Images of 17th century Virginia locales

Here are some images which help us to visualize the surroundings of our Pope, Washington, Wright, and Haynie ancestors, in what is called the Northern Neck of Virginia.

There are two Park Service photos taken near Popes Creek, location of the George Washington Birthplace National Monument.  Popes Creek is named after our ancestor Nathaniel Pope, father of Anne Pope Washington.  (It looks big enough to have been called a river!)

The interior images are from one of the very few surviving 17th century Va. homes.  It's called Bacon's Castle, as some of the rebels congregated there in the 1670s; it was not owned by the Bacon family.

Best of all, perhaps, is the Yeocomico Church, because it was actually attended by our Wright ancestors in the 1600s and early 1700s.  I learned that the Yeocomico River or Creek is the dividing line between Northumberland and Westmoreland Counties, where all of these various ancestors of ours lived.

One more Washington-Haynie connection

In the 18th century there was a young girl named (Sarah) Sally Ball Haynie; she and her mother Elizabeth Haynie were related to George Washington's mother, the former Mary Ball, and fell on hard times.  Washington helped to provide for her, including leaving her $300 in his will, which was quite a large sum in 1799.

This young woman was undoubtedly a cousin to our Haynie forebears.

Here is a link to a transcribed letter of personal advice written by the retired President to Miss Haynie in 1798:

http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/marriage/haynie.html

George Washington kinship

This month was George Washington's 280th birthday, and I've learned recently that we are related to him on both sides of the family!

Our Wright ancestors (Haynie side) include Anne Washington, great aunt of the father of our country, who married Major Francis Wright in the 17th century, Westmoreland County, Virginia. Anne's father John Washington, great-grandfather of General George Washington, was the family member who acquired the land where Mount Vernon is located, south of Alexandria, Virginia. Lt. Col. John Washington (born circa 1632) served in the House of Burgesses for Westmoreland County, in the colonial capital of Jamestown; as did our ancestor Capt. John Haynie (b. circa 1624) of Northumberland County, just a few years earlier (1660s and 1650s, respectively). Their home counties are adjacent to each other along the Potomac River, with Northumberland County being situated closer to Chesapeake Bay.

Our Smith ancestors (Tillett side) include Elizabeth Warner and her husband John Lewis. Elizabeth was another of George Washington's great aunts, sister of his grandmother Mildred Warner. Mildred married Lawrence Washington, brother of the above Anne! (Mildred and Lawrence were the parents of Augustine Washington, who in turn - with his second wife Mary Ball - became the father of George.) The Warner-Lewis estate is called Warner Hall and is located in Gloucester County, Virginia.

So, all four of George Washington's paternal great-grandparents appear in our family tree: John Washington, Anne Pope (Washington), Augustine Warner, and Mildred Reade (Warner). Their graves have been preserved, in Westmoreland County and Gloucester County, respectively. The Washington burial site was incorporated into the George Washington Birthplace National Monument; while the graveyard at Warner Hall is maintained by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, or Preservation Virginia, as it's now called.

Elizabeth and Mildred Warner's father and their grandfather, both named Augustine Warner, served for many years in the colonial assembly and also on the royal Council. The elder Warner is said to have arrived in Virginia in 1628 at the age of seventeen. His son, having been educated in England, represented Gloucester County in the House of Burgesses and served as Speaker of the House in 1676 and 1677.

During Bacon's Rebellion (1676), which came about because of differences of opinion in how to handle conflicts with Indian tribes, Warner and other leaders of the Jamestown government temporarily evacuated the area. The rebel leader commandeered and looted the Warner home, for which Speaker Warner sought compensatory damages against William Byrd I, an associate of Bacon, as Nathaniel Bacon had suddenly died. The following year Warner was appointed to the King's Council, where he served until his rather premature death in 1681. The information concerning Warner's efforts to obtain compensation for damage to their home is found in the book Speakers and Clerks of the Virginia House of Burgesses 1643-1776.

The image of Colonel Augustine Warner (born 1642), attached here with that of his great-grandson President Washington (b. 1732), is the earliest portrait we have, to date, of any of our American ancestors!

In addition to the kinship with George Washington, the Warner and Lewis families also connect us genetically to Meriwether Lewis (Corps of Discovery), General Robert E. Lee, and even Queen Elizabeth II.

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.

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.

Haynie-Cook House

Here is a larger image of the Haynie-Cook House, compared to the thumbnail-size one I previously posted to the blog.  This is a scan of a print I purchased from the Austin History Center.

Aurora Gardens

Earlier this year, I was wondering where the name Aurora Gardens came from, for the first subdivision we lived in, in New Orleans.

It turns out there was an Aurora Plantation, established in 1742.  The house was probably among those quaint old homes we sometimes drove past on the road next to the levee, and my guess is that the very land on which the subdivision was laid out may have once been part of the plantation's cultivated fields.

Shared ancient & colonial roots of Texas & Louisiana

Although not directly related to our family's history, here are two links which show the earliest colonial connections between Louisiana and Texas.

Natchitoches, La., and Nacogdoches, Tx., were ancient native American settlements, connected by a trail which would later become part of El Camino Real (the Royal Road), part of a network of roads leading to and from Spanish colonial Mexico.

The Spanish roads later defined the part of Texas which would be settled by Anglo-Americans. Bastrop, where our grandfather was born, was located on the old San Antonio Road where it crossed the Colorado River.

Natchitoches is the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase territory, as it was founded in 1714 by the French, after the founding of Mobile and before New Orleans was established.

According to the web page, the early French colonists needed a trade link to the western Spanish colonies. Hm, I wonder what the issues were around trading with the Spanish colonists in Florida at the time; perhaps the west Fla. settlements were too isolated. (Mobile is much closer to Pensacola than it is to northwest La.!)

As I remember, Natchitoches is pronounced "NACK-i-dish" and Nacogdoches is pronounced "NACK-a-DOE-chez."

http://www.elcaminorealtx.com/

http://www.natchitochestour.com/

Another Battle of New Orleans ancestor

According to the Rev. John Haynie family history book, John's father Spencer Haynie, Jr., was not only a Revolutionary War soldier who received a land pension in Tennessee, but he was with General Andrew Jackson for the Battle of New Orleans in 1814-15, the final confrontation of the War of 1812!

This means that we have a Battle of N.O. soldier on each side of our family, Henry Covington of Robertson County, Tenn., who lost his life in this service; and Spencer Haynie, Jr., of Knox County, Tenn.  This seems remarkable to me, and somehow especially so since we lived in New Orleans without being aware of this heritage.

Mississippi & Alabama coast travel nostalgia

Does anyone besides me fondly remember eating at the Friendship House Restaurant, on the way to Gulf Shores?

This is the only image I could find on line.  If you ignore the artsy woman with dog, it does look vaguely like I remember.  I didn't know it was a motel, too.  Wonder what happened to the restaurant.

This is kind of funny, but do y'all remember how everyone got excited about eating the free crackers (& butter) that most restaurants provided when you sat down?

In Gulf Shores in the early days, I loved The Dunes restaurant.  I have a black and white picture of the front of it somewhere, if it didn't get torn up by the non-archivally safe album it was in.  Jumbo fried shrimp---yum.

And does anyone remember how we used to have to use dirty, un-air-conditioned "filling station" bathrooms when traveling?  But then we could get a soft drink (in a glass bottle), from the vending machine.  What a treat!  I can still taste the Nehi grape, for some reason, and the occasional Barq's root beer!

Historic Abilene buildings

The City of Abilene, Texas, has some photos of historic buildings & historic sites on their website, including two Texas Pacific Railroad buildings and the Elks Club, which is presumably the one to which our great-grandfather David Graham Hill belonged:

http://www.abilenetx.com/About/tpdepot.htm

Picture of Dr. Samuel G. Haynie

Here is the scanned version of the portrait print I bought from the Austin History Center, depicting our ancestor Dr. Samuel Garner Haynie (1806-1877).

Haynie-Cook House

Architect Abner Cook built this house for Dr. Samuel Haynie around 1852; it stood for a century at 1104 Colorado, adjacent to the Texas Governor's Mansion which was also designed by Cook, in Austin.

Haynie Line of Descent, 1594-1805

Here is the ancestry of Samuel Garner Haynie, transcribed by a man who is married to a descendant of one of Samuel's brothers, John Wesley A. Haynie. This listing goes back one generation earlier than our immigrant ancestor, Captain John Haynie, who is shown as possibly having been born in a place called Alphington Derby, England. An internet search reveals an area called Alphington in the vicinity of Exeter. (Exeter is a coastal town in southwest England; Devonshire is an archaic name for the county of Devon.)

I haven't compared everything in this list to the Haynie book, to identify possible discrepancies.

John Haynie: Born-Abt. 1594 in Devonshire, England Died-Abt. 1660 Married: Bef. 1621 in England Married To: Elizabeth [maiden name unknown] Born-Abt. 1581 in Essex County, England Died- ? In England John Haynie: Born-May 02, 1624 in Alphington Derby, England (Also have a source born in Buck's Row, Elizabeth City, Virginia) Died-Bef. July 22, 1697 in St. Stephens Parish, Northumberland County, Virginia Married: Abt. 1643 in Northumberland County, Virginia Married To: Jane Morris: Born-Abt. 1630 in England Died-Bet. 1679–1714 in Northumberland County, Virginia His Son: John Haynie: Born-Abt. 1665 in St. Stephens Parish, Northumberland County, Virginia Died-Abt. August 1723 in St. Stephens Parish, Northumberland County, Virginia Married: 1704 in Northumberland County, Virginia Married To: Mary G. Sadler Born-1662 in Virginia Died-Bef. December 1706 in Northumberland County, Virginia His Son: Thomas Haynie: Born-Bet. 1704-December 1706 in Northumberland County, Virginia Died-Abt. August 1741 in Northumberland County, Virginia Married To: Martha Bearcroft (place unknown) Born-August 8, 1701 in St. Stephens Parish, Northumberland County, Virginia Died-Aft. April 22, 1741 in (place unknown) His Son: Spencer Haynie: Born-March 09, 1728 in St. Stephens Parish, Northumberland County, Virginia Died-[-?-] In Northumberland County, Virginia Married: Abt. 1748 in (place unknown) Married To: Elizabeth [maiden name unknown] Born-1730 in Virginia Died-[-?-] in (place unknown) His Son: Spencer Haynie: Born-March 07, 1758 in St. Stephens Parish, Northumberland County, Virginia Died-January 03, 1825 in Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee Married: Bet. 1782–1783 in (place unknown) Married To: Katherine King Born-Abt. 1754 in Virginia Died-1840 in Bastrop County, Texas His Son: John Haynie: Born-April 11, 1786 in Botetourt County, Virginia Died-August 20, 1860 in Rutersville, Fayette County, Texas Married: May 23, 1805 in Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee Married To: Elizabeth Brooks Born-August 16, 1787 in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia Died-October 6, 1863 in Bastrop County, Texas

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.

Dr. Samuel Garner Haynie (1806-1877)

I had a couple of exciting and lucky finds in books that I ordered this year from Amazon.com's Marketplace. First, Larry Willoughby's Austin: A Historical Portrait, a hardcover book updated in 1997, has an 1860's era picture of S. G. Haynie's "office and store" there on Congress Avenue, which was still a dirt road then. It was a drug store which became a general store, I believe. Once on an old census I saw that Poppa Hi's uncle was working in their store, when the uncle was a teenager. There's also a picture from the same location, but looking up Congress Ave. toward the Texas Capitol. (See below concerning Samuel Haynie's involvement in the construction of that first capitol building.) The Austin History Center shows the latter photo as the second illustration under their "Brief History of Austin" on the website.

Then I ordered Abner Cook: Master Builder on the Texas Frontier by Kenneth Hafertepe (1992) ---- and was delighted to find that there are numerous references to Dr. Samuel G. Haynie in the book, including a full page black and white copy of his portrait and a larger version of the picture of the Haynie-Cook house, plus another, much later picture of the front porch of that house when it held something called Ye Quality Shoppe. Abner Cook was the architect for the Texas Governor's mansion, as well as for the Haynie house in the adjacent block and numerous other buildings in Austin.

Here is my favorite quotation from the book:

William C. Walsh, an early resident of Austin, remembered Haynie as "a live wire. If he was not busy buying lots from the government, he was busy building a house on his latest purchase; and, while he watched the carpenters, he was explaining to any convenient listener why Austin was the best town on earth."

This is in a section of the book describing the 1852 appointment by the legislature of Dr. Samuel G. Haynie and James G. Swisher as the two commissioners who were to procure a plan for the state capitol, let the contracts, and superintend the construction.

S. G. Haynie was the mayor of Austin in the years 1850-51 and then during the Civil War, 1863-64. He also served as an early postmaster and was a legislator in the Texas Congress when his friend Sam Houston was the President [Republic of Texas period: 1836-1845]. His father, Reverend John Haynie, served as the chaplain for the legislative body.

Part 2: Origin of Haynie Name

Last night I looked up the Hanney location, linguistic root words in English place names, and finally another source for surname meanings: a free section of Ancestry.com.

 

Ancestry.com, which cites the Oxford Dictionary of American Surnames (or similar title), emphasizes the Irish origin with the old saint reference.  [When Christianity came to Ireland, it was combined with some of the Celtic goddesses and such.  Or maybe Eanna was a real woman in Christian times; I don't know.]  They implied that the bird connection was a mistake, because the Gaelic name Ian (ean) means bird...and somehow this was read into the O'Heaney or O'Heagney name...

 

However, I am charmed by the concrete geographic connections, as I was when I found the English village of Covington, which reportedly was where our Covington immigrant ancestor actually came from.

 

One thing that L.H. Rossman didn't find, apparently, was the town that Captain John Haynie came from.  He was a Royal Navy officer at the time, not just a sea captain as I wrote in another blog entry. 

 

If the name Haynie in fact had any connection whatsoever with the villages of West Hanney & East Hanney, then we can be sure that the "-ie" sound means island (-ey, -ay).  The Wikipedia entry says that these two little towns are in a low marshy area and used to be islands in the marsh!  Formerly part of Berkshire, they now belong to Oxfordshire.  They have a website:  www.thehanneys.org.uk 

Origin of Haynie Name

In the book Rev. John Haynie, Ancestry, Life & Descendants (1963), compiled over a period of several years by Loyce Haynie Rossman, the introductory section has an explanation of the Haynie coat-of-arms.  Then it gives the following information about our name:

 

Elsdon Smith's "Dictionary of American Names" states that the names Haynie, Hainey were English-Irish, meaning was: one who came from Hanney (island frequented by wild cocks), in Berkshire, or, the grandson of Eanna, an old Irish saint.

 

...Variants of the name are found in Cornwall and Southwest England, several of them bear similar arms.  There is reason to believe that the name originated some place in Normandy, but its various forms make it difficult to locate exactly.

 

FROM OTHER SOURCES:  "The surname Haynie is thought to have been derived from the Ancient Celtic word meaning "bird" --- [this version is in agreement with the source "one who came from Hanney, an island frequented by wild cocks."]

 

   The name is found in Ancient and early American records in various spellings: O'Heana, O'Heaney, O'Heane, O'Heany, O'Heney, Heney, O'hinig, Hoenig, Hainey, Heaney, Haney, and Haynie."  

 

In her preface L.H. Rossman mentions that some of the American records on our Haynie ancestors or their blood relatives are spelled Haney or Hayney. 

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.