Orleans would have involved Smithland as a stopping-off point.

An ad for the Johnson & Rayburn Company of Nashville published in the Nashville Banner and Whig on 19 January 1835 indicates the trading ties between Nashville, Smithland, and New Orleans: the ad, with the heading “Cotton and Tabacc [sic]” above the company’s name, states that Capt. Sterling M. Banner would be continuing as the company’s agent in New Orleans during the next business season as Johnson & Rayburn purchased cotton and tobacco to ship to New Orleans, and also brought grocery items from New Orleans to sell in the Nashville market.[20] The ad continued running throughout 1835 and 1836 in Nashville papers. Several years down the road, a notice in Nashville’s Republican Banner announced the formation of the firm Wells, Barner & Co. in Smithland, Kentucky, which was taking over an establishment on Water Street in Smithland formerly occupied by Messrs. Olive and King, and which had associates in Nashville, New Orleans, Louisville, and Pittsburgh.[21] The partners in the new Wells, Barner firm included Benjamin and Sterling M. Barner and Henry Wells.

I think it’s likely that a Captain Ezekiel Green who appears on a list of unclaimed letters at the Nashville post office on 2 September 1834 is Ezekiel Calhoun Green, especially since, listed next to him is a Samuel Green who is, I suspect, Ezekiel’s brother, and who had left Nashville some years prior to this notice.[22] Various records suggest to me that Ezekiel and his brother Samuel maintained close ties over the years, and may have had some mutual connection to the trading business that accounted for Ezekiel’s decision to settle at Smithland, with its ties to the Nashville-New Orleans trade, after Samuel went to Nashville and began his career in the trading-and-boating business.

On 17 September 1834, Ezekiel Calhoun Green bought from John Smedley, both of Smithland, for $1,600 another half of lot 7 on Water Street in Smithland.[23] The deed was witnessed by William Gordon and Henry Wells, and was proven and recorded 11 October 1834. William Gordon was president of the Smithland Dock Company in 1835.[24] I think it’s likely that Ezekiel may have purchased lot 7 on Water Street from Richard Olive and then John Smedley with the intention of building a house on the lot, since he begins appearing on the tax list in Smithland for the first time in 1835, taxed for a house and lot in Smithland.[25]

Ezekiel Marries Matilda Harrison, Niece of Robert W. Harrison

On 31 August 1835, Ezekiel Calhoun Green gave bond in Livingston County in the amount of £50 with Alexander Martin to marry Matilda Harrison. On 25 August, Robert Harrison, Matilda’s uncle and guardian, gave his consent for the marriage. A license was issued on 31 August, and the marriage file has a return showing that the couple married on 2 September, with James Leech, J.P., officiating.[26]   

Joyce Woodyard states that Matilda’s parents were Robert W. and Mary M. Harrison.[27] Note, however, that the permission note Robert Harrison provided on 25 August 1835 for Matilda’s marriage to Ezekiel C. Green states that Matilda was Robert’s niece, and the license the court issued for this marriage identifies Robert Harrison as Matilda’s uncle. Only one Robert Harrison is found on the 1830 federal census in Livingston County, a man listed as Robert W. Harrison.

Matilda was definitely an heir of Robert W. Harrison, who had died in Livingston County by 2 August 1836, when the county court’s order book states that an additional sale bill of Robert’s estate had been reported to court.[28] The preceding court order book (Bk. H), which ends with the 2 May 1836 court session, is not indexed, and there may be mentions of Robert’s estate in that order book that I have not spotted due to the lack of an index, if Robert died earlier in 1836 (or late in 1835). The court gave an order for the division of Robert’s real property among his heirs on 5 November 1839, and that division took place on 29 January 1839, with William Gordon, Thomas Willis, Benjamin Barner, James McCawley, and Robert Harrison (son of Robert W. Harrison) reporting the division to court. One of the seven shares, twenty-five feet on Water Street between lots 20 and 21 and Charlotte Street, was allotted to E.C. Green and wife as heirs of Robert W. Harrison.[29] The 5 November 1838 court order names the adult heirs of the estate, including Ezekiel C. Green and wife.[30]

On 4 August 1836, Ezekiel had given bond in the amount of $1,000 with Robert Hodge for the guardianship of Elizabeth Harrison, aged over 14, who had chosen Ezekiel as her guardian and whose permission note for the guardianship was proven in court by P.C. Sanders.[31] On 10 August 1836, Elizabeth then married Frederick William Weller in Livingston County.[32] Frederick Weller and wife are named as adult heirs of Robert W. Harrison in the 5 November 1838 court order for the division of Robert’s real estate, and were allotted a share of the estate on 29 January 1839.[33] Elizabeth Harrison was apparently a sister of Ezekiel C. Green’s wife Matilda. Another sister, Ann/Anna, who married Henry James Persons and, as noted previously, who would marry Ezekiel C. Green after the death of Matilda, also appears as an heir of Robert W. Harrison in his estate records.

On 3 July 1837 when the court issued an order for the widow Mary M. Harrison to be appointed guardian of her children who were heirs of Robert W. Harrison — David, Mary, Rhoda, Sarah, and Robert Harrison — Mary M. Harrison gave a $3,000 bond as guardian with Ezekiel C. Green and Henry Wells.[34] Court minutes state that the order for this guardianship had been given on 3 October 1836, but had not been recorded in court minutes due to an oversight.[35] 

If Robert W. Harrison was an uncle of Matilda, Ann, and Elizabeth Harrison, then it appears to me that he likely had a brother who had preceded him in death. A John S. (Sanders, it appears) Harrison who married Pheraby Barnes in Livingston County on 3 May 1819 and who died in Livingston County by December 1836 is said to have been a brother of Robert W. Harrison.[36] But John wouldn’t have been the father of Matilda, Ann, and Elizabeth if he married in 1819; Matilda’s tombstone in Smithland cemetery states that she was born in November 1816.[37]

In my next posting, I’ll resume the chronological account of Ezekiel S. Green’s life in Smithland following his marriage to Matilda Harrison in 1835.

---

[1] See Find a Grave memorial page of Ezekiel Calhoun Green, Smithland cemetery, Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky, created by Charles Lay, maintained by wdlindsy, with a tombstone photo by wanda. See also (see Livingston County Homemaker Club, Livingston County, Kentucky, Cemeteries 1738-1976 (Smithland, Kentucky, 1977), p. 317; and Brenda Joyce Jerome, “Tombstone Tuesday – Ezekiel C. Green,” at Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, with a tombstone photo.

[2] Ezekiel S. Green vs. Samuel K. Green, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, 9^th District Court, file #1525; Ezekiel S. Green, Appellee, vs. Samuel K. Green, Louisiana Supreme Court Docket #5483;  E.S. Green v. S.K. Green, Louisiana Supreme Court #1521, ruling 15 February 1859; and A.N. Ogden, Louisiana Reports, Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Louisiana, vol. 65: For the Year 1859 (New Orleans: West, 1860), p. 39.

[3] James K. Huey vs. Samuel K. Green, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, 9^th District Court, file #932.

[4] “For Sale or Freight to New Orleans,” National Banner and Nashville Whig (5 November 1816), p. 3, col. 3.

[5] Livingston County, Kentucky, Marriage Bonds 1820, available digitally at FamilySearch; and see Joyce M. Woodyard, Livingston County, Kentucky, Marriage Records, vol. 1: October 1799-June 1839, Bonds, Licenses, Consents, and Miscellaneous Loose Papers (Smithland: Livingston County Historical Society, 1992), p. 56.

[6] Woodyard, Livingston County, Kentucky, Marriage Records, vol. 1, p. 121. Woodyard gives the middle initial as G., but J. is correct.

[7] Livingston County, Kentucky, Marriage Register Bk. 1, p. 50.

[8] John Livingston, Portraits of Eminent Americans Now Living: With Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Their Lives and Actions, vol. 4 (New York: Craighead, 1854), pp. 106-9.

[9] Livingston County, Kentucky, Marriage Register Bk. 1, p. 31.

[10] Livingston County, Kentucky, Deed Bk. CC, pp. 377-8.

[11] Livingston County, Kentucky, Will Bk. 1, p. 113.

[12] See Find a Grave memorial page for James B. Ferguson, Smithland cemetery, Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky, created by Charles Lay, maintained by Jerry Bebout, with a tombstone photo by BJJ; and Brenda Joyce Jerome, “Tombstone Tuesday – James B. and Catharine F. Ferguson,” at Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, with a tombstone photo.

[13] Jerome, “Tombstone Tuesday – James B. and Catharine F. Ferguson.”

[14] See Livingston County, Kentucky, Deed Bk. CC, p. 256 (26 March 1832).

[15] Jerome, “Historic Richard Olive Home,” at Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog. See also Find a Grave memorial page for Richard Olive, Smithland cemetery, Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky, created by Charles Lay, maintained by Kathy S., with a tombstone photo by wanda.

[16] “Richard Olive House,” Wikipedia; and Charlotte Worsham and Gloria Mills, “National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Richard Olive House / Davis House,” at the National Parks Service website.

[17] See Find a Grave memorial page of Benjamin Barner, Smithland cemetery, Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky, created by Nahm, with a tombstone photo by Nahm and a copy of an oil portrait of Barner abt. 1840 uploaded by J.S. Hays.

[18] See Find a Grave memorial page of Sterling Mayes Barner, Smithland cemetery, Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky, created by Nahm, with a tombstone photo by Nahm and a copy of an oil portrait of Barner abt. 1840 uploaded by J.S. Hays. See also Fletch Coke, “Information on Mary E. Barner – Tombstone Inscription,” at the website of Nashville City Cemetery Association.

[19] Jerome, “Wells, Barner & Co. 1841,” and “Smithland, Kentucky in 1835,” at Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, the latter stating, “Henry Wells and Benjamin Barner were commission merchants and did a brisk business storing and shipping goods.”

[20] Ad for Johnson & Rayburn Co., Nashville Banner and Whig (19 January 1835), p. 1, col. 5.

[21] “New Firm in Smithland, Kentucky,” Republican Banner (Nashville) (5 January 1841), p. 3, col. 3.

[22] “A List of Letters,” Nashville Tennessean 2 Sept. 1834 p. 3 col. 5.

[23] Livingston County, Kentucky, Deed Bk. DD, pp. 225-6.

[24] Jerome, “Smithland, Kentucky in 1835,” at Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog.

[25] Livingston County, Kentucky, Tax Bks. 1835, p. 15, available digitally at FamilySearch.

[26] Livingston County, Kentucky, loose-papers marriage files, 1835; see also Livingston County, Kentucky, Marriage Bk. 1, p. 73. My copies of the loose-papers marriage file were provided by the county clerk.

[27] Woodyard, Livingston County, Kentucky, Marriage Records, vol. 1, p. 138. See also Jerome, “Tombstone Tuesday – Matilda Green,” Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog.

[28] Livingston County, Kentucky, Court Order Bk. I, p. 16. On 3 October 1836, estate settlements by Robert Harrison Jr. were produced in court (Bk. I, p. 33). The accounts were approved and recorded on 10 November 1836 (Bk. I, p. 37). On 3 July 1837, the widow Mary appealed for guardianship of her children and gave bond with Ezekiel C. Green and Henry Wells (Bk. I, p. 106). On 5 November 1838, Mary appealed for her dower share of Robert’s estate and William Gordon, Thomas Willis, Benjamin Barner, James McCawley, and Robert Harrison or any three of them were appointed to allot this (Bk. I, p. 193). On 6 May 1839, Robert Harrison Jr. reported the dower allotment to court (Bk. I, p. 222. At the same court session, the commissioners appointed to divide the real estate reported this division and it was recorded (Bk. I, p. 223). On 2 January 1845, on motion of Wesley B. King, it was ordered that William Gordon and Thomas Willis, surviving commissioners who divided the real estate of Robert Harrison deceased among the heirs, make each heir a deed of conveyance for their allotments (Bk. I, p. 412).

[29] Livingston County, Kentucky, Deed Bk. FF, pp. 192-4; and ibid., pp. 193, 222-3, 412.

[30] Livingston County, Kentucky, Deed Bk. FF, pp. 192-4; and Livingston County, Kentucky, Court Order Bk. I, pp. 193, 222-3, 412.

[31] Livingston County, Kentucky, Court Order Bk. I, p. 19.

[32] Livingston County, Kentucky, Marriage Register Bk. 1, p. 83.

[33] Livingston County, Kentucky, Deed Bk. FF, pp. 192-4; and Livingston County, Kentucky, Court Order Bk. I, pp. 193, 222-3, 412.

[34] Livingston County, Kentucky, Court Order Bk. I, p. 106.

[35] Ibid., p. 33.

[36] According to Colette Poore, “Harrison-Threlkeld,” Robert W. Harrison was a son of John Harrison, who married Nancy Gordon in 1792: see Livingston County, Kentucky, History and Families (Paducah: Turner, 1989), ed. Livingston County Historical and Genealogical Society, p. 243. Poore says that the Harrison family lived for many years near Salem in Livingston County, having come there from Virginia. She races John Harrison’s lineage to John Harrison, governor of the Bermudas, through his son Benjamin of Surry County, Virginia.

[37] See Find a Grave memorial page of Matilda Harrison Green, Smithland cemetery, Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky, created by Charles Lay, maintained by wdlindsy, with a tombstone photo by wanda. See also Jerome, “Tombstone Tuesday – Matilda Green,” at Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, with a clear photo of the tombstone.