Thomas & Mattie Cowan Llewellyn, New Mexico
Clete Ramsey - Feb 9, 2011
My late father had both Cowan and Potts ancestors. My late mother had a Lewallen (Llewellyn, Lewelling, etc.) ancestor. On a Potts-Cowan genealogical “wild goose chase” using Google, I recently stumbled upon a listing of burials at the Folsom Cemetery at Folsom, Union County, New Mexico. In addition to three members of the Potts family, the list included these three Llewellyn burials, the first with a Cowan link:
Llewellyn, Mattie Cowan (1867-1952)
Llewellyn, Thomas (24 Aug 1859-24 Mar 1924)
Llewellyn, William John (26 Aug 1896-6 Jan 1920)
Searching for more information about Thomas Llewellyn, I found mention of him in the 1903 “Report of the Governor of New Mexico to the Secretary of the Interior,” published by the Government Printing Office. It identified Thomas Llewellyn as the owner-operator of the Llewellyn Mine, located about 12 miles northeast of the town of Raton, Colfax County, New Mexico. The mine, about 200 feet beneath the lava sheet which constitutes the top of Johnson Mesa, was a drift, single-entry, room and pillar mine that produced bituminous coal sold for domestic purposes to farmers on Johnson Mesa and to residents of the towns of Folsom and Raton, New Mexico. The mine employed two men underground and one boy aboveground to produce an estimated 3,000 tons of coal in the fiscal year ending 30 June 1903. Folsom and Raton are in the northeastern corner of New Mexico, about 30 miles apart, both just south of the border with Colorado. The Llewellyn Mine must have been very near the state line, east of where Interstate 25 now crosses Raton Pass.
I found this household/farm on the 1900 census in Precinct 21, Mesa, Colfax County, New Mexico Territory:
Dwelling 113/Family 114
LLEWELLYN Thomas Head White Male b. Aug 1860 (age: 39) IN ENG SCOT Farmer
---- Mattie Wife White Female b. Jan 1867 (age: 33) SCOT SCOT SCOT
---- Thomas Son White Male b. Nov 1891 (age: 8) NM IN SCOT At School
---- Annie Daughter White Female b. Mar 1894 (age: 6) NM IN SCOT
---- William Son White Male b. Mar 1896 (age: 4) NM IN SCOT
---- John Son White Male b. Jul 1898 (age: 1) NM IN SCOT
According to the 1900 census, Thomas and Mattie Llewellyn had been married for 12 years and Mattie had given birth to six children, four of whom were still living.
On the 1900 census, the next-listed household was headed by Herman Hadle (b. 1855, Germany), “miner coal.” His household included son Paul H. Hadle (b. 1882, Kansas), “miner coal.”
A transcription on the Web site of the Folsom Museum (http://www.folsomvillage.com/folsommuseum) showed this household on the 1910 census of Union County, New Mexico [Territory]:
LLEWELLYN Thomas Head 51 OH Farmer
---- Mattie Wife 43 England Housewife
---- Annie Daughter 16 NM
---- William Son 14 NM
---- Johnnie Son 11 NM
---- Roosevelt Son 9 NM
Local birth and death records held by the Folsom County Museum show Thomas Llewellyn’s birth year as 1856 and death year as 1924, the same as the Folsom Cemetery listing; however, the museum data lists his place of birth as Wales, not Indiana or Ohio. The museum data shows his place of burial as the Folsom Cemetery.
The Folsom Museum birth and death data noted the following about four sons of Thomas and Mattie Llewellyn:
1) Thomas Llewellyn. Born: Kiowa [a settlement in Colfax County], NM. Died: 25 Dec [year unreported].
2) William Llewellyn. Born: 26 Aug 1896, Johnson Mesa. Died: 6 Jan 1920.
3) John Llewellyn. Born: Blossburg, NM. Died: Late 1940s.
4) Theodore Llewellyn. Born: Blossburg, NM. Died: Late 1940s.
Blossburg is a ghost town located five miles northwest of the town of Raton. Once called the "Pittsburg of the West," Blossburg was a coal mining town founded in 1881. It is on the Vermejo Park Ranch, a private, gated property and hunting reserve owned by of Cable News Network founder Ted Turner.
The Folsom Museum data lists Mattie (Cowan) Llewellyn’s father as William Cowan; her birth date as 3 January 1866; her place of birth as Glasgow, Scotland; her date of death as 1952; and that she was the widow of Thomas Llewellyn.
I suspect that Mattie (Cowan) Llewellyn was the Martha Cowan listed in this household on the 1880 census in Diamond, a village in Grundy County, Illinois:
COWAN William Head Married Male White 41 IRE IRE IRE Miner
---- Margret Wife Married Female White 40 SCOT SCOT SCOT Keeping House
---- Samuel Son Single Male White 14 SCOT IRE SCOT Miner
---- Martha Daughter Single Female White 13 SCOT IRE SCOT At Home
---- Anna Daughter Single Female White 11 SCOT IRE SCOT At Home
---- William Son Single Male White 10 SCOT IRE SCOT At Home
---- Thomas Son Single Male White 6 PA IRE SCOT
---- Margret Daughter Single Female White 5 IL IRE SCOT
---- Andrew Son Single Male White 3 IL IRE SCOT
---- John Son Single Male White 1/12 IL IRE SCOT
Many of the men in surrounding households were miners or coal miners.
So far, I haven’t found Thomas Llewellyn on any census before 1900.
As an aside, these were the members of the Potts family buried at Folsom Cemetery:
Potts, Lillian Aileen (1910-1978)
Potts, Mary Alice Hardesty (1888-1976)
Potts, William S. (1883-1927)
From information I’ve pieced together, William S. Potts was born on 22 April 1883 in Sprague, Bates County, Missouri. He died on 25 March 1927 in Twin Falls, Twin Falls County, Idaho.
His father was Thomas Atwood Potts, who was born in Missouri on 8 June 1850. A widower whose father was born in Kentucky, Thomas Atwood Potts died at Buhl, Twin Falls County, Idaho, on 1 May 1926.
William S. Potts’ mother was Louisa “Lou” (McDaniel) Potts, who was born in Missouri and died at Folsom, New Mexico Territory, on 25 March 1899. I believe she is the Louisa McDaniel (7; b. ~1853, MO) who appears on the 1860 census in a household in Jackson Township, Bates County, Missouri, headed by Thomas McDaniel (50; b. ~1810, NC). That household also included Nancy McDaniel (49; b. ~1811, TN).
William Potts’ wife, Mary Alice (Hardesty) Potts, was a daughter of George W. Hardesty (b. Mar. 1851, MO). The 1900 census lists her as Allice Hardesty (b. Dec 1887, not 1888) in New Mexico.
Lillian Aileen Potts is a mystery to me.
Can anyone further identify these Llewellyns?
Billie Harris - Feb 9, 2011
Clete, as usual, outstanding research!!!! You'd make a good detective.
I've just gone through everything I can find for Ohio, Indiana (his birth states differ) as well as New Mexico, and I can find nothing on these Llewellyns but since his parents were born in England and Scotland, it's quite possible we don't anve anything on them.
Landy Gobes - Feb 11, 2011
Clete - A Potts and a Lewellen were living near each other in VA in the 1700's - check out [NOTE: broken link] which I hope will take you to the Potts photo on this website. If it doesn't, search photos for Potts. This is the land I sent in pictures of a few months ago. Were your Potts Quakers?
Landy
Clete Ramsey - Feb 17, 2011
Landy,
You asked, were my Potts Quakers? My best answer is that some very likely were, some possibly were, and others most likely weren’t. It’s a very long story that has Lewellen/Lewelling/Llewellin/Lewallen threads running through it. I’ve told a version of the story to Billie Harris offline, and I’ll go through it again here with you.
I’ve gone over my draft of this post several times. Still, I’m sure I’ve made substantive genealogical mistakes and typographical errors. Feel free to point them out.
Billie and I have been comparing notes about Lewallens (Llewellyns, Lewellings, Luallens, Lewellens, etc.). As I’ve noted in other postings, my mother's maternal grandmother was Arkansas-born Mary Jane (Lewallen) Jackson (1861-1954). Some accounts name Mary Jane's paternal grandfather, Daniel Lewallen, as a son of Richard Lewallen (b. 1763) of Prince Edward County, Virginia, and Gracie Stokeley. I'm convinced the chances of that being true are little to none. The Prince Edward County Richard Lewallen, who some say married Gracie Stokeley in Norfolk County, Virginia, in March 1793, may have been married before he wed Parazeda Vowell in Tennessee in 1818, but I’d bet a considerable sum that it wasn't to Gracie Stokeley. However, that’s another tale.
Recently, taking off on a tangent from trying to solve the Gracie Stokeley mystery, I was searching using a LDS Church Web site [NOTE: broken link] and found two Loudoun County Lewelling/Lewellen marriages in its Virginia Marriages (1785-1940) collection:
John Lewelling to Mary Burson, 9 March 1807
Wm. Boggess to Abigail Lewellen, 7 August 1807
One of the reasons those marriages caught my eye is that I live in northern Prince William County, Virginia, and drive back and forth across southeastern Loudoun County each weekday, crossing Bull Run going to and coming home from my office in western Fairfax County.
Looking for more information on the Lewelling/Lewellen presence in Loudoun County, I stumbled upon a considerable amount of information on the Anglo-Welsh Potts family. It presented me with a particularly tangled genealogical knot.
Online, I found a copy of the 1901 “Historical collections relating to the Potts family in Great Britain and America: with a historic-genealogy of the descendants of David Potts, an early Anglo-Welsh settler of Pennsylvania,” compiled by Thomas Maxwell Potts, with contributions from (the late) William John Potts. The book complied by Thomas Maxwell Potts (who I’ll call TMP to save typing) contains a wealth of information, and I’ve found Chapter XXII, “Jonathan Potts of Pennsylvania and Kentucky,” particularly useful.
More recently, I downloaded (from: [NOTE: broken link]) a copy of Joe Reichel’s 2011 revision of his “Jonathan Potts 1714-1785: His Ancestors and Descendants,” which both draws on TMP’s compilation and adds much new material.
I mentioned in my “Thomas & Mattie Cowan Llewellyn, New Mexico” post that my late father had both Cowan and Potts ancestors. In fact, he had double Potts ancestral connections. They came through his maternal grandfather, John Madison Owens (b. 1869, KY; d. 1949, MO). Those of us researching the family call him JMO for short. He was a lumberman, storekeeper, postmaster, and Presiding Judge in Greenbrier, Bollinger County, Missouri; my father’s birthplace.
JMO’s father was Francis Marion Owens (b. 1846, IN; d. 1918, AR), a lumberman who supervised a saw mill near Greenbrier in the late 1800s, before moving on (he was head of a household in Union County, Kentucky, in 1880, and a Carter County, Missouri, household in 1900). We call him FMO for short. JMO’s mother was Rebecca Jane (Cowan) Owens (b. 1846, KY; d. 1886, MO).
Rebecca’s parents were James Madison Cowan (b. ~1818, KY; d. 1900, KY) and Lavinia Elizabeth (Potts) Cowan (b. ~1815, KY; d. bet. 1880-1900, KY). In 1850, the family name appears on census records as Cowen. It was McCowan on the 1860 census. It was Cowan on the 1870 census. It was back to Cowen on the 1880 census. Lavinia’s given name also appears in records as Lavina, Levina, Levinia, and Luvina. Lavinia provides one of my father’s Potts connections.
This was James Madison Cowan’s household in Boxville, Union County, Kentucky, in 1880:
COWEN James M. Head Married Male White 64 KY SC SC Farmer
COWEN Luvina E. Wife Married Female White 64 KY KY KY House Keeping
COWEN Mahalie Daughter Single Female White 33 KY KY KY
COWEN Luvina E. Daughter Single Female White 19 KY KY KY
POTS John N. GSon Single Male White 8 KY KY KY
POTS James V. GSon Single Male White 5 KY KY KY
John (8) and James (5) Potts were sons of James and Lavinia Cowan’s daughter, Matilda Catherine Cowan. She married first James V. Potts, a son of Ninian E. Potts and Nancy (Stewart) Potts and grandson of Jonathan Potts and his first wife, Bathsheba (Ballard) Potts. To confuse things even more, after her first husband Ninian died (TMP says Ninian was accidentally killed by a falling tree), Matilda Catherine (Cowan) Potts married second to Woodford Henry Owens. One account had Woodford and Matilda Catherine marrying in 1879.
This was Woodford Henry Owens’ household in Morganfield, Union County, Kentucky, in 1880:
OWENS Woodford Head Married Male White 25 IA --- --- Farm Laborer
OWENS Matilda Wife Married Female White 23 KY KY KY Keeping House
Woodford Henry Owens was a half brother to FMO. Woodford’s mother was Eveline (Snelson) Williamson, a young widow who was the third wife of FMO’s father Matthew Henry Owens (MHO for short). MHO married Eveline in 1856 Keokuk County, Iowa, and Woodford was born in Iowa. His nativity data should read “IA KY IL,” as Eveline was born in Illinois, where her parents married.
John Riley Cowan, a brother of Rebecca Jane (Cowan) Owens and Matilda Catherine (Cowan) Potts Owens, married Sarah E. “Sallie” Potts, a daughter of John Potts and Elizabeth Mary (Hay) Potts. If I have the genealogy correct, Sallie (Potts) Cowan’s father John Potts was an older brother of Lavinia Elizabeth (Potts) Cowan, JMO’s maternal grandmother.
Lavinia Elizabeth (Potts) Cowan’s parents were Jeremiah “Jerry” Potts (b: 1768, VA) and Nancy Beadles (b: 1789, KY). According to TMP, Jeremiah Potts settled near Morganfield in Union County, Kentucky. He was a farmer and hunter. TMP related claims that Jeremiah Potts lived to a “great age,” reaching 100 years. I found Jerry Potts on the 1850 census in the Union County household headed by James Burris, the husband of Jerry’s daughter, Rebecca (Potts) Burris. Jerry’s age was listed as 81 and his birthplace as Virginia. Nancy Potts (67, b. VA) is listed in James Burris’ household as well. I can’t find either Jerry or Nancy Potts on the 1860 census. That’s consistent with reports that Jerry and Nancy Potts died in the 1850s, with Jerry dying as much as a decade before reaching the “great age” of 100.
Jerry Potts’ parents were David Potts and Elizabeth (Looney) Potts. Elizabeth Looney (TMP reported her maiden name as Luna) is reported to have been born in 1753 in Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland; facts I’ll return to later.
In his book, TMP said David Potts was born about 1751, probably in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, and died in 1823 in Mercer County, Kentucky, where he had settled, engaged in farming, and “suffered much from the incursions of hostile Indians.” After his first wife Elizabeth died, TMP said David married a second time, about age 60, to Martha (Tines) Short, a widow with two children.
TMP stated that David Potts was the son of Jonathon Potts and Emey (--?--) Potts. Other accounts name David’s mother as Naomi (Hall) Potts, who was known as “Emey” or “Omey.” TMP reported that David’s father Jonathan Potts was born in Pennsylvania in 1714, and was believed to have been the son of Jonas Potts of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, by the second of Jonas’ two wives, both named Mary [by me, Mary I and Mary II]. TMP reported that Jonathon Potts moved from Pennsylvania, first to Virginia (supposedly to Loudoun County), and then to Kentucky, where TMP said Jonathan Potts spent the rest of his life.
Joe Reichel’s account has Jonathan and Naomi Potts moving with six children around 1752 from Pennsylvania to Augusta County, Virginia. Joe Reichel considered the possibility that they might have stopped in Loudoun County en route, but also postulated that they may have traveled straight from Pennsylvania to Augusta County. Joe Reichel said David Potts, who was brought to Virginia as an infant, married Elizabeth Looney in Virginia before 1768, and moved around 1788 to Lincoln County, Kentucky, establishing a farm in what later became Mercer County. Joe Reichel said David Potts died in Mercer County in 1824, not the 1823 date TMP cited. Joe Reichel wrote that, in the spring of 1779, Jonathan Potts disposed of his property in Virginia and followed his son David to Kentucky, dying there in 1785.
Backing up a bit, TMP reported that Rachel Potts (a daughter of Jonas Potts and Mary I), a half sister of Jonathan Potts (a son of Jonas Potts and Mary II), married Joseph Burson, a son of George Burson and Hannah Goode. TMP described Joseph Burson as “of Gilberts Maner in the County of Philadelphia, Batchelor,” and reported he married Rachel Potts in 1719. Joseph Burson’s bride Rachel was described as “daughter of Jonas Potts of the same place.” The marriage took place at the house of the bride's father. The marriage was recorded at the Gwynedd Monthly Meeting, a Society of Friends (Quaker) meeting founded in 1699 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. TMP said Joseph Burson was born on 25 December 1689 in Abingdon, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and died after 10 October 1769 in Loudoun County, Virginia. TMP reported that Joseph Burson had moved to Virginia from Pennsylvania about 1753.
I wondered how Joseph Burson was related to the Mary Burson I noted near the start of this long tale as having married John Lewelling in Loudoun County on 9 March 1807. I searched and found Joseph Burson’s brother, George Burson, Jr. (b. 1703, PA; d.1786, VA), who married Sarah Cox. One of their children was Jonathan Burson (b. 1743, PA; d. 1830, OH). He married Rebekah (or Rebecca) Oldacre, a daughter of Henry Oldacre and Elinor (Borden) Oldacre, in Loudoun County in June 1770. One of their children was daughter Mary (b. 1784, VA). Mary Burson married John Lewelling (or Lewellen) in Loudoun County on 9 March 1807.
That’s pretty complicated, but it gets even more complicated. Mary Oldacre (b. 1746, NJ; d. OH) was a sister of the Rebekah (Oldacre) Burson, whose daughter married John Lewelling. Mary Oldacre is reported to have married a man named Philip Llewellyn. I don’t yet know when or where that marriage took place (Loudoun County?), and have not more fully identified Philip Llewellyn. It’s not clear if Philip Llewellyn and John Lewelling/Lewellen were related, but I suspect they were.
That brings me back to Deborah (Burson) Lewellen, who Billie noted as having married Shadrach Lewellen by 1759. If I understand the genealogy correctly, Deborah Burson was born in 1737 at “Gilbert’s Manor” in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. She was a daughter of Joseph Burson and Rachel (Potts) Burson.
There was another David Potts of interest besides the David Potts who was the father of Kentucky-born Lavinia Elizabeth (Potts) Cowan, my JMO’s maternal grandmother. TMP reported that the other David Potts was born about 1700 in Pennsylvania, and was “without doubt” a son of Jonas and Mary Potts [Mary I] of Pottsgrove in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. TMP estimated that David Potts, a full brother of Rachel (Potts) Burson, likely came to Virginia from Pennsylvania at some date between 1731 and 1747. On the latter date, he was involved in a land transaction in a part of Fairfax County that would become Loudoun County. TMP reported that David Potts, who operated a grist mill and a saw mill in Loudoun County, married twice. TMP named David’s first wife as Elizabeth “Betty” Lane. His second wife was Ann R., also known as “Nancy.” TMP said Ann/Nancy’s maiden name had not “come to notice.” David Potts had some connection to the Society of Friends, and his home was used as a meeting house in the 1750s and 1760s. Joseph Burson (who married Rachel Potts, and who appears to have been the father of Shadrach Lewellen’s wife Deborah) was Overseer of the “Potts’ Meeting” from 1758 until 1762. According to TMP, David Potts died on 1 May 1768. His will, made on 24 April 1768, named his wife Ann; mentioned sons David, Ezekiel, Jonas, Jonathon, Nathan, and Samuel; and noted daughters Rachel Potts, Susanh Potts, and Mary Bagus. He appointed his sons Samuel and David as executors. The will was sealed, pronounced, and published in the presence of Jenkin David, William Dillon, and Thomas Llewellin.
I suspect that some of the Potts men mentioned in the paragraph above were the Loudoun County landowners noted on the photo overlay linked to your 11 February 2011 reply to my earlier post, “Thomas & Mattie Cowan Llewellyn, New Mexico.” TMP commented that the names Jonathon, Nathan, David, and Ezekiel were duplicates of names common in the families of David Potts of Philadelphia, County, Pennsylvania, and of David Potts and Jonas Potts of Loudoun County, Virginia. With all those name repeats in the Potts family, I can’t be certain who was who.
I suspect the Thomas Llewellin who witnessed David Potts’ will was the Thomas Llewellin (with wife Susannah) noted by Billie numerous times in the Loudoun County chronology she posted to the History page on 23 August 2009.
I suspect there was some connection between David Potts’ daughter, Mary (Potts) Bagus, and the William Boggess who married Abigail Lewellen in Loudoun County, Virginia, on 7 August 1807, but haven’t worked on that possible connection.
Confused yet? I am. Backing up once more, I’ll add even more genealogical confusion to an already confusing Potts tale.
I mentioned my father had a double Potts connection through his parental grandfather, John Madison Owens (JMO).
Again, JMO’s father was Francis Marion Owens (FMO).
FMO’s father, preacher and carpenter Matthew Henry Owens or MHO (1822-1902), was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky.
MHO’s parents were William Owens (1801-1828) and Frances “Fanny" (Zilhart) Owens. William Owens is a genealogical “brick wall.” Nativity data on later census reports for MHO and his brother William noted their father as having been born in Tennessee. He died and was buried in Jefferson County. His reported Tennessee birth is all I know about the elder William Owens’ pre-Kentucky past.
Fanny (Zilhart) Owens was born in Kentucky about 1797. After her first husband, William Owens, died in 1828, she married John Muster, a widower and the local undertaker. John Muster died before 1850. The widow Fanny (Zilhart) Owens Muster was living in Jeffersontown, Jefferson County, as late as 1860.
Fanny’s parents were Johann Phillip Zilhart (b. 1766, PA; d. 1834, KY) and Margaret “Peggy” (Potts) Zilhart (b. 1767, MD; d. 1834, KY).
Peggy (Potts) Zilhart was my father’s second Potts connection through his great-grandfather, FMO. However, by some accounts Peggy’s family name had been Batz, which was changed to Potts sometime after the family came to America, possibly from Holland. Batz to Potts seems to have been a common conversion. I don’t know if it was a direct translation or a phonetic one.
Peggy (Potts) Zilhart was born in Washington County, Maryland, as had been Elizabeth (Looney/Luna) Potts -- the wife of David Potts, mother of Jeremiah Potts, grandmother of Lavinia Elizabeth (Potts) Owens, and great-grandmother of JMO.
The fact that Peggy (Potts) Zilhart and Elizabeth (Looney/Luna) Potts were both born in Washington County, Maryland, may have been coincidence, or maybe not. That’s another mystery to be solved. I have to figure out if or how, both probably unlikely, Peggy (Potts) Zilhart might have been related to the Loudoun County Potts bunch.
I also need to figure out if Peggy (Potts) Zilhart’s son-in-law -- my Welsh-surnamed, Tennessee-born William Owens -- had any Quaker, Washington County (Maryland), or Potts connections before he married Fanny Zilhart in Jeffersontown, Jefferson County, Kentucky, in 1821.
Fanny (Zilhart) Owens’ paternal aunt was Eva Catherine (Zilhart) Potts (b. 1753, PA; d. 1824, KY), who had married Andrew (or Andreas) Potts (b. 1747, PA; d. 1825, KY). Andrew Potts' father, also an Andrew, was reported to have been born in Pennsylvania about 1725. I don’t know of any connection between Fanny’s mother, Peggy (Potts) Zilhart, and Fanny’s Uncle Andrew Potts, but I’d bet there was one. Could they have been siblings? Another mystery.
In Chapter XL, “The Potts’ of Jefferson County, Kentucky,” TMP also wrote of a John Potts, “alleged to have come from England or to have been of English descent, removed from Virginia to Kentucky, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and settled in that part of Jefferson County, Kentucky, afterwards included in Shelby, but now in Oldham County. He married Margaret Martin, perhaps in Virginia.” That puts another Potts or Potts descendent in the Jefferson County, Kentucky, mix. MHO married four times, outliving three of his four wives and fathering at least 22 children. MHO's second wife was Susan (Martin) Owens. She was born in Bullitt County, Kentucky, in 1828. She died in April 1856 in Bullitt County, less than two months after giving birth to her second child, a son. Thus far, I’ve found no connection between Margaret (Martin) Potts and Susan (Martin) Owens, whose Martin family appears to have had roots in Orange County, Virginia.
Nothing I’ve seen while rooting around virtually in Loudoun County indicates a connection between the Lewellings/Lewellens/Llewellins there and my mother’s purported ancestor, Richard Lewallen of Prince Edward County, Virginia.
Trying to find more information on the Thomas Llewellyn buried at the Folsom Cemetery at Folsom, Union County, New Mexico, I discovered a passel of Potts, Burson, and Lewellen households in Preble County, Ohio, as well as at least one Burson/Lewellen marriage there (Jonathan Burson to Julia Ann Lewellen; 2 January 1838).
Does that Burson-Lewellen connection point to Loudoun County, Virginia, or is it a coincidence?
There also was a Bafford Lewellen living near an Anna Burson in Preble County in 1850. Her household, in which she was the sole resident, was listed immediately above Bafford Lewellen's household.
Searches for information on that Preble County Bafford Lewellen took me to Missouri, where another Bafford Lewellen (b. 1882, Rosendale, Andrew County, Missouri) died in 1946. That Bafford Lewellen’s Missouri Standard Certificate of Death listed his occupation as “Expeditor Shipyards.” Andrew County is on the Missouri River in northwestern Missouri, with Savannah as its seat. I don’t expect that you’d find any shipyards there, even during World War II. I’ve also found a third Bafford Lewellen (1909-2000). Buried at Arlington National Cemetery, he won two Navy Crosses and a Silver Star as a submarine skipper in the Pacific in World War II. One source listed the birthplace of that submariner, retired US Navy Rear Admiral Bafford Edward Lewellen, as Florence, Alabama, and his home of record as Savannah, Missouri, which is where the Andrew County Bafford Simpson Lewellen was buried.
Having sown enough Potts confusion, I’ll sign off.
Regards,
Clete
Billie Harris - Feb 17, 2011
Clete, I'm glad you posted that because I have a way of getting things lost in this messy computer room, so thanks.
I will add one thing though. Since you and I have talked, I've been working as time permits on the descendants and ancestors of the Prince Edward County Lewallen/ Lewellen/ Lewellings and from what I've found, I think I'll take you up on the bet that Richard Lewelling of Tennessee who married the Vowell woman was indeed the one who married in Norfolk to Grace Stokeley. I'm sure they're one and the same. I hope to be able to post my findings soon and I really, really welcome discussions because I could very well be wrong.
Clete Ramsey - Feb 17, 2011
I look forward to being proved wrong.
Billie Harris - Feb 17, 2011
Clete, knowing where you live and all the information you have on the Potts, quite a while ago I pieced together information on the Potts, Bursons, Lewellyns. It was for my own records and I never finished the research, but I'm going ahead and post it on this site. If you wouldn't mind, would you take a look at it and see if any of it fits in with what you have above.
Landy Gobes - Feb 18, 2011
Thanks, Clete! I am impressed with the scholarship required to answer the Potts-Lewellen connections at that level.
I do believe in the Loudoun Co VA - Preble Co OH connection. My ancestor is John Lewellen (not the one you mention marrying in Loudoun, an earlier one whom I believe to be a younger son of Thomas and Susanna Lewellen, no documentation other than tithing records so far). This John tithed in Loudoun, moved to western VA, (which became PA) to KY, then settled in Preble Co.
I suspect the Philip Lewellen who married Mary Oldacre was one of the older sons of Thomas and Susanna - also from the tithing records of Loudoun Co where you can see which men lived in the same household.
I believe some of their children went to the same part of KY and didn't Mary end up in Preble Co, or was that Deborah Burson Lewellen, Shadrack's widow? Or both?
Shadrack was surely related to Thomas - either his oldest son, a cousin, or my best guess - Thomas' youngest brother. Shadrack never tithed from the same house as Thomas, at least in Loudoun Co.
Landy