Orlando Newton Hollingsworth, son of Benjamin Hollingsworth and Joicy Jones, from his biography page, “Orlando Newton Hollingsworth,” at the Legislative Reference Library of Texas website
Or, Subtitled: Distinguished Careers in Public Service, Law Firms and Oil Wells, with a Mysterious Disappearance After the Law Comes Knocking at the Door
As we saw in the previous posting, in his 1 May 1841 Benton County, Alabama, will,[1] Benjamin Hollingsworth states that he and wife Joicy Jones Hollingsworth had had the following children: Stephen, Wyly B. (whose name appears as Wiley in other documents), Asenath (Allen), Mary Ann (Kelly), Hannah Belzora, Benjamin, Benton, and Orlando. The will notes that Wiley had predeceased his father.
Letter of Benjamin Hollingsworth, Carnesville, Franklin County, Georgia, Governor David B. Mitchell, 7 December 1812, in Telamon Cuyler Collection, Series 1. Historical Manuscripts holdings at Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, box 46, folder 11
Or, Subtitled: “Honoured Sir — If your Dignity will permit me to make a statement to you in regard to our frontier county“
In a previous posting, I summarized the salient facts about the life of Benjamin Benton Hollingsworth, Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks’s last child — literally, the Benjamin of their declining years. As we see in the posting I’ve just linked, Benjamin was born after 1784 in Randolph County, North Carolina, and died 18 August 1844 in Benton County, Alabama.[1] We can conclude, more specifically, that Benjamin was likely born in or after 1785, since he does not appear with other males of his family on the tax list in Franklin County, Georgia in 1801, which indicates that he was not yet 16 or became 16 in 1801 after the tax list was compiled.[2] As Sadie Greening Sparks also notes, he does not appear as a drawer in the 1805 Georgia land lottery, and this means he was under 21 in 1805, therefore born after 1784.[3] Because Benjamin witnessed a deed of Joseph Dunnigan to Abner Dunnigan in Franklin County, Georgia, on 20 August 1803, a legal act that required him to be 18 years old at the time (though I’ve seen instances of minors witnessing deeds, too), I suspect he was born in 1785: see below for more about this deed.
Reproduction of what appears to be an oil portrait of Salina Zora Belle Hollingsworth Patton in Eddie Patton and Mary Ellen Patton Roberts, “The Pattons of Pelham and the Civil War,” The Pathfinder [Grundy County, Tennessee] 17,2 (June 2012), pp. 16-20, online at the Grundy County, Tennessee, History website
Or, Subtitled:
As we’ve seen, researchers have placed the birth of James Hollingsworth, the seventh child (and fourth son) of Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks, between 1777-1780 in Guilford or Randolph County, North Carolina (Randolph was created from Guilford in 1779). In their classic accounts of the Hollingsworth and Harlan families, J. Adger Stewart and Alpheus Harlan both have James born in 1777.[1] Sadie Greening Sparks thinks that he was born in 1780.[2]
Charles Christopher Sheats (1839-1904), from Joseph W. Danielson, “Christopher Sheats,” Encyclopedia of Alabama; photo courtesy of Reita Jones
Or, Subtitled: Difficulties of Tracing Women’s Lines, Especially When Women Die Young
About the second child of Jacob Hollingsworth and Mary Brooks, their daughter Sarah and her husband James Garner, I have scant information. As noted previously, Sarah was born 1770-1, probably in Guilford County, North Carolina, and predeceased her father Jacob Hollingsworth. His will, made 15 May 1815 in Franklin County, Georgia, states that Sarah had died and makes a bequest to her son Jacob Garner.[1]As has also been noted, Sarah’s son Jacob Garner married Mary Hunter, daughter of Evan Todhunter, whose son John T. Hunter moved to Lawrence County, Alabama, where his family intermarried with the Lindsey and Brooks families. I find no evidence that James and Sarah Hollingsworth Garner had more children than their son Jacob, and he and wife Mary Hunter seem to have had a single child, a daughter Mary Elizabeth, so there is not much possibility of biographical information about James and Sarah passing down multiple family lines that followed them.
Tombstone of Hannah Hollingsworth Brown from her Find a Grave memorial page, Nacoochee Methodist cemetery, Sautee, White County, Georgia — see n. 3, infra
As we saw in the previous posting, the will that Jacob Hollingsworth made in Franklin County, Georgia, on 15 May 1815 names his children, noting that his son Samuel and daughter Sarah (Garner) had both predeceased him.[1]Before I start telling you what I know about Jacob’s children, a proviso: I haven’t done exhaustive research on them. What I’m sharing now are bits and pieces I’ve gathered through desultory research. Some researchers have done much more work than I have on some of these children — e.g., Sadie Greenings Spark on Samuel, James, and Benjamin[2] — and I’ll point you to that research as I discuss the children of Jacob Hollingsworth and wife Mary Brooks, who were as follows:
Or, Subtitled: Migration of Families with Quaker Roots from Pennsylvania through North Carolina into Northwest Georgia by 1790
Chester County, Pennsylvania, Beginnings of Jacob Hollingsworth
Alpheus H. Harlan, History and Genealogy of the Harlan Family, and Particularly of the Descendants of George and Michael Harlan, Who Settled in Chester County, Pa., 1687 (Baltimore: Lord Baltimore Press, 1914), p. 33
As has been noted previously, Jacob Hollingsworth, who married Mary Brooks about 1767-8, was the son of Samuel Hollingsworth and Barbara Shewin of Chester County, Pennsylvania. In his history of the Harlan family long connected to the Hollingsworths, Alpheus Harlan indicates that Jacob was born about 1740 or 1742.[1] According to J. Adger Stewart in his classic study of descendants of Valentine Hollingsworth, the immigrant ancestor, the first son of Samuel and Barbara Shewin Hollingsworth, also named Samuel, was born about 1740.[2] Stewart evidently bases this estimated birthdate on the fact that Samuel and Barbara married in 1738. He does not suggest a birthdate for Jacob, but implies that Jacob was born about 1742. As Alpheus Harlan notes, Samuel Hollingsworth was a farmer of Birmingham township in Chester County, and died there in November 1751.[3] This suggests that Jacob Hollingsworth was born in Birmingham township in Chester County.
Or, Subtitled: “All My Life, My First and Chief Desire Was not Money but Knowledge, Learning, and Wisdom“
When I ended my previous posting providing information about the life of Samuel Asbury Lindsey (1825/6 – 1865), son of Dennis Lindsey and Jane Brooks, I told you I’d write a subsequent one about Samuel’s children. Before I begin that account, however, I’d like to mention something I intended to say in the posting I have just linked, and forgot to include. This is about Samuel’s name.
Signatures of Mark Lindsey and sons Dinsnore and Wesley, 13 September 1839 mortgage of Wesley (Fielding W.) Lindsey to Mark, Lawrence County, Alabama, Circuit Court #49, #50, #51, box 173; folder 41
Or, Subtitled: Yallow Mares, Mortgages, and Boom-Bust Fortunes of Alabama Planters in Depression of Late 1830s
Lawrence and Morgan County, Alabama, Records for Mark Lindsey, 1830 to Death in 1848
In this posting, I’ll continue listing records I’ve found for Mark Lindsey in Lawrence and Morgan Counties, Alabama, after he moved his family from Kentucky to Alabama in 1819. In my previous posting, I listed records from 1819 to 1830. This posting will focus on the period from 1830 up to Mark’s death in Morgan County on 10 April 1848.Continue reading “The Children of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755-1795): Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) (3)”→