Or, Subtitled: Five John Lindseys Representing Three Distinct Families – Trials and Tribulations of Researching Lindseys in Spartanburg County, South Carollina, in 1700s/1800s
In a lengthy series of postings, I have followed the descendants of a Dennis Lindsey (about 1755 – 1795) who is the known son of a William Lindsey (about 1733 – about 1806) of Spartanburg County, South Carolina. As the posting I have just linked and postings about Dennis’s father William linked below state, we know that William and Dennis were father and son because records in the South Carolina Revolutionary audited account files of both men state that relationship.
Children of Alexander Cobb Lindsey and Mary Ann Green at 1953 family reunion: front, l-r — Sam, Robert, Ed, Veta; back, l-r — Dennis, Clarence, Bloomer, Emma, Emmitt, Camilla
Or, Subtitled: “The fourth generation was represented, and there were 87 present”
As the previous posting, to which this posting is a footnote, indicates, the 1910 federal census states that Alexander Cobb Lindsey and Mary Ann Green had thirteen children,[1] but the birth and death register of their family bible, of which the posting I’ve just linked provides pictures, lists the names and birthdates of only twelve children.[2] The birth entries for all children except the last child of the couple, Emmitt, are in the handwriting of Alex C. Lindsey. No family records that I have seen provide the name of a thirteenth child.
The children of Alex C. and Mollie Green Lindsey are as follows:
Pen-and-ink drawing of Mark Jefferson Lindsey from “an old family bible,” reproduced in Henry C. Lindsey, The Mark Lindsey Heritage (Brownwood, Texas, 1982), p. 3
Or, Subtitled: Migration of Alabama Families to Northwest Louisiana, Late 1840s and Early 1850s
Establishing Mark’s Birthdate
In the bible of his sister Frances Rebecca Kellogg, Mark Jefferson Lindsey recorded his birthdate, stating that he was born “in the year 1820 Oct the 9,” son of D. and Jane Lindsey. Above the diary entry, Mark has written the date on which he made this record: “December the 4 1853.” We’re able to know that Mark himself wrote this entry since his handwriting matches that of other documents he wrote. In the signatures of Mark below, note the stylized J, for instance, with the loop running back through the top of it, and the stylized capital M. The first is from a 15 September 1838 deed of trust between Jacob H. Huffaker and John M. Davis in Oakville, Lawrence County, Alabama, for a debt Huffaker owed Davis, with Mark signing as trustee.[1] The second is Mark’s signature as he gave bond on 19 October 1839 for his marriage to Mary Ann Harrison in Lawrence County.[2] The birth record for Mark in his sister Frances Rebecca’s bible is, it’s easy to ascertain, written in the same hand — by Mark himself.
William and Margaret Lindsey Hunter, abt. 1870, photo uploaded by Kelly Browne to Margaret’s Find a Grave memorial page, Liberty cemetery, Martin, Red River Parish, Louisiana
Or, Subtitled: “Prominent as Planters, Merchants, Ministers of the Gospel”
Margaret Tranquilla Lindsey, daughter of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks, was born 14 January 1834 at Oakville in Lawrence County, Alabama. This date of birth is found on her tombstone at Liberty Baptist cemetery, Martin, Red River Parish, Louisiana.[1] Margaret’s son William Marshall Hunter pastored Liberty church for a number of years. It was founded by Reverend John Dupree, grandfather of Marshall’s wife Laura Jane Dupree.
Proceedings of the M.W. Grand Lodge of the State of Louisiana, Free and Accepted Masons, Ninety-First Grand Communication (New Orleans: A.W. Hyatt, 1903), title page.
Proceedings of the M.W. Grand Lodge of the State of Louisiana, Free and Accepted Masons, Ninety-First Grand Communication (New Orleans: A.W. Hyatt, 1903), p. 150.
Or, Subtitled: When Tombstone Information May Lead Us Astray
My postings have now followed John Wesley Lindsey, oldest child of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks, from his birth in Wayne County, Kentucky, in 1814, to his move with his parents in 1817 to what would soon be Lawrence County, Alabama, where he grew up and married Margaret S. Gibson in 1836, and, finally, to his life in Itawamba and Lee Counties, Mississippi, from 1839 to around 1870, when he and his second wife Mary Louisa, widow of Robert O. Maupin, moved to northwest Mississippi for a few years. As I stated at the end of my last posting, I don’t have abundant information about John’s life after he married a third wife, the widow Mary Ann Wester on 15 December 1878 in Red River Parish, Louisiana. Continue reading “Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: John Wesley Lindsey (1814-1903) — Louisiana Years”→
John Wesley Lindsey’s signature as witness to will of his grandfather Thomas M. Brooks, 2 October 1838, Morgan County, Alabama (from loose-papers estate file of Thomas Brooks, Morgan County)
Or, Subtitled: Weathervane Turns on Fortunes of North Alabama Merchant Planters in 1830s
John Wesley Lindsey’s Birth in Wayne County, Kentucky, April 1814
Account of care Jane Brooks Lindsey’s provided nursing and lodging her parents in the final months of their lives, 13 November 1839, from loose-papers estate file of Thomas Brooks, Morgan County, Alabama
Or, Subtitled: Losing a Husband and Both Parents within Two Years and Carrying On
Dennis Lindsey, 9 September 1818 land patent, Huntsville, Alabama, land office, Bureau of Land Management Tract Books for Alabama, vol. 19, p. 95
Or, Subtitled: Alabama Fever and Skyrocketing Cotton Prices as Alabama Opened to White Settlers
By 9 September 1818, Dennis Lindsey had moved his family from Wayne County, Kentucky, to Lawrence County, Alabama, since he patented a piece of land on that date in township 7, range 6 west, section 8 at the Huntsville land office.[1] Alabama would become a state the following year, so this land was in Mississippi Territory when Dennis Lindsey patented it. As my previous posting showed, this land was adjacent (on the west) to what would become the town of Oakville in Lawrence County, a town that Dennis would play a role in founding. The fact that Dennis Lindsey disappears from Wayne County, Kentucky, tax returns after 1816 and then shows up acquiring land in Lawrence County, Alabama, in 1818 indicates, I think, that he moved his family to Alabama in 1817. The Huntsville Republican newspaper contains a notice on 14 October 1817 (p. 3, col. 4) that an unclaimed letter was waiting in the Huntsville post office for Dennis Lindsey, further evidence that he moved to Alabama in that year.
Dennis Lindsey tombstone, old Lindsey family cemetery (now Lindsey Memorial Gardens) near Oakville, Lawrence County, Alabama; photo is by Ray and Marty Lindsey at Dennis Lindsey’s Find a Grave memorial page
Or, Subtitled: False Crypt Tombstones and Curiously Missing Marriage Records
The tombstone of Dennis Lindsey, oldest son of Mark Lindsey and Mary Jane Dinsmore, tells us that he died on 28 August 1836, aged 41 years. Lawrence County, Alabama, orphans court minutes confirm the August 1836 date of death, something I’ll discuss in detail when I discuss Dennis’s probate records in a subsequent posting. I haven’t found any reason to doubt the information inscribed on Dennis’s tombstone, which would evidently have been erected by his widow Jane not long after his death…. Continue reading “The Children of Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) and Mary Jane Dinsmore: Dennis Lindsey (1794 – 1836) (1)”→
