Visited Austin, Bastrop, & LaGrange

In January I was able to make my first visit to Austin, Texas, and explore some of the Haynie family's 19th century Texas history. I've delayed posting this report because I haven't been able to upload my photos to a web album; here is a summary of the trip, with pictures to follow at a later date:

Drove up Congress Avenue, where in the 1800's Dr. Samuel Garner Haynie had an office and drugstore.

Explored the area near the State Capitol, to see the place where the Haynie-Cook House used to be. (It's mostly a parking lot now, sad to say.) Nearby is the imposing First Methodist Church, which was locked. I tried to peek through the front windows to see if Rev. John Haynie's picture was there, as the "founding father."

The Governor's Mansion was still so shrouded that almost nothing could be seen of it, due to restoration in progress after the disastrous fire. It is the oldest governor's mansion west of the Mississippi River, designed by Abner Cook during the same period that he built the Haynie-Cook House nearby: early 1850's.

Then I spent quite a while at Oakwood Cemetery, taking pictures of our great-great-grandparents' graves, Dr. Samuel and Mrs. Maria Haynie, and of others near them. I walked to the other end of the cemetery & found the grave of our ancestor, Elizabeth Brooks Haynie (wife of Rev. Haynie), in the Caldwell family's plot.

The next day I took quite a few pictures at St. David's Episcopal Church, which the younger Haynies helped to establish. After my trip I received wonderful assistance from the church's archivist, as far as old church records.

Then I made a fleeting attempt to go to the Republic of Texas museum north of town; unfortunately I was thwarted by confusing roads, rain, and traffic!

Next I headed to the Neill-Cochran House, which is virtually the only house museum representing Abner Cook's work...After I left there I found the little old building which now houses the U.T. Center for American History, also designed by Cook. The director of the Neill-Cochran House museum -- who turned out to be a Haynie, as well! -- had told me that when this (now university) building was constructed circa 1860, it was the home of the Institute for the Blind and Dr. Haynie was the superintendent. I believe our ancestors lived there, if only for a year or two. (Our great-grandfather Charles was five years old in 1860.)

By this time it was dark outside, so the building was closed...I discovered on line later that, after the Civil War, General Custer and his family lived in the same house --- as part of the military occupation of Texas!

On the third morning I headed toward Bastrop, stopping at the Haynie Chapel site in Garfield, another landmark honoring John Haynie's instrumental role in early Texas Methodism.

In Bastrop I ate lunch in the building which has our great-grandfather's name on the front, C. R. Haynie & Co. 1883. He must have operated a store there! Then I lingered in the Old Town Visitors Center, I think it's called, which used to be the bank and is very cute with the original teller windows. Eventually I drove around and looked at the fronts of some of the old houses, the Bastrop County courthouse, & the jail.

I especially wanted to find the house called the Luckett house, as C.R.'s sister Frances lived there with her family of sons and husband Dr. H. P. Luckett. It was also where, as I learned later in the year, our ancestor Hannah Maria Evans Haynie died, in 1898. [Historically the land was the location of the Bastrop Military Institute, which moved to Austin.]...I don't know yet where our grandfather Hiram's family resided, unless they lived above their store. His father Charles Raymond Haynie was the Bastrop County Treasurer, as well.

I visited the town's historical museum, where the staff showed me files which informed me who our great-grandfather's in-laws were, as they gave the young couple the lot upon which the Main Street store was built! There again, later I found more documentation on line about our Taylor great-great-grandparents. Campbell Taylor was an officer in the Republic of Texas Army and served in the Battle of San Jacinto, as did Charles Haynie's maternal grandfather Musgrove Evans.

Lastly in Bastrop was -- what else? visiting Fairview Cemetery. I hunted & hunted for our Haynie great-grandparents' graves, finally locating them when it was nearly dark.

During my stay in Fayette County, after exploring the courthouse area I tried to visit the place now called Brendan Manor -- a B & B -- formerly known as the Bradshaw-Killough House. It was owned for a few years by Rev. John Haynie toward the end of his life, circa late 1850's. Then the children and descendants of James Asbury Haynie (Sam's brother) lived in it for about 100 years....But apparently the owners didn't have any guests, as the house was locked.

On the morning of my departure I went to the LaGrange Cemetery and found Rev. John Haynie's grave, along with the aforementioned James Haynie's family.

Irish & other Celtic ancestors

For St. Patrick's Day, I thought I'd post a summary of ancestors we know of who emigrated from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or Cornwall. When I went to double-check some of these "roots" last night, I found some information which was new to me about a couple of the families, so I'm a day late here! Although Haynie is said to be of English-Irish origin, our Haynie ancestors came to America from England, not Ireland.

The following are surnames coming from areas with persistent Celtic traditions. The Irish names actually represent Scotch-Irish (Scots-Irish) or English-Irish families, who had previously migrated to Ireland, probably during the Ulster Plantation.

See the Wikipedia article: Plantation of Ulster


Ireland:

Houston -- The mother of Lucindy Johnson Morgan (1827-1863) was Jennie or Virginia Houston, said to be a cousin of Sam Houston. Sam Houston's emigrant ancestor, according to a family tree in RootsWeb.Com, was John McClung Houston (1703-1754), who arrived in the colonies circa 1730. He is said to have been born in Antrim, Ulster, Northern Ireland. In earlier times, this surname was spelled differently, e.g. Houseson.

Johnson -- Jennie Houston, who was born in Virginia, married Patrick Johnson. Patrick Johnson was born in Ireland 1780, of English-Irish descent. Therefore, he emigrated after the U.S had become an independent nation. This couple had their children in Abbeville District, South Carolina, where they were neighbors to John C. Calhoun; then they moved to Talladega County, Alabama, and from Ala. they moved to Texas. This was in the late 1840s after Texas joined the Union; being relatives of Sam Houston may have had something to do with their decision to go there!

Johnson -- Elizabeth Frey (b. 1812), mother of Bascom Covington, was the daughter of Mary Johnson (Frey). Mary's father, according to online information, was Henry Johnson, who was born 1738 in Antrim, Northern Ireland. He married in Pennsylvania and then served in the Revolutionary War; so he had emigrated at quite a young age, perhaps as a child. This Johnson couple ended up in Robertson County, Tennessee...Family lore says that Elizabeth Frey's mother was related to Reconstruction-era President Andrew Johnson, but to date I've not been able to find data supporting this kinship.

[Patrick Johnson and Henry Johnson may have been related to each other, back in Ireland. Their descendants Ione Morgan and Bascom Covington, respectively, were joined in marriage in 1890, in Callahan County, Texas.]


Scotland:

Campbell -- George W. Campbell (1828-1905)'s grandfather was a Scotsman who lived in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (vicinity of present-day Charlotte), and served in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). As of yet, we know nothing else of this Campbell family's American beginnings; the descendants moved from N.C. to eastern Georgia and from Ga. to Macon County, Alabama.

Smith --The immigrant ancestor of both Anne W. Smith (d. 1871) & her husband-cousin Benjamin M. Smith (d. 1877), of North Carolina & then Arkansas, was Alexander Smith, a Scotsman who died 1696 in Virginia. Col. Samuel Smith, descendant of Alexander, was a Revolutionary War officer in N.C. Smith descendants also fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War (1861-65), although not in our direct ancestral line.


Wales:

Evans -- The maternal grandmother of H. A. "Gus" Tillett was Pamela Evans (Wyche), of Virginia and North Carolina. Pamela's father was William Evans, who was born circa 1756, moved to Va., and served as an officer in the Revolution. William's father was Lewis Evans, of the Welsh Quakers in southeastern Pennsylvania, Bucks & Chester Counties.

Evans -- Samuel Haynie's wife was Hannah Maria Evans (Haynie); I posted her obituary recently on this blog. Although she was born in upstate New York, her paternal ancestry, too, was of the Welsh Quaker Evanses of southeast Pa. In fact, their line of descent has been traced back to the 14th century & earlier. Her immigrant ancestor was Thomas Evans (1651-1738), who is said to have arrived in 1698, or when he was in his late 40s. Thomas's great-grandson Samuel B. Evans was an officer during the Revolution, and Samuel's son & grandsons participated in the Texas Revolution (1836), with one dying in the Alamo.

[Although Lewis Evans was very likely related to Thomas Evans' family, so far I haven't found a direct connection. Their respective descendants were united with our own parents' marriage in 1948.]

Morgan -- Our Morgan ancestors descended from Col. Haynes Morgan, head of the Colonial Virginia Militia for part of the Revolutionary War. His exact ancestry hasn't been traced, but he is said to have been born in Wales circa 1742 & there is at least a tentative link to Morgans in Pa., although Haynes Morgan lived in Virginia. Many of the Colonel's great-grandsons served in the Confederate Army, some giving their lives for that cause; the Civil War veterans are not in our direct line because our own great-grandparents were young children in the 1860s.

The large website on which I found the Pennsylvania Welsh Quakers' ancestry information (URL updated 10/10/2016) is:

Gwynedd Friends Meeting Genealogy


Cornwall:

Blewett -- Bascom Covington's paternal grandmother was Winifred Covington, born in 1780s Richmond County, North Carolina. Her mother was Susannah Blewett; Susannah's father was William Blewett, who had several royal land grants in the area, near the Pee Dee River bordering South Carolina. William Blewett was born 1706 in Cornwall and came to the colonies as a child. The name is said to have probably originated in France, arriving in England at the time of the Norman Conquest.

Tillett? -- It strikes me that our other family name ending in "-ett" may have a similar historical path. It is said to have been a French Huguenot name, a group which was discriminated against in Catholic France. The Tilletts apparently migrated to England & lived there for some period of time before settling in colonial North Carolina, along the coast.

Obituary of Hannah Maria Evans Haynie

The Save Austin's Cemeteries organization is preparing to give a tour of Oakwood Cemetery, which will feature early Austin residents including Dr. and Mrs. Samuel G. Haynie.  Their historian happened to find the obituary of our great-great grandmother and sent me a copy.

The following was published 112 years ago today in the Austin Daily Statesman, on February 12, 1898, a Saturday.  I've corrected only the error in her initials; the newspaper printed N.M. instead of H.M.  (In the 19th century, women didn't use their maiden name as a middle name.)

2017 NOTE: Please refer to the comments I posted below, as to other discrepancies.

The town in upstate New York where she was born is called Evans Mills, possibly founded by her family; the Wikipedia entry about it states that for a brief time in the middle of the 1800s it was called Evansville.

SAD NEWS.
                    
Mrs. H. M. Haynie Is Dead -- The Funeral Services This Morning.

Thursday night Mrs. H.M. Haynie died at the residence of her son-in-law, Dr. Luckett, in Bastrop.  The remains were brought to this city yesterday and the funeral services will be conducted from St. David's church this morning at 10 o'clock.  Mrs. Haynie is well known among the older residents of this city, among whom she had lived so long and enjoyed such a wide circle of friends.  She was born in Evansville, N. Y., in 1817, and moved to this state in 1843, locating in Washington county, but in 1850 she came to Austin when her husband moved here.  She had two brothers who were closely connected with the early history of Texas, one dying on the battlefield with Fannin and the other going down in the defeat of the Alamo.  Her maiden name was Evans.  Four children survive her, viz:  Mrs. Orlando Caldwell, Mrs. Carpenter, Mrs. Dr. Luckett and another daughter residing in New York.  There are also two sons, Mr. Tom Haynie of Lampasas and Mr. Charles Haynie of Bastrop.

The news of Mrs. Haynie's death, while not unexpected to her many Austin friends, will be received with deep regret, and the sympathy of all is tendered the sorrowing relatives.

St. David's is the Episcopal Church in downtown Austin.  I visited the church recently and have since learned from their archivist that this ancestor of ours was one of the four original members, in the 1840s.

I imagine that her casket was brought from Bastrop to Austin by train, presumably accompanied by family members.  Perhaps our grandfather, age seven, was in attendance at the funeral of his grandmother.

Relative who died at the Alamo

I discovered recently that our grandfather Hiram had a great uncle who died in the Battle of the Alamo. (See link below.) He was Sam Evans, a brother of our ancestor Hannah Maria Evans, wife of Samuel G. Haynie. The fellow was 24 years old, and subsequently his father Musgrove Evans, who had moved to Texas with his children after his wife died, joined the army and fought for the Republic of Texas. I read this in another article, all of them sent to me by the man who put the Evans genealogy on line. There was another fairly young brother who was killed on the Chisholm Trail -- by bandits, I think.

Learning about this family particularly moves me because they were based in Pennsylvania, then upstate New York, and then Michigan. Here I had been thinking they were the only bona fide "Yankees" in our family tree! As Alexis de Tocqueville observed, there were many men on the move in the U.S. in the 1800's. In other words, you can't pigeonhole them by region, at least not the ones who lived their lives during that restless century.

Sam Evans was the namesake and grandson of "General" or Major Samuel Evans of the Revolutionary War period. On our mother's side of the family we have a Lt. William Evans ancestor from the Revolutionary period; in all likelihood these families were related --- because they were originally from Wales, were concentrated in two Pa. counties, and were all Quakers back in the day.

The Tillett book refers to an 1816 letter written by William Evans which indicated that he was very bothered by the institution of slavery. Said he wanted to move to Ohio, but it was "too late" for him. (He had moved from Pa. to Va.) --- His son-in-law James Wyche went to Ohio & looked things over, but decided that the free blacks were in worse condition than the slaves...

The following URL has been updated, as of 10/10/2016:

Samuel Brown Evans in the Handbook of Texas

Our Wyche great-great-great grandparents

Here are Gus Tillett's maternal grandparents, Pamela Evans Wyche (1789-1869) and James Wyche (1785-1845). These pictures are apparently part of the special collection at the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg in N.C.; they are posted on the Wyche family website mentioned earlier.

This couple's married life was divided between Brunswick County, Virginia, and Granville County, North Carolina. Most of their children were born in Va.

Tillett - Wyche - Smith family history in North Carolina & my visit there

On Mother's Day, I was in Charlotte, North Carolina! While there I looked for Reverend John Tillett's grave at Elmwood Cemetery, but I couldn't find it. The place is huge, and I haven't located any directions to his grave.

I used the inspiration of a national genealogy meeting in Raleigh to make a six-day visit to the state...to see a few of the places the Tilletts and Wyches lived, and also to consider whether I might want to move there. I took the train and rented a car; just attended about a day & a half of the conference.

I do love the scenery in the Piedmont region: endless green hills and forests. And I like the fact that the state has actually put money into the passenger train system!

I started out in Richmond County east of Charlotte on Saturday, May 9th. [Ione's notes had indicated that Richmond Co., Virginia, was the Covingtons' location after Maryland but that was an error.] I found and took pictures of the graves of Elizabeth J. Wyche Tillett and her daughter Laura Tillett in Rockingham.

Then I located the old church which the Covingtons attended in the late 1700's (Cartledge Creek Baptist)--- according to a library book I'd consulted [A History of Richmond County by J.E. & I.C. Huneycutt, 1976]---and took a look at the Blewett Falls area of the Pee Dee River, with two old Blewett graves. William Blewett came from England in the early 1700's, having obtained one of the earliest land grants in the area and is probably one of our ancestors through Winifred Stone Covington, widow of Henry Covington who died in the War of 1812. A dam was built at Blewett Falls about a hundred years ago, so there is more of a lake with a spillway than a waterfall.

Another day I stopped in the town of Burlington, formerly Company Shops, from which some of the Tillett letters were written. The town is in the Greensboro vicinity and was established by the North Carolina Railroad as their maintenance site. Next I found the historic marker for the Bingham School for boys in Mebane, formerly Mebaneville, where Gus Tillett attended secondary school. (Happened to find out at the conference this is pronounced "Mebbin.") I made a swing through Pittsboro in Chatham County, where he was born and where there is now an organic grocery co-operative...Didn't ever make it to Chapel Hill to see the university.

Tuesday I found our ancestor James Wyche's grave in the woods of Granville County, about 40 miles north of Raleigh, thanks to the directions someone had put on line; although it took a while since the headstones aren't visible from the road. (He died in Raleigh at the age of 59, in 1845.) Then I took pictures of a house that may have been theirs; I so much wanted to find the "old Tar River plantation home," established in 1825 after the Wyches moved from Brunswick County, Va. If it was the right house it's been drastically remodeled as a hunting lodge.

I believe their plantation must have been a tobacco plantation, as this area was big in tobacco and James was part-owner of a tobacco warehouse. There used to be an old mill on their land, but I didn't know where to look for the ruins. James and Pamela Evans Wyche had 14 children, 13 of whom lived to adulthood; all of their children (two daughters and eleven sons) attended college. Elizabeth J. W. Tillett later returned to the Tar River home to have at least two or three of her babies. She had been about seven years old when they moved here.

John and Elizabeth Tillett had nine children, six of whom lived to adulthood: Jimmy, Laura, Jeannette, Wilbur, Charlie, and Gus. During the War Between the States the eldest, James Wyche Tillett, was away serving in the Confederate Army. Elizabeth died during this period, when Gus was about two; the next year John Tillett married Elizabeth's widowed sister, Louisa Young Wyche (Speed). All of the Tilletts attended college, as well, although the war prevented James from finishing his formal education.

After I came back to Florida I realized there was a Smith plantation and graveyard in Granville County, also (Mary Benjamin Smith Tillett's forebears on her father's side); I hadn't remembered that during the trip. They were farther north. The other Smith ancestors (her mother's side) were located in Caswell County,* farther west along the Va. state line.

In Raleigh I found the 1862 Raleigh & Gaston/ Seaboard RR building, which has been preserved, and took a lot of pictures inside the State Capitol (1840). James Wyche was involved with both of these entities, as railroad president and legislator, although he died before the RR building was built.

*In reviewing online Smith information, it appears that the Samuel H. Smiths may have lived in the Raleigh area for a few years, as Wake County is supposed to be where Anne William Smith was born and where her parents married...There sure was a lot of intermarrying among that clan. It looks like, in marrying Benjamin Men Smith, Anne married her father's first cousin. Many of the Smiths moved to Dallas County, Arkansas, probably during the 1840's.

Post script: Samuel G. Haynie

Our great-great grandfather also served in the Texas House of Representatives, after the State joined the Union.

And, as cited in a relatively new book called Savage Frontier 1838-1839: Rangers, Riflemen, and Indian Wars in Texas, he participated in the 1839 Mill Creek Fight, Burleson's volunteers against Cordova's rebels.

He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, lived for several years in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and migrated to Texas in 1837. He was one of the first doctors to practice in Texas, and he married Hannah Maria Evans in 1841. They may have had as many as eleven children, one of whom was Charles Raymond Haynie, our great-grandfather, born 1855. He was named after Charles Raymond, a man listed in the TSHA online handbook as a "lawyer,soldier, and diplomat."


Dr. S. G. Haynie is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin. Hannah Evans Haynie lived until 1898 and lies buried beside her husband.

Two More Patriotic Ancestors

I obtained confirmation from the Daughters of the American Revolution look-up service that our ancestor John Covington (1735-1809) provided "Patriotic Service" during the Revolutionary War.  They said that this included such contributions as providing supplies to the army or repairing guns or other equipment.

 

On the Haynie side of the family, our great-great grandmother Hannah Maria Evans, wife of Dr. S.G. Haynie, was the granddaughter of a General Samuel Evans (this is from the book about the Rev. John Haynie and family).  Therefore, we're descended from officers named Evans on both sides of the family, since Lt. William Evans was an ancestor on the Tillett side.        

Revolutionary War Ancestors

This is a list of direct ancestors of ours, that we know of so far, who served in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and/or earlier conflicts of the 17th and 18th centuries, e.g. the French and Indian War. [All except the two Haynies are on Ione's side of the family.]

Soldiers:

Spencer Haynie, Jr. (1758-1825)

Peter Wyche (1748-1803)

Officers:

Lieutenant William Evans (1756- after 1816)

Captain John Haynie (1624-1697)*

Colonel Haynes Morgan (Abt.1742-1795)

Major Vincent Shelton

Colonel Maurice Smith

Colonel William Thompson III (Abt.1724-1780)

*Since Capt. John Haynie, Sr., is said to have transported 46 persons to the Virginia colony for settlement, I take it that his title indicates that he was a sea captain, if not a military naval officer. The Haynie book asserts that he served as "Commander" in the Susquehanna War of 1678.

On another historical note, I thought that the Oath of Allegiance to the Commonwealth, mentioned in the description of Nehemiah Covington's colonial life, referred to the Commonwealth of Virginia, which to this day is the official name of that state. However, the Haynie book describes this as swearing allegiance to "The Commonwealth of England as it is now established without King or House of Lords." This was the period of the English Civil Wars, when there were several power struggles between the monarchy and Parliament, as well as between Protestant and Catholic religious factions. Haynie took the loyalty oath one year after our Covington ancestor did, though in a different coastal county.