BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS

Moses Joins Enon Baptist Church, Madison County, April 1812

We know that Moses Birdwell was in Madison County before 1 April 1812 because the minutes of Enon Baptist church there state that on that date, he was received as a church member by experience; that is, he had not previously belonged to a church and was not “moving his letter” to Enon from another church, but was joining a Baptist church for the first time.[2] As was stated previously, Enon later became First Baptist church of Huntsville, Alabama.[3] Moses’ brother John Birdwell (1770-1854) had moved from Tennessee to Madison County, Mississippi Territory, in 1805, and is enumerated there on the 1809 census of Madison County.[4] John Birdwell was one of the organizers of Enon Baptist church and its first clerk.[5] Enon minutes for 1 June 1811 show Brethren Watkins, Pruet, Brock, Birdwell, and Powell authorized by the church to view a place for a church meeting house.[6] According to Joseph M. Jones, the Enon church was first established in 1809 on the Briar Fork of the Flint River, with its first meeting house being built on the Briar Fork in 1813, and with Joseph Powell and John Birdwell, both charter members of Enon church, jointly owning land owned by Enon’s first two pastors John Canterbury and Richard Shackelford.[7]

Moses Birdwell appears on the 1812 tax list for Madison County along with his brother John.[8] Moses is taxed for no land, but for one white poll. John has 92 acres of second-class land. The two Birdwell brothers appear again on the 1813 Madison County tax list, this time with John listed as owning 91 acres of second-class land, and with Moses again taxed only for a white poll.[9]

Moses and his brother John were signatories to a petition presented to the U.S. House of Representatives on 3 July 1813 by inhabitants of Madison County asking for further time to complete their payment for land purchased from the United States in Madison County.[10] This document indicates that by July 1813, Moses had made a claim on federal land in Madison County. As a previous posting indicates, when Madison County was opened for settlement by settlers of European descent in 1808 following the Chickasaw treaty of 1805 and the Cherokee treaty of 1806, the federal government initially offered land in the county for sale at its Nashville land office. In 1811 the land office was moved to Huntsville, and I think it’s likely that at some point prior to July 1813, Moses Birdwell had begun the process of buying federal land in Madison County at that office.

Moses Gives War of 1812 Service

In 1813, Moses Birdwell gave War of 1812 service guarding the frontier in Madison County in Lieutenant Colonel Charles Burrus’ 16^th Regiment of the Mississippi Militia.[11] Moses’ service packet shows him as a private on the muster roll of a company initially headed by Captain Samuel Allen and then by Captain Stephen Griffiths, from 8-17 October 1813. He was on the company’s payroll from 2 November – 2 December 1813, with pay of $6.36 allotted to him. In the service papers is a 25 August 1814 power of attorney from Moses to appointed Benjamin Pattison appointing Pattison to receive any money due Moses for his service, signed by mark with witnesses Thomas Beardon and William Adair. In all documents I’ve found prior to and after this, Moses always signed his name, so the signing by mark here is unusual.

According to notes compiled by Shannon Birdwell of Houston in May 1995, Moses gave a second power of attorney in Madison County on 15 December 1815 to Pope Hickman to collect any money due him for his War of 1812 service, and he signed this second power of attorney. I have not found this power of attorney, and Shannon Birdwell’s notes don’t indicate where it’s filed. I think it’s possible that this document belongs to the service packet of Moses Birdwell’s nephew Moses, son of John Birdwell and Mary Allen, who was mustered into Captain William Chisum’s company of Major William Russell’s Tennessee Battalion of Volunteer Mounted Gunmen on 28 September 1814, and discharged on 27 March 1815.[12] The service papers available for this Moses Birdwell at Fold3 included only three index cards. If I’m not mistaken, Shannon Birdwell had obtained the entire service packet, and this power of attorney was in that service packet.

Also in Colonel Burrus’ militia regiment from Madison County was John Leonard, whose niece Aletha, daughter of Thomas Lewis Leonard and Sarah M. Lauderdale, married Moses’ son James G. Birdwell. Moses Birdwell’s oldest son George W. Birdwell was also a War of 1812 soldier from Madison County, serving in Captain John Allen’s company of Mississippi Militia.

The War of 1812 pension application of William Burrough contains a letter written on 30 September 1882 from Mountainburgh, Arkansas, stating that he served in Captain Stephen Griffith’s company in Mississippi with Moses Birdwell, Abram King, John York, Samuel and Antry Levingston, Spencer Rice, and Joseph Dunahew. The pension file states that Burrough enlisted at Huntsville, Alabama.[13]

On 18 August 1813, Moses Birdwell gave bond with his brother Joshua in Roane County, Tennessee, for Joshua’s marriage to Mary Jeans in that county.[14] Roane borders Knox County on the west. As we’ve seen previously, Moses appears to have had ties to Knoxville, since it seems he filed his October 1797 quitclaim to his portion of the estate of his father George Birdwell in Knox County with early Knoxville residents Charles McClung and Andrew White witnessing the quitclaim.

Moses and Brother John Are Censured by Enon Baptist Church

The minutes of Enon Baptist church report on the 1^st Saturday in November 1815 that Brother John Smith had brought a complaint against John and Moses Birdwell for giving false testimony at Bethel church of Flint River.[15]  On the 1^st Saturday in April 1817, Enon church minutes state that the church had considered the charges and confirmed the verdict.[16] On the 1^st Saturday in June 1817, Enon church minutes say,[17]

We the commitee considering the brother Birdwills Might possibly have erd in some respects yet we consider the Enon church Could not have done other wise than they have done with thare brethren.

This statement then names the members of the committee who had dealt with the charges against John and Moses Birdwell: Bennet Wood, Ebenezer Biram Jun^r, Samuel Hockaday, Ebenezer Biram Senr, Levy Loller, John Henry, Sturdey Garner, Jonathan Baker (of Flint), William Eddins, and Herman B. Snead (of Richmond church, Virginia).

A case in which John Birdwell was charged with partiality in “shewing of land” to Brother (Isaac) Brock, another Enon member with whom John was having a dispute, is noted in Enon minutes on the day his brother Moses joined the church on 1 April 1812 – so the problems John and Moses experienced with the Enon church community in 1815-1817 were not the first problems they had with the church. In December 1818, Enon minutes note that John Birdwell and wife Mary had requested letters of dismission from Enon church, and these were granted the 1^st Saturday in January in 1819. I don’t find Moses requesting a dismission letter from the Enon church, but as a previous posting notes, after he began acquiring land in Limestone County, Alabama, by February 1818, Moses joined Round Island Baptist church there in 1820, and since he joined by letter, it appears he had been given a letter of dismission by Enon church.

In January 1819, John Birdwell and wife Mary settled their family in Lawrence County, Alabama, where John organized a Baptist church that was constituted the 3^rd Monday in June 1819, which was initially known as Birdwell Springs Baptist church and later as Enon Baptist (a separate Enon Baptist from the one near Huntsville).[18] This church was ten miles east of Moulton at Oakville, where Dennis Lindsey and wife Jane Brooks Lindsey lived; Dennis and Jane’s son Mark Jefferson Lindsey moved in the late 1840s to what later became Red River Parish, Louisiana, and their family line joined the Birdwell family line when their grandson Alexander Cobb Lindsey married Mary Ann Green in Red River Parish on 2 November 1876. Mary Ann was the daughter of Camilla Birdwell, whose father was Moses Birdwell’s son James G. Birdwell.

John Birdwell then became an elder and constituting member of Hopewell Baptist church two and a half miles east of Danville in Morgan County.[19] This church was constituted the 1^st Saturday in December 1824, with John as one of its elders from that time forward.[20]

Moses Birdwell was taxed in 1815 in Madison County for one white poll. Also taxed in Madison County in 1815 were Moses’ brother John and Moses’ son George W. Birdwell, who married Matilda Garner in Madison County on 14 July 1814. Of the three, only John was taxed for land.[21] All three men were taxed in Captain Johnson’s district. Shannon Birdwell’s May 1995 notes cited above state that Moses Birdwell is also on the 1816 tax list in Madison County.

Moses’ Brother Robert Dies in Giles County, Tennessee, 1815

Prior to 4 September 1815, Moses Birdwell’s half-brother Robert Birdwell died in Giles County, Tennessee. Minutes of the Giles County court state on 4 September 1815 that Robert’s widow Jane Birdwell and a John Birdwell who was evidently Robert and Jane’s son appealed for administration of Robert’s estate on 4 September 1815 and were granted administration.[22] According to Aggie (Agnes Marie Ellis) Birdwell of Lubbock, Texas, in notes she sent to me in 1997, Giles County court and probate records do not name the children of Robert and Jane Birdwell, other than a minor son Joseph, who was placed under guardianship of William McDonald when Robert died. Aggie Birdwell says that Giles County court records refer to an Alexander and a William Birdwell who appear to have been Robert’s sons, but are not identified as such in court records.

In a 1 November 1996 letter to me Lucille Mehrkam of Houston, Texas, tells me that Giles County estate records for Robert Birdwell show his half-brother Moses Birdwell becoming guardian of at least two of Robert’s minor children when Robert died. Lucille Mehrkam’s letter states that these minor children were sent to Moses to be raised by him. The letter cites a Giles County estate file, apparently a loose-papers one, that I have not seen, as well as Giles County Probate Book B, p. 87. I have not seen this document, either, and do not find it listed among the probate records available via FamilySearch. The William Birdwell thought to have been a son of Robert Birdwell did come to Alabama, where he was hanged in Lawrence County in October 1823 for the murder of William Ray/Rhea near Lambs Ferry in Lauderdale County in April 1822.

Giles County, Tennessee, is on the Tennessee-Alabama state line in middle Tennessee, with Limestone and Lauderdale Counties, Alabama, bordering it on the south. Limestone is the county to which Moses Birdwell would move from Madison County in 1818.

Moses Marries a Second Time, to Hannah Folkinden/Folkindon or Folkinsin, 1816

In 1815 or 1816, Moses Birdwell’s first wife, whose name has not been found, died in Madison County, and on 8 August 1816, Moses remarried in that county to Hannah Folkinsin or Folkinden.[23] Hannah’s surname is not easy to read in the original marriage record. It appears to be Folkinden or Folkindon. The general index to Madison County marriage records spells the surname as Folkinsin. I have not been able to locate records of anyone living in or near Madison County in this time frame whose surname even remotely approximates the surname Folkinsin, Folkinden, Folkindon (or Volkinsin? Volkinden? Volkindon?). The 1840 federal census suggests that Hannah was born 1790-1800, an age range that would make her considerably younger than Moses.[24] The 1800 federal census shows a number of people with the surname Fulkinson and Folkinson in New York, and someone with the surname Fulkeson in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – both far removed from Alabama. In 1810, there are quite a few families on the federal census with the surname Fulkerson living in parts of Virginia and Kentucky. On the 1900 federal census, Moses and Hannah’s son Henry Landers Birdwell reported Kentucky as his mother’s birthplace.

Moses’ first wife appears to have been living in 1815, if the 1850 federal census is correct in assigning a birth year of 1835 to her son Abraham Marshall Birdwell, who may have been the last child of Moses by his first wife.[25]

Shannon Birdwell’s previously cited notes say that in 1817, Moses Birdwell witnessed a deed in Madison County of Holden W. Prout to Lewis B. Taliaferro.[26] As Shannon’s notes state, since Moses’ nephew Moses, son of John Birdwell, was of age and now married, the Moses Birdwell of this record could be either the uncle or the nephew.

As a previous posting has noted and as mentioned above, by February 1818, Moses begins appearing in records of Limestone County, Alabama, which borders Madison County on the west. In the next posting, I’ll pick up my chronicle of Moses Birdwell’s life in that county.

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[1] And see Thomas Chase Hagood, “Territorial Period and Early Statehood,” Encyclopedia of Alabama, maintained by Alabama Humanities Council and with Auburn University providing its online site.

[2] The original records of Enon Baptist church for the period 1808-1866 are extant and are available digitally at FamilySearch. I’m citing the original church record book for 1812, p. 12.

[3] On the early history of Enon, see Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society, “Enon Baptist Church History,” Huntsville Historical Review 25,2 (2022), pp. 31-4; and Mildred B. Bobo and Catherine Ryan Johnson, First Baptist Church of Huntsville, Alabama: The First 175 Years, 1809-1984 (Huntsville, 1985). See also Duane and Tracy Marsteller, “Original Site of Enon Baptist Church,” at the Historical Marker Database website.

[4] 1809 census of Madison County, Mississippi Territory, p. 7.

[5] Bobo and Johnson, First Baptist Church of Huntsville, Alabama.

[6] Enon Baptist church minutes, 1808-1866, p. 10, available digitally at FamilySearch.

[7] Joseph M. Jones, “New Market – First and Fairest of Them All?” in A History of Early Settlement: Madison County Before Statehood 1808 ­– 1819, a special publication of Huntsville Historical Review (Huntsville: Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society, 2008), p. 69.

[8] Mississippi State Archives, Madison County, Mississippi Territory, Territorial Tax Rolls 1812, available digitally at FamilySearch.

[9] Ibid., 1813, available digitally at FamilySearch.

[10] “Petition of Sundry Inhabitants of Madison County in the Mississippi Territory,” 3 July 1813, transcribed in Valley Leaves 9,2 (December 1974), pp. 55-6; and see U.S. House of Representatives, Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, James Madison Administration 1809-1817, vol. 7: Thirteenth Congress, First Session, May-August 1813 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1813), p. 135.

[11] NARA, Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Volunteer Organizations During the War of 1812, compiled 1899 – 1927, documenting the period 1812 – 1815, RG 94, available digitally at Fold3. A list of all those who served in Burrus’ Madison County militia regiment during the War of 1812 is in A History of Early Settlement: Madison County Before Statehood 1808 – 1819, a special publication of Huntsville Historical Review (Huntsville: Huntsville-Madison County Historical Society, 2008), p. 147; and in Valley Leaves 2,4 (June 1968), pp. 99-102.

[12] NARA, Indexes to the Carded Records of Soldiers Who Served in Volunteer Organizations During the War of 1812, compiled 1899 – 1927, documenting the period 1812 – 1815, RG 94, available digitally at Fold3.

[13] NARA, War of 1812 Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, compiled ca. 1871 – ca. 1900, documenting the period 1812 – ca. 1900, RG 15, pension file 25647, Mississippi, available digitally at Fold3.

[14] Roane County, Tennessee, Marriage Records, December 1801 – November 1826, p. 121.

[15] Enon Baptist church minutes, 1808-1866, p. 23, available digitally at FamilySearch.

[16] Ibid., p. 29, available digitally at FamilySearch.

[17] Ibid., p. 30, available digitally at FamilySearch.

[18] Dennis Grizzle, “John and Mary Allen Birdwell,” in Families and History of Sullivan County, Tennessee, ed. Holston Territory Genealogical Society (Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth, 1992), pp. 349-50; Gwenneth Aeone Marshall Mitchell, The Mitchells of Linn Flat (Austin, Texas, 1981, p. 215, citing Mabel Ponder Wilson, Dorothy Youngblood Woodyerd, and Rosa Lee Busby of Alabama Society of DAR, Early Churches of Alabama, p. 95; Carolyn Murray Greer, “Will you be my hero?,” Remembering the Shoals; and “John Birdwell,” at Gregory Vaut’s Ancestors of Alexandra Catlin Vaut website.

[19] John Knox, A History of Morgan County, Alabama (Decatur, Alabama: Decatur Printing Co., 1967), p. 160.

[20] Greer, “Will you be my hero?”

[21] Mississippi State Archives, Madison County, Mississippi Territory, Territorial Tax Rolls 1815, pp. 23-4, available digitally at FamilySearch. See also “Madison County, Alabama, Tax lists 1810-1815,” Valley Leaves 4,4 (June 1970), p. 16.

[22] Giles County, Tennessee, Court Minutes, December 1810 – October 1816, pp. 487-8, available digitally at FamilySearch.

[23] Madison County, Alabama, Marriage Bk. 1, p. 261, no. 514.

[24] 1840 federal census, Marshall County, Alabama, p. 80A.

[25] 1850 federal census, Hopkins County, Texas, district 8, p. 147B (dwelling/family 184; 12 October). Abraham Marshall Birdwell is listed as Martial Birdwell and his living with his half-sister Nancy and her husband Calvin C. Cunningham.

[26] Citing Pauline Jones Gandrud, Alabama Records, vol. 64: Madison County, p. 60.