Popular history covers the frequent migrations of pioneers over the Appalachian trail from Virginia and the Carolinas. But what about the people who were born in the frontier and returned to the East?
James R. Pryor, the lone Tennessee Pryor on the census records of Blair Co., PA has been identified by his descendant. In 2005 I was contacted by a Pryor researcher who offered terrific information that connects him to the Pryors of McNairy County, TN. James R. is now identified as JAMES RICHARD Pryor. His grave marker states his name as J. Richard, although the 1870 and 1880 Census records in PA state his name as James R. His descendant has discovered through an old letter and family information that James Richard came from McNairy County. He was captured during the Civil War while serving in the Confederate Army and when released, stayed in the North. There is a Richard Pryor of the correct age on the 1850 census in McNairy County, living in the home of Andy Smallwood.