While packing up some of my mother’s things I found an hold horn. She had a note packed with it that it had been her father’s and that it had belonged to his grandfather. I’m guessing that it was his Grandfather, Allen L. Pryor, who was born in 1816. My grandpa was raised on the Pryor farm near Gallatin, in Sumner County, TN. I’ve done a bit of research, enough to learn that it isn’t a powder horn. My mom’s note said that she remembered her uncle blowing the horn (that would have been Allen Gregory of Nashville) in the 1930’s. From some photos online it looks hunting horns that people blow to call in the hounds on a hunt. Any ideas of what it was used for in Tennessee? Did they have fox hunting in Tennessee? Do you have a Pryor family heirloom you’d like to photograph and share?
Category Archives: Tennessee Pryors
Ancestry has been adding more school yearbooks. I found Jessie Walker Pryor, a young lady who had graduated with an M.D. from the University of Texas in 1920. She is on the 1920 Census in Galvaston, Ward 1… recorded as a roomer and a student at the medical college. I was able to find her again in 1900 because of another enhancement on Ancestry. The past versions of the 1900 Census were at times illegible. The newer, clearer version on Ancestry shows Miss Pryor in living with her parents in Caldwell County, TX. Her father was born in Tennessee. Can we match this line up to their TN Roots?
Summer Article Series
I’m taking time off from the website and blogging in July and August. I work as a web designer and internet consultant and will be enjoying some vacation time and time to write my stash of blog articles for months to come. However there will be plenty to read here on the Tennessee Pryors blog! I’m running a series of blog posts of Internet Genealogy tips, the same tips I use to find all those lost Pryors! So encourage your research friends and family to subscribe to the blog RSS feed or get email updates through Feedburner.
John Hughes Pryor of Goochland Co., VA and Rutherford Co., TN
John Hughes Pryor is one of the sketchier Pryors. I assume he was a fine human being, but the information about him is sparse… and sketchy.
It’s believed that he was the son of William Pryor born about 1785 and Elizabeth Hughes. John married Sallie Smith in 1802 in Goochland County and was on the Goochland County Census in 1820. John was the grandson of Col. William Pryor and the great-grandson of Col. Samuel Pryor who were the patriarchs of large Pryor families and a long lineage of Virginia Pryors.
On the 1830 Census he was recorded as Jno. H. Pryor in Rutherford County, TN. He moved his family to Williamson County some time before 1840. The Minute Book Genealogy of Williamson County , Tennessee 1799-1865 by Albert L. Lawson contains a reference to John Pyor: “1834 (13/381) In the case of Clouston vs Healy & Pigot there is mention of lands on the waters of West Harpeth bounded on the north by the heirs of Pryor and in the waters of Liepers Fork of West Harpeth adjoining the lands of John Pryor on the east.” So if John Pryor was in Williamson County in 1834, and most researchers date his death as 1841, who were the “heirs of Pryor”? Were they the heirs of another Pryor who was deceased? Who was this other Pryor?
Siblings
John Hughes Pryor had 5 known siblings. His sister Judith Neville Pryor b. 1786 married Fonatine Duke in 1808 in VA. She was on the 1850 and 1860 Census in McNairy Co., TN. Another sister, Martha “Patsy”, married Robert Meriweather and was still in Goochland County in 1850. Robert Meriweather may have been a distant cousin, in that John Hughes Pryor’s aunt Frances Morton Pryor had also married a Meriweather. A mental note should be made that Meriweather Lewis, half of Lewis and Clark was from the Meriweather family, was from the same area of Virginia as these Pryors and chose a Pryor as part of his expedition (Sgt. Nathaniel Pryor). While I can’t prove a connection between John Huges Pryor and the explorer, these facts may indicate that these families traveled in similar social circles
Looking at the children of John Hughes Pryor I came across family trees on Ancestry.com with conflicting information.
Sons
Allen Pryor born 1802. I suspect the family trees that include Allen as a son of John Pryor have drawn their information from the census records that show an Allen Pryor in Rutherford County on the 1820 Census. The Allen on the 1820 Census was born between 1775 and 1794. He appears to be a contemporary of John Hughes Pryor, not a son. If John Hughes Pryor is the same John on the 1810 and 1820 Census in Goochland County, he had no sons recorded on either census.
Daughters
John Pryor of Goochland County has six younger females living in his household in 1820. Six daughters? Holy cow!
1. Louisa A. Pryor born 1800 in Virginia. She married Abner C. Sublett in about 1829, so Louisa would have been one of the daughters in the Pryor household on the 1820 Census. They are on the 1850 though 1880 in Rutherford County, TN. Louisa’s children were named Susan Amanda, Valentine A., John C., Sarah J., and Horace A.
2. Mary Jane Pryor. Born 1808 in Virginia. She married William James Hargrove in 1826 in McNairy Co., TN. Their children were Benjamin Franklin, Sarah Frances, John Hugh, James Monroe, Amanda, Mary L., Thomas Caldwell, and Robert Ezrell. Mary and her family were on the 1850 Census in McNairy County, not too far from her aunt Judith Pryor Duke, a sister of John Hughes Pryor. The Hargroves and the Dukes appear to be educated, town-dwellers as William Hargrove was a grocer and a physician was living in the Duke household. William Hargrove was recorded on the same page as John Hughes Pryor on the 1840 Census in Williamson Co., TN.
Mary was recorded on the 1860 Census in Hardin County, TN as “Mary Hargroves”, living with children Mary L, Thomas C., and Robert L. Living near her are also her children Amanda Hargrove Cowan, and John H. Hargrove. Despite one Ancestry Tree that states Mary died 1866 in Norwoodville, Sevier Co., AR—Mary and her children were still in Hardin Co., TN on the 1870 Census. By 1880 Mary’s children and their families were in Sevier County, AR.
My conclusion is that Mary Jane is of the right social status and lived in the right geography to be a daughter of John Hughes Pryor.
3. Amanda F. Pryor born 1809 in Virginia. Married William P. Batte in 1827 in Rutherford County. They are on the 1850 through 1870 Census in Sumner Co., TN. There is a William D. Batey born between 1800 – 1810 on the 1840 Census in Rutherford County. The 1850 Census reveals their children were named Augustus Washington, William B., Elizabeth P., and James H (James Hughes?). Amanda’s age, place of birth, and where she lived strongly suggests she may be one of John Hughes Pryor’s daughters.
4. Henrietta Lee Smith Pryor born 1815 in Virginia. Henrietta married Goodwin Davis. I haven’t found them on the 1850 Census, however they were on the 1860 Census in Bedford County, TN. Their known children are Able, Archibald, William, John Louis, Alabama, Robert Young, Sarah Louisiana, Mary Margaret, Valentine Sublett, Martha Tennessee, Jane Washington. Mrs. H. Davis is recorded directly under John Hughes Pryor on the 1840 Census in Williamson Co., TN. I believe the names of her children connects her to Louisa Pryor Sublett and her position on the census near John Hughes Pryor is further evidence of the relationship.
5. Sophia Weston Pryor born 1818 in Virginia. Sophia married Ezra Keyser born in PA. They married in 1838 in Rutherford Co., TN. Their children were Sally and Mary R. They are on the 1850 Census in Fulton Co., KY and in 1870 through 1880 they are in Gonzales Co., TX. Not conclusive, the daughter named Sally, could have been named for her mother Sallie Smith. I’ve wondered if Ezra Keyser was related to Joseph Kizer who filed an assault charge against Thornton Pryor in Robertson County in 1814. There’s also a Keyser connection to the Phereba Pryor who was living with Spicy Taylor Pryor in Overton County, TN in 1850– when she was recorded on the 1860 Census in Sumner County she was living with a John Keyser and a Silas Ryan born in PA. Could there be a connection between the Pryors in Sumner County and Overton County Pryors with Sophia and perhaps John Hughes Pryor?
6. Elizabeth Smith Pryor born 1808 in Virginia. Married to Isaac Rainey.
7. Martha Pryor born 1812 in Virginia. Martha married Benjamin Potter. They are on the 1850 Census in Rutherford County, TN. Their children were named John and Amanda, names that could follow names in her own family: father named John Pryor and a sister named Amanda.
8. Virginia W. Pryor born 1823 in Tennessee. Virginia married Thomas W. Hill in Williamson Co., TN in 1842. They are on the 1860 through 1870 Census in Wayne Co., IL. They are on the 1880 Census in Philips Co., KS. Their children were named Adelia, Sarah C., John G., Mary J., Basil, Oscar James, and Laura M.
Since all of these women who researchers suggest as daughters appear to have married after 1820, there are more suggested daughters than female children in the Pryor household on the 1820 Census. Unfortunately we don’t have enough information to draw conclusions: either two of the women are not his daughters, they may have been living with relatives in 1820, or attending a private school, or other scenario.
I heard from a researcher who is looking for information on the Cynthia Pryor, mother of Hiram Pryor, in Smith County, TN. I admit I don’t have a lot of information on this line as they were in Smith County only for the 1850 and 1860 censuses. It’s time to look at the Pryors from Smith County again.
A 1952 “Cal’s Column” quotes a record from about 1802: “Deed, Thomas and Mourning White to Richard Pryor, proven by the oath of William Pryor, one of the subscribing witnesses thereto.” Mourning was the widow of Richard Pryor born about 1736 in Virginia. By 1810 Mourning was in Logan County, KY. Since her husband, Richard, was already deceased in 1802 it is likely that the Richard in Smith County was her son or the son born to the elder Richard Pryor and Mary Mooney in Goochland County, VA in 1763.
Richard and Mourning Pryor’s line from Virginia appears to have assimilated into other counties by the 1820 Census and the next migration of Pryors to Smith County appear in 1830: John Pleasant Pryor and his son Green Pryor from North Carolina. I see that there are Ancestry.com family trees that ID Green Pryor the husband of Cynthia Pryor and father of Hiram. I’d like to see a source for this information because the Green Pryor who was in Smith County is in Izard County, AR with a wife named Elizabeth and 9 children.
Also in Izard County: Frederick Lancaster and wife Elizabeth Pryor, probably a daughter of Green Pryor.
Another family in Izard County who appears to have Smith County roots: John Lancaster 58, TN, Clarissa 48 NC, John 18 TN, Rhody Ann 15 TN, Leroy E. 13 TN, Lemuel L. 7 TN, Margaret M. 5 AR. It’s interesting to note that Cynthia Pryor had a daughter recorded on one census as Clarissa.
In 1870 Hiram Pryor was in Gallatin County, IL. In this county there was an older woman named Cynthia Pryor Lafferty on the 1850 and 1860 census. Connected?
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Entry 3 Form the Bible of John Polk Pryor
Family Memoranda, Script 1867, continued…
It follows from the facts stated in the first part of the foregoing paragraph, that, beyond my immediate family, I have no near relatives of my own name. My half-brother, Sam, and my children, are the only Pryors (living in 1867) whose “kinship” I can trace. Roger Pryor of Virginia sojourning in New York (1867), sent me word once by my old partner, Dr. Georgelya) that he and I were certainly kin, for that his father, The Pryor (a Presbyterian clergyman) possessed a “Family Tree” upon the branches of which he had found the names of my father and myself.
Uncle Peter Pryor died in my native Lauderdale Co., Alabama, near Florence. He was a gay, extravagant, fast living, impulsive young man, very fond of pleasure — in all which respects he was the very reverse of his only brother, my father, who was gentle, grave, prudent, and of a religious turn from his earliest youth. And yet these two brothers loved each other with a more than brotherly affection, the younger being generally taken for the elder, and indeed, watching over his welfare with the interest and affection, joined to the prudence and fondness of a father. A year or two after Uncle Peter’s death, my aunt (his then still young and beautiful widow) married Col. Wm W. Crawford, (a nephew of Gen. Andrew Jackson) by whom she had some 9 or 10 children. Col. C. becoming dissipated, the family reduced to comparative poverty, and was only rescued from absolute want by the friendly intervention of my father and cousin G. W. Perkins. Indeed, my father did more for his poor kinfolk, generally, than any man of moderate fortune I ever knew. For example, he mainly supported for twenty years his half-brother, Alfred Stone, with his large family, his foster-brother William Stone with his large family, his brother-in-law and half sister Walter and Agnes Jenkins with their 8 or 9 children — educating several of the latter; — besides contributing largely to the support of his half-brother Nicholas P. Stone after the latter lost his property and many others whose names escaped me. Economical and self-denying to a degree seldom surpassed, he was nevertheless always liberal and bountiful to the loved ones at home, and to every unfortunate neighbor; indeed, he came as near living up to the “two great commandments” on which “bring all the — and the prophets,” as perhaps any Christian in this country ever did. Assuredly, if ever man did, he loved God with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself. A devoted communicant of the Presbyterian Church for 25 or 30 years, he assuredly contributed largely of his means to church purposes, and to every educational or charitable object that —— his assistance. Born in 1796 in Pittsylvania Co., VA: reared in Williamson County, Tenn; married in Maury County, where we resided a few years; thence recurring to Lauderdale County, Ala., where he remained about four years; thence to Hardeman County in Tennessee where he sojourned seventeen years (til 1842) and thence to Marshall County, Miss. 18 miles S. W. of Holly Springs, where he resided to the day of his death in 1852; — in all these places, after he attained to man’s estate, he left behind him a reputation as a perfectly good and true man, of which his children may be justly proud, and by which one of them, I am sure, has been a thousand times and in a thousand ways incalculably benefited. He was, beyond questions, “A righteous man.” I never met one of his contemporaries, who had known him well, who was not ever enthusiastic in praise of his integrity, his piety, his benevolence, and the rare gentleness and goodness of his character generally; some of the sweetest enjoyment of my life has occurred from listening to these eulogies of my father by his old friends. A warmer heart than his, I think, never beat in a human bosom, and it seemed that he loved his children with a love passing that of women. And the great regret of my life since his death has been, that, although, I did indeed love him deeply and truly, yet I fear I did not show him my heart as much or as often as I ought while living
[signed]
J. P. P.
TN Pryor Notes:
Green and Peter Pryor are on the 1820 Census in Maury Co., TN
https://tennesseepryors.com/pryor-website/tn-records/tennessee-counties-m/#Maury
Green Pryor was in Marshall County, MS for the 1850 Census. Also in the same county were his step-sister Angnes Stone Jenkins, son James Polk Pryor, his daughter Martha Elizabeth Pryor Alexander.
https://tennesseepryors.com/pryor-website/state-records/mississippi/#Marshall
Are you a direct descendant of John Polk Pryor? Want the family Bible?
The genealogist who supplied the scanned Bible records would like to reconnect the book with the rightful family. If you are interested, please contact me through this website and I will forward him the contact information of all interested parties.