Tag Archives: Garrett

Pryor and Taylor Names in Overton County Records

William B. Churning dec’d, Rachel Chourning adm. Money due to the following:
Roland Flowers due 1 Jan 1837
Overton PRYOR due 26 Apr. 1837
Hezekiah Taylor Jan 1832 (Brother of Spicy and Massie Taylor Pryor)
J.H. Storie, Overton PRYOR and Elijah Garrett $9.45 (William & Spicy Pryor>Overton Pryor)

13 Nov 1846 Estate Sale of Enid Huddleston, Levi and Roland Flowers buyers. (Edward Pryor, probable son of Wm and Spicy Pryor was living near a Roland Flowers in Clinton Co., KY in 1850)

27 Jul 1849 Joseph Bates estate, Hezekiah Taylor purchased 2 lots of shoemaker tools, 1 lot barrels, 1 large kettle, William Richardson also made a purchase (Hezekiah Taylor, brother to Spicy and Massa Taylor Pryor. William Richardson may be kin of Hezekiah’s wife Margaret Richardson?)

1850 Estate of William Harp, dec’d. (The top part of this document is now obscured, but there are groups of debtors and creditors listed by the county they lived in). Persons in Overton Co..Jno. R. Buck, S. Tipton, Joseph Duncan. Persons in Fentress County: John Rogers, Jas. K. Brown, William Poor, Hiram Hills, Michael H. Frogg, William R. Cambell, William Travis?, James Finley?, Jacob Rich. Persons in Fentress County: Joshua Owens, David Smith, John Albertson, George W. Ashburn, Evan? D. Frogg, PLEASANT TAYLOR (note due June 1841), William M. Simpson, William Wright, –? Wood.

15 Aug 1850 Andrew Boswell dec’d, note due to Pleasant Taylor, Isaac Stockton and Eddy Paul: $100.91 (Pleasant Taylor, brother of Spicy and Massa Taylor Pryor)

30 Jul 1852 William H. Harrison, 1 Dec. 1852… 19 head of geese for Mary, James, Wesley and Jeremiah Taylor.

Benjamin McDonald – supplemental. Joseph Garrett, David Garrett’s son a note dated 1852, Samuel Taylor (residence unknown) 1852, Robert B. Garrett (residence unknown) 1852 and 1853.

3 Jun 1853 Thomas Cope dec’d, J. M. Garrett, B. Flowers, Nancy Garrett, Louisa Garrett, Ki Taylor, J. Taylor, T. A. Garrett, John Taylor, Kiah Taylor (Kiah Taylor is probably Hezekiah Taylor, brother to Spicy and Massa Taylor Pryor. )

30 Jul 1862, James Fancher dec’d, money due to William Parrott, Simeon Taylor and Samuel Taylor

7 May 1879 M. I. Taylor, M. V. Taylor , administrator

13 Aug. 1895 A. J. Taylor filed a claim of $25 against the estate of T. B. Lee, dec’d

20 Nov 1912 J. K. Taylor, J. S. Hargrove, administrator

20 Feb 1913
Mrs. M. C. Taylor

4 Jun 1913 J. W. Burnes filed claim against the estate of T. S. Taylor.

The Huddleston Line May Solve The Mystery of Phereba Pryor

Remember Phereba Pryor who was counted in Spicy Taylor Pryor’s household in 1850? I recently saw a family tree on Ancestry.com that claimed Phereba as a direct ancestor. OK, they have my attention! I was a bit skeptical that Phereba or the children in her household could be found anywhere, but this tree looked like a lead worth investigating.

The tree owner’s descendant was William J Huddleston. William was born in March 7, 1856 per his 1943 death record. He died in Indianapolis. His parents were William Huddleston and Anna Pryor, both born in TN.  His daughter Mrs. (Nora) Forman supplied the information on the death record.

Can we confirm that the Anna Pryor on the death record is actually the Phereba Pryor from TN census records? Perhaps.

William J Huddleston married Lucy Peak in Meade County, KY in 1877. I found Lucy’s obit. She died in 1937. The obituary was published in the Indianapolis Star on 29 November 1937. It states Lucy was from Meade County, KY. Her daughter Nora Forman was also mentioned in the article. Mead county birth records state Lucy O Peak was born 20 December 1857 to John C Peak and Elizabeth Allen.


There were 7 surviving children from William and Lucy’s marriage. That’s the potential for a lot of descendants from this line.

The owner of the Ancestry family tree places William Huddleston also in Meade County. If his wife Lucy was from there then it makes sense that William could be found in the same county. They have the 1870 census as source record for William and this is where it gets INTERESTING.

In Garnettsville, Dist 5, page 357a there’s also a James Huddleston age 20 who was born in TN. He is living in the household of Mary E Riney, working as a farm hand. The only other Huddlestons in the county were also in Garnettsville, Dist. 5, page 361a: Phebe Huddleston 40 and William 16– both born in Tennessee.

The last time we found Phereba Pryor on a census was in 1860, living in Sumner County TN just a few lines from Massie Taylor Pryor.  Amazingly the names and ages of sons James and William match up! I know that Phebe/Phereba’s age doesn’t mesh, however her age was 21 on the 1850 Census, so it didn’t match up well with the 1860 census. If she was about 20 in 1850, 30 in 1860, then she would be about 40 in 1870.

1860 Census of Sumner Co., TN – 11th Dist.
House 104 Fereby PRIAR 24, James PRIAR 10, William PRIAR 7, John KEYSER 37 PA, John RYAN 37 GA, Silas ??? 50 PA

There must be a story as to why Phereba and her children were counted as Pryors on the 1860 Census. Why were they Huddlestons in 1870 but not in 1860? Was Phereba never married to Mr Huddleston? Was she a widow or divorced in 1860? Did a neighbor supply the census information in 1860 and they knew her as a Pryor relation? Were they living in Meade county after the Civil War because of the Civil War?

The good news is that if this is Phereba, then she was still alive in 1880. There’s an “Anna Hudelson” b. 1833 in TN counted in Garnettsville in 1880. She stated both of her parents were born in VA which matches how other known children of William Pryor and Spicy Taylor responded on the census. She listed her marital status as “widowed” in 1880.

Why was I looking at this Ancestry tree? Their autosomal kit matches to mine. We also share these matches who are connected through the Pryors, Taylors, and Garretts:

Overton Pryor, son of William Pryor and Spicy Taylor (daughter of Edmund Taylor and Elizabeth Garrett)

Louisa Pryor McCullough, daughter of John Pryor and Massey Taylor (daughter of Edmund Taylor and Elizabeth Garrett)

Ann Eliza Garrett Overstreet, daughter of Stark Garrett

Shadrack Garrett and wife Lector Ann Taylor, daughter of Hezekiah Taylor (son of Edmund Taylor and Elizabeth Garrett)

Robert S Taylor, son of Hezekiah Taylor (son of Edmund Taylor and Elizabeth Garrett)

Ancestry predicts my relationship to the test subject as 5th cousins, sharing Edmund Taylor and/or Elizabeth Garrett as our common ancestor(s), or that we share a common Pryor ancestor, or both.

Just when you think a Pryor has fallen out of the family tree… there’s new info that lights a path of research.

Happy New Year to all the our Pryor kin!

Generations Shown in Pryor AncestryDNA Testing

Another observation came out of the Ancestry DNA. The first test submitted was for one of my kids. They were a willing subject and it seemed like a keen way to find out more about BOTH sides of their family tree. After a productive telephone chat with another researcher I decided to submit my own test.

What a difference a generation can make! My results included matches that weren’t even in my daughter’s results.

FTDA’s Family Finder autosomal test projects results back to 5 generations. AncestryDNA claims results may show results back to 8 generations, but their own graph shows how little common DNA they’re working with at that point. https://www.ancestry.com/dna/learn

One of the testers who descends from William and Spicy Pryor can claim them as their 5th great grandparents. They are separated by 7 generations. The hope of shedding light on their connection to earlier generations which may include kin of Edmund Taylor, Elizabeth Garrett, or any Pryors is quite slim.

There’s a couple ways to make AncestryDNA work for research.

Not just a concept from my results (you’ll hear others online make this recommendation). Test yourself AND also test your oldest relatives.

When looking at your results zero in on matching test who are the LEAST number of generations from your most distant relative you’re searching. For example, the test I mentioned above claims William and Spicy as their 5th great grandparents. Other kits claim them as 3rd and 4th great grandparents.

Ancestry rates their matches as Extremely High, High, Good and Moderate. I found that testers who were connected to a common 3rd great grandparent were “Extremely High” but when comparing to a tester who shared the same ancestor, but at the 5th great grandparent distance, our relationship was rated as “Good”. None of the results on my now long and slightly unwieldy chart were rated as “Moderate”.

So I pass on this cheeky advice: if you’re old or have an even older relative… test ’em!

 

 

Flowers Family with the Pryors and Campbell County Families in Roane County

5982837164_aa57b8bd61_bThis is a short post of the Flowers family connections between the Pryors and associated lines. The names are all woven together in Campbell Co., VA: Butler, Cunningham, Rector, Pryor, Taylor, Oglesby and Rev. William Flowers. If you look at Overton County records there are Flowers marriages into the Pryor line as well as the Taylor and Garrett families.

  • 1790 Murrell Cunningham on Bill of Sale to John Pryor in 1790
  • 1791 Martin Rector and John Pryor signed Petition in Campbell County.
  • 1792 marriage of John Kington/Kingston to Eleanor Caffrey, witnessed by her cousin Sarah Martin Rector, wife of Martin Rector, by Rev Flowers a Baptist Minister. Per Kington’s Revolutionary War pension. Also states Kington was acquainted with Thomas Butler, another pensioner.
  • 1796 marriage of Henry Boteler to Kesiah Oglesby, by William Flowers
  • 1799 marriage of Sarah Cunningham to William Boteler Jr. Surety William Boteler, Murrell Cunningham. By William Flowers
  • 1800 marriage of Elizabeth Pryor to John Harris, by William Flowers
  • 1802 marriage of Samuel Davidson to Frances Oglesby, by William Flowers (Likely Rev. Samuel Davidson who married William Pryor and Spicy Taylor in 1809. Frances Oglesby was Mary Oglesby’s sister).
  • 1807 marriage of Hezekiah Taylor to Mary Oglesby, by William Flowers
  • abt. 1825 Elizabeth Taylor, daughter of Thomas Taylor of Sumner County, TN married James Flowers.
  • abt. 1836 Overton Pryor married Patsy Flowers in Overton County, TN

Mary Pryor and Lodrick (or Ludwig?) Garrett of Overton Co.

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mary-pryor-garrett-xI found a terrific record for the Pryors in Overton Co., TN. It’s a Mother’s Application for Army Pension (file number 116383) which was filed by Mary Garrett wife of Loderick Garrett, or in this application it is spelled at times “Ludwig”.  The application was made 9 Oct 1867 for the pension of their son James M Garrett.

To date I didn’t have a James on Mary’s family group sheet. I believe he is the son named “Marion” who was on the 1850 and 1860 Census. If so, James Marion Garrett was born about 1836.

His enlistment date is given as 1Sept. 1861 at Camp Robinson, KY. Their son James M. Garrett served in Co. D, 2nd TN. He was captured in Rogersville, TN on 6 Nov 1863. He died in Richmond, VA on 15 March 1864 (the army paperwork gives his date of death as 18 Feb 1864). The cause of death was listed as “starvation in Rebel Prison.”

Mary Pryor Garrett’s address at the time of the application was “on wagon rode leading from Livingston Tennessee to Albany KY about 15 miles from Livingston.”

We now have a marriage date for Mary Pryor (daughter of Spicy Taylor and William Pryor):  Mary Pryor to Ludwig Garrett, married by Joel Parris, a justice of the peace, on 15 Nov 1831 in Overton Co., TN.  Witnessed by Robert Barnes and Calvin H. Cope. This is from the sworn statement given by Robert Barnes and Calvin H. Cope who state they were at the wedding.

A quick connection… back in 2011 I wrote about William G Pryor in the War of 1812 with Joel Parrish and that he lived near him in Overton County. Is this the same man who performed Mary Pryor’s marriage ceremony?

Other names:

Sarah Taylor and Calvin H Cope completed an affidavit that they were acquainted with Mary Pryor and her family. (Sarah b. 1836, wife of Hezekiah Taylor Jr. She would have been Mary’s cousin)

John Padgett and Elizabeth Rome completed an affidavit that they were acquainted with Mary Pryor and her family.

Elisa Pryor and Tennessee Huddleston completed an affidavit that they were acquainted with Mary Pryor and her family for 15 years. (Eliza Knight Pryor, wife of Edward Pryor, was Mary’s sister-in-law.)

Witnesses on additional documents: Julia Ann Owen, Dolly Taylor, James Amonett, Eliza A Beaty.

Although Loderick Garrett wasn’t on the 1870 Census, he was living at the some of the papers were completed in November 1867. Mary Garrett died about 1899 when the pension was dropped off the rolls on 30 June 1899 due her death.