The Pryor Families of Colusa County, CA – Where Are They Now?

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Pioneer Homestead

Where have all the Colusa County, CA Pryors gone? The Pryors in this Northern California county were early settlers, arriving just after the Gold Rush. Their roots go back to some of the very same Pryors we’ve been tracing through Colonial Virginia. I’ve done some hard work to find a present-day descendent of this line but  have lost them in the records.

Looking for a Pryor related to the folks who came from Virginia to Colusa, Yolo, Tahoe, Williams area. You can contact me, the website administrator, at tnpryors@gmail.com. You probably connect to my own Pryor line, so happy to hear from you!

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Major John Pryor of Richmond… And Gloucester

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OpponentsDirty, dirty, politics. If you think things are bad now, well, they were no better in the distant past. On August 27th, 1856 The Weekly Wisconsin published an article titled “The Slanders on Col. Fremont’s Mother.” Apparently this was published about the time that John C. Fremont was considering a run for the White House. His opponents were making accusations that he had been born out of wedlock.

Remember this article was written about 30 years after the death of Maj. John Pryor of Richmond… we’re now almost 200 years from his death.  Perhaps there is some accuracy in this being closer to the events. It states Fremont’s mother was from Gloucester, and Maj. Pryor, her first husband, was also from Gloucester.

I found that interesting because of the connection I’ve pondered between Major Pryor and Christopher Pryor of Gloucester.  It states that the Major was 62 years old when they married (in 1796), but I think they added about 20 years on to his age, perhaps to make him look bad and to make Fremont’s mother look less culpable for leaving the Major. The article states that a divorce was granted before Major Pryor and his wife remarried, yet there is a document that shows the divorce was rejected and no later order granting the divorce. The writer states Pryor remarried his “housekeeper”, when in fact he married the grand-daughter of a well-respected officer of the Revolutionary War who probably had ties to Pryor’s own family.

I suspect Major Pryor has been maligned in history as a slovenly, elderly husband to the young Anne Whiting (later Fremont).  But I’ll take the Gloucester County connection as an interesting lead!

Category: Virginia Pryors | Tags: ,

1833 – Report of William Pryor Murdered in Nashville

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Nashville, TN Pryor

Finding an old news article may fill in blanks when wondering what happened to all the people counted on a census…

It was reported in the Nashville Banner that a William Pryor and a Michael Hoover were attacked and beaten in a room they shared. They were found on Sunday, March 31st, and by April 17th the news article had made it’s way into the New York press (published in The Evening Post). The men had been gambling the night before and in the morning a servant went to the room to build a fire and found they had been attacked. It looks like the report made it into the northern paper because there had been several deaths in Nashville within a short period.

The same story was printed in The North Carolina Star (Raleigh) on 19 April 1833. I love having a second source because the NC paper states Hoover was from Nashville and William Pryor was from Clarksville (Montgomery County). Yes, there’s a Pryor on the 1830 Census Montgomery County! — It’s Samuel Pryor who I believe is a son of Joseph Pryor and Mary Fleming of Bourbon County, KY. Samuel has only one known son, E. L. Pryor of Arkansas, but there were other males younger than the head of household on 1830 Census. We may have found another son!

There’s  another option… This may be Samuel’s brother William. William was named in his father’s 1812 will and in the 1828 petition concerning the estate of his brother Edward. I haven’t found him on the 1830 Census.

The NC paper reported the suspect was Thomas Hill who was about 20 years old.  Hey, John Hughes Pryor had a daughter who married a Thomas Hill who was about the same age. Hmmmm.

Anyone want to try to solve a 180 year old mystery?

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Digging Deep for Campbell County, VA Pryor Roots – The Pattersons!

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Campbell County Pryor FamiliesHow could I have missed this? I’m going to blame the handwriting!

I picked up that Harris Pryor born about 1740 was a witness on the will of John Wright, the husband of Ann. Ann was the daughter of John Pryor and Mary New of Henrico County, VA. I missed another witness: Landis Pattison (or Patterson). I think I’ve passed over Landis several times when I’ve looked at census records because it looked like Candis (a common variation of Candice). However, I was excited to spot Landis Pattison on the 1820 Census in Campbell County, VA!

And I love where Landis Pattison/Patterson is on the census. He’s wedged in nicely on the two pages that contain my own line of Taylors (they married into my Pryor line), suspected Taylor kin, grandchildren of John Pryor and Mary New. If Harris Pryor and John Pryor & Mary New aren’t part of the Pryor line I’m tracing — I’m not making any bets, just saying I’ll be stunned.

1820 Census Extracts, Campbell County, VA

page 138, John Garrett, 010101
page 138, line 28 Landis Pattison 0000001
(Landis Pattison witnessed will of John Wright, son in law of John Pryor and Mary New, in Prince Edward County, VA in 1775, with Harris Pryor also a witness. Landis Pattison’s mother was Elizabeth New.)
page 138, line 32 Archibald Bolling Sr.
(Archibald Bolling married 4 times – Sarah Cary, Jane Randolph, Sarah (Woodson) Clarke, and Mary Taylor (Page) Bird)
page 138, line 33 David Pattison
page 138, line 34 Littleberry Pattison
(brother of Landis Pattison)
page 138, line 39 Jacob Woodson
page 138, line 40 David Alvis
page 139, line 42 Charles Wright, 120001201
(witnessed Edmund Taylor’s Will)
page 139, line 43 Anderson Woodson Sr.
(Oldest male over 45 y.o, 11 whites, 28 slaves. Son of Robert L Woodson and Rebecca Pryor, a grandson of John Pryor and Mary New.)
page 140, line 2 Isaac Crews
(Isaac married Mary/Polly Oglesby the widow of Hezekiah Taylor who was killed in the War of 1812 in Canada. It’s believed that Mary was the sister-in-law of Edward Taylor on the same page of the 1820 Census)
page 140, line 32 Edward Taylor
(Oldest male over 45 y.o, 7 whites, 4 slaves. Edward/Edmund Taylor father of Spicy Taylor who married William Pryor & Massa Taylor who married John Pryor. Edmund Taylor was married to Elizabeth Garrett)
page 140, line 33 Hezekiah Taylor
(oldest male over 16 to 25 yo, 5 whites, no slaves. Son of Edward/Edmund & Elizabeth Garrett Taylor) 

The Pattersons or Pattisons were all over the same counties where I’m searching out John Pryor, David Pryor, Harris Pryor (Campbell, Amherst, Bedford, Pittsylvania). I see Landis’ brother Littleberry Patterson was recorded on the tax list for Pittsylvania County. Littleberry is on the tax list with… David Ross (the iron foundry guy– he pops up so many times I’m making him his own TAG link!).  There’s an extensive foot note that discusses Ross’ holdings in Pittsylvania County in The History of Pittsylvania County, Virginia  By Maud Carter Clement.

Pattersons have several connections to David Pryor and Susannah Ballow in Buckingham County — After David died his heirs sold part of the estate in 1813 to David Patteson.  David’s son Zane Pryor is supposed to have married a Miss Patterson.

So, you know that habit people had of naming their children after kin. I had to turn over that rock… I looked to see if there were any men named Patterson. Sometimes you turn over a rock and you find something. .

I found another interesting name: Patterson Childress (Patterson Childers). I know there are Pryors who are hunting Childress because of the David Pryor from Henrico County who married a daughter of Abraham Childress. Patterson Childress served with the VA line out of Buckingham County during the Revolutionary War per his wife’s application for a widow’s pension in 1831 (see the transcript). This Childress served under Capt. Leonard Balew, spelled a hundred different ways but the same surname as Susannah Ballow also of Buckingham County, VA who married David Pryor (grandson of Abraham Childress).

And where was widow Childress in 1844? She says she was living in Jefferson County, TN. I found her daughter Nancy (Childress) Hamilton in a well documented family tree on Ancestry (see the tree), which shows she was in Sevier County, TN in 1850 and 1860. Patterson Childress is on the 1784-1787 Census for Surry Co., NC with some names that deserved a review… they sound like they’re from VA. I even spotted an Edward Taylor and Richard Taylor which will need to be searched. Patterson’s military file on Ancestry.com contains a letter that says he had a son named Abraham Childress.

I smell a connection! My research list is getting rather long and I have a stash of 40 posts I’ve written that I can’t get published because I keep digging out this newer stuff.

Patience…

 

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Allen L. Pryor’s Notebook – A Clue to a Sumner County Pryor

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Edward Pryor of Sumner County This little book is a jewel in Pryor family research. It’s the kind of thing that could easily have been swept into the trash when long-ago clearing out a house. It’s also the kind of thing that many of us have tucked away and haven’t thought to share. This is a note book that Allen L. Pryor of Sumner County began to keep in about 1841. Thanks to a cousin I’ve met on Ancestry.com we have an important clue to our Pryors.

In Gallatin Cemetery there’s a cenotaph (not a tombstone, but a monument– no bodies buried there) to Sumner County soldiers who were killed Monterey during the battle of the Mexican War. The monument names Edward Pryor who Allen L’s family has long claimed to be one of Allen’s brothers. Without birth records nor even a Bible entry, we haven’t had much proof of their relationship.

The Battle of Monterey was fought in 1846 (five years after Allen L. Pryor began entries in this book. The monument can be viewed on Find A Grave, which states it was installed in Gallatin in 1850.  There are some notable people buried in Gallatin City Cemetery.

I haven’t been able to find John Pryor, father of Allen L. and probably Edward on the 1820 Census. It’s interesting to know that in about 1850 the family believed  he was born in Sumner County in 1823. That helps to place the family in Sumner County BEFORE the death of John’s father in law, Edmund Taylor, in 1824. It also puts John Pryor in TN about the time his probable brother William Pryor show up on the 1820 Census in Overton County– but still before his Taylor kin migrated to Tennessee after Edmund Taylor’s death.

Allen L. Pryor claimed on census records and in his Goodspeed biography to have been born 1816 in White County, TN. That’s even earlier than we can find this Pryor line in the paper records.

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