Acronym Allan: Genealogical Ramblings of a California Boy
Written by Allan Ralph Andrews, born September 13th 1939, Long Beach California, St. Mary’s Hospital, 4:03 AM, father Ralph B. Andrews, mother, Jean Thompson Andrews, now remarried as Jean Colaluca.
In an attempt to trace the ancestors of my mother, Jean Thompson Andrews, born Jean Thompson, of Hugh Monroe Thompson, father, and Mary Lingenfelter Thompson, mother, I discovered links to the Pyle family tree through the parents of Mary Lingenfelter Thompson, born Mary Lingenfelter to Henrietta Kennedy Lingenfelter and Benjamin Harrison Lingenfelter. Both Henrietta and Benjamin came from Missouri and there were a number of links to their ancestors in Missouri records. Henrietta was born Henrietta Kennedy to Judge Samuel T. and Lucretia (Smith) Kennedy. The Missouri Genealogy Trails website has an extensive biography section for Andrew County Missouri and the discussion of Henry Newton Kennedy gives the link to his father Samuel T. According to this link, Samuel was born on a farm in Fayette County, Indiana, September 29th 1830 to a farmer named John Kennedy, born in North Carolina of a mother with the maiden name of Charity McMichael, also from North Carolina.
Further links indicate that John Kennedy was born as John Bennett Kennedy 26 July 1782 in Orange, NC and died 31 August 1863, buried in the Cain Cemetery in Nodaway, Missouri. His wife, Charity was born 9 May 1790 in Guilford, North Carolina. John’s father is given as James Kennedy (died 1808 in Guilford) and his wife is given the maiden name of Elizabeth Bailelet, born 1752 in North Carolina. Charity McMichael was the daughter of Archibald McMichael, who died in Guilford 23rd of September 1818. Her mother’s name was also Charity.
The James Kennedy link appears to connect to a Hugh Kennedy, born 1725, died 1814 and Catherine Hughes. This takes the Kennedy linage out of North Carolina and into Pennsylvania, where James Kennedy appears to have been born. Apparently Hugh Kennedy was born 1725 in Ireland and died in Mifflin, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Hugh married a Catherine Hughes in 1746 in Pennsylvania, a daughter of Martin Hughes, born sometime in 1725 in Maryland and died in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Hugh Kennedy appears to be the son of Jane Gray and William Kennedy. William Kennedy was born in Charlesont Ireland in 1690 and christened 17 September 1692 in Dublin, Ireland. He married Jane Gray on 3 November 1721 in Dublin. William ended up with land at the fork of the Youghiogheny and Monongehela rivers and lived there from 1773 till his death in 1793. William’s father, given as William T. Kennedy, was born in Scotland sometime around 1670 and apparently served with William of Orange in the “Siege of Derry and Ennis Killen 1689 Battle of the Boyne.” Notes available in various genealogical references seem to indicate that he married a woman named Ann and had a large family that included the William Kennedy that came to America.
One reference available on the web, “Bill Roy’s Genealogy Page” gives the following information on Hugh Kennedy, son of William and grandson of William T.. It claims that he came to America when he was only 17 and was disowned by his Presbyterian father for becoming a Methodist. This would explain the difficulty of tracing this line and the tendency for the children to wander, since religious affiliation was an important element of settlement at this time. Apparently Hugh served as a private for the colonial army of Pennsylvania in the Revolution in 1777 and 1778. It also states that Jane Gray, mother of Hugh, died 9 September 1781, in Pittsburgh, PA.
But, Henrietta’s mother was Lucretia Webster Smith. How do you go about tracing that line? Fortunately Barbara Leimback did a very good job of researching the Ezekial W. Smith line and posted it April 2005. According to this source Lucretia Webster Smith was the daughter of John Payton Smith, born 5 December 1799 and Elizabeth Crittendon (1800 -1839). Lucretia Webster was born 1833 and died 1920. Apparently Ezekial W. Smith, Sr. was born in Tennessee 28 November 1806, son of Vincent Smith (1778 – 1857) and Anna Dolin (1775). Now there is a Bedford Tennessee Deed Book, page 334 12/11/1826 in which William Crittendon lists his heirs and one is Elizabeth Crittendon, wife of John P. Smith.
Apparently William Crittendon changed the spelling of his name when he moved from Anson (Montgomery County) North Carolina where he was born in 1765. His father is given as William C. Crittenden of Essex County, Virginia and his mother as Sarah Lee. William C. Crittenden of Essex County is given as the son of Henry Crittenden and Frances F. Upshaw, born in Gloucester County Virginia and died 9 November 1716 in Essex County Virginia, Henry is listed as the son of Richard Crittenden and Ann Forrest. Sarah Lee married William C. Crittenden in Virginia in1761, apparently, and died November 9th in 1766 in Montgomery, North Carolina.
Among the Children of Henry Crittenden is a son born about 1708 (also named Henry) who was the father of John Lee Crittenden, who was the father in turn of John Jordon Crittenden, Senator from Kentucky, Attorney General of the US, and Governor of Kentucky. Another son, Robert Crittenden, served as secretary and governor of Arkansas when it was a territory. This connection is probably the source of the family story that the governor of Missouri, Thomas Crittenden, was a cousin, since he was a nephew of John Jordon Crittenden, a very distant cousin of Elizabeth Crittenden Smith mother of Lucretia Webster.
John Lee Crittenden, father of John Jordon, appears to have married Judith Harris, daughter of Obedience Turpin, daughter of Thomas Turpin and Mary Jefferson (sister of Peter Jefferson and aunt of Thomas Jefferson, President of US and Gov. of Virginia).
The Sarah Lee connection is also difficult to trace. Robert Lee gave a will that is in book I, page 14, Anson County North Carolina in which he gives items to his wife Sarah Lee and his daughter Sarah Crittenden, the date is 1766. This may be the Sarah Lee that married William C. Crittenden, the son of Henry Crittenden and Francis F. Upshaw and was the mother of William C. Crittenden, born 1765 in Anson County and father of Elizabeth Crittenden, wife of John P. Smith, mother of Lucretia Webster Smith.
Apparently Robert Lee was the son of James Lee who died in 1732 (his will dated 14 January 1731 in Bertie Precinct, NC, proved in Edgecombe Precint, NC, November Court, 1732). Apparently he married a Sarah (Moore?), perhaps born in 1702 in Nansemond County Virginia, He was, apparently the son of John Lee of Liecaster England, born around 1670, and migrated to Nansemond County, where John is found in a 4/20/1694 land patent that gives him the right to transport 20 persons from England. John had 960 acres on the upper part of Nansemond County, East side of Somerton Creek, beginning on a small island on the East Side of the Creek to the Northeast side of Cyprus Swamp.
These early roots in Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania are difficult to trace, particularly when the mother’s line is what you are after. John Bennett Kennedy, appears to have married a Charity McMichael sometime in 1806 in Guilford North Carolina. She appears to have been born 9 May 1790 in Guilford. The family appears to have moved to Fayette County Indiana in 1825 and then moved to Rush County Indiana in 1834, finally moving to Nodaway County. Charity McMichael appears to have been the daughter of Archibald McMichael, who died in Guilford 23 September 1818. His wife was named Charity but there seems to be no record of her maiden name.
If the McMichael link is hard to trace, so is the Kennedy. Elizabeth Bailelet seems to have been born in North Carolina and to have married James Kennedy in 1772. The Family Tree Maker listings, from Ancestery.Com, list the following children: Samuel Kennedy, born 22 of October 1775 in Orange County and died 30 April 1840 in Posey, Rush, Indiana. Mary Kennedy, born 29 December 1772, John Bennett, born 26th of July 1780, Jane, born 9 September 1788, Elizabeth, born 1 of July 1785, Nancy, born 6 September 1782, and Esther, born 16 March 1796. John Bennett married Charity McMichael, born in Guilford, NC, 9 May 1790 (1788) in Guilford. They had the following children in Guilford: Margaret, 30 March 1807, Zabiah, 8 Feb. 1809, Nancy, 3 June 1811, James, 26 June 1812, William S., born 18 Feb. 1813, Elizabeth Ann, 2 Feb. 1815, Archibald McMichael, 15 August 1818, Charity, born 7 March 1826, Sarah Jane, born 10 October 1823, and Samuel Thomas, born 29 September 1830 in Fayette County, Indiana.
Apparently Samuel Kennedy got a deed in 1808 from the heirs of James. These appear to have been Jesse Lynch and his wife Mary Kennedy, Joseph Ross and his wife Sarah Kennedy, John Kennedy, Betsy Kennedy, Jenney Kennedy, Nancy Kennedy, and Esther Kennedy. This land was now in Alamance County.
Joseph Ross appears to have died September 4th 1836 in Fayette County, Indiana. There are papers that indicate that Sarah (Kennedy) Ross renounced her rights to administer the estate in favor of her son Samuel K. Ross. He seems to have had an interest in a store at Alquina, Indiana. Sarah appears to have taken a gray mare, a colt, a bureau, a cupboard, a clock, a black and white cow, a red pied cow, a trundle bed and bedding as her hundred dollar share of the estate. She also got a third part of the remainder which included 20 geese, a breakfast table, 12 sheep, a stew kettle, 8 acres of corn, a side saddle, a tea kettle, and other things of this type. This Sarah Kennedy was born to James Kennedy and Elizabeth Bailelet in Orange, North Carolina, 24 September 1780, and thus is an older sister of my ancestor John Bennett Kennedy and an aunt of my great grandmother Henrietta’s father Samuel. There is speculation on the Donny Hamilton website that Sarah Ross has some problems that make her unfit as a guardian for her children. It is indicated that Joseph D. Ross owned and “platted” much of Alquina between 1822 and 1825.
John Kennedy’s wife Charity was born in Guilford Co. NC. 9 May 1790 to Charity and Archibald McMichael. Archibald died 23 September 1818 in Guilford. His son Thomas (older brother of Charity, wife of John Kennedy) was born in Guilford in 1778 and died 30 November 1858 in Rush Co. Indiana. He married Nancy Ann Moody, born 28 January 1801 in Guilford, and died 5 August 1848 in Rush County (buried in Stanley Cemetery, Posey, Indiana.
William (another older brother of Charity) was born 1787 and died 14 September 1848 in Guilford. Thomas and Nancy Ann Moody had a child named Charity McMichael who married Jesse Kelam in Guilford 28 January 1830. The marriage was announced in the Greensboro NC “Patriot.” William McMichael marred Rhoda E. Pegram, died 3 January 1852. Both William and Rhoda are buried in the Methodist Church Cemetery at 6142 Lake Brandt Road. William McMichael died leaving five tracts of land including 45 acres of Haw River tract land that had belonged to his father Archibald. When Archibald’s wife Charity (senior, several generations of daughters were all named Charity) died in Guilford in 1829, she left her bible to William and all of her beds and household furniture to her oldest daughter Margaret McMurrey (born 1781).
Jesse Lynch married Mary Kennedy 9 January 1792 in Orange, North Carolina. Jesse was born in 1752 and died in 1825. He was the son of Thomas Lynch and Hannah Schroeder. Thomas Lynch was born 1725 and died March 15, 1781 in Hillsoboro NC. He was the son of Jonah Jonach Lynch. Hannah Schroder was the daughter of Johah Ulrich Schroeder. Jesse Lynch’s father-in-law, James Kennedy, sold him 264 acres on Jordan Creek and Jesse was a witness for the quit claim deed that gave Samuel Kennedy land that had been James Kennedy land in Alamance County, following the death of James Kennedy (1808?). Mary Kennedy was the oldest of the daughters of James and Elizabeth, born 28 December in Orange, North Carolina.
Archibald McMichael Kennedy was a son of John Bennett Kennedy and Charity McMichael, an older brother of Samuel Kennedy. He was born in Guilford, North Carolina 15 August 1818 and died in Rush County, Indiana, 3 June 1897. He married Henrietta Langston, 10 October 1820 in Union, Indiana. Between 1870 and 1918 (postings in the web indicate this), Archibald and his sons Emmett and Charles built over 58 covered bridges. Apparently Archibald took up the trade of carpenter in Rush County and moved on to Wabash in 1853, where he started building bridges as a source of extra money. In 1870 he built a two span covered bridge in Rush County that stood for more than one hundred years. In 1871, so it is claimed, he and his son built a 150 foot span in Butler County, Ohio over Seven Mile Creek. In 1883, Archibald was elected to the Indiana State Senate.
At a certain point keeping track of these relations becomes confusing. The Stanley Cemetery in Rush County, Indiana contains a number of Kennedy and McMichael graves, including Samuel Kennedy (died April 30th 1840, brother of John Bennett Kennedy) and Nancy McMichael Kennedy, (died Dec. 11th 1862, sister of John Bennett Kennedy’s wife Charity McMichael Kennedy) and Nancy Ann Moody McMichael (died September 5th 1838, wife of Charity’s brother Thomas McMichael). Apparently the cemetery is the site of a church where John McMichael lived in a nearby house and served as the church janitor. John was the son of Thomas McMichael and Nancy Ann Moody McMichael and he and his wife Mahala Britton McMichael are buried in the Stanley Cemetery, here, along with many relatives.
The 1850 census has John Bennett Kennedy, and his wife Charity, and his son Samuel, and his wife, living in the same area as Ambrose Cain. John Bennett Kennedy had a daughter, Sarah Jane Kennedy, born 10 Oct 1823, who married Charles Leo Cain and had a number of children. Her daughter Margaret Victoria (age 2 months, 6 days) is buried in the Cain Cemetery in Nodaway County along with Sara Jane (age 6 months, 24 days). George M. and George W., also sons of Sarah Jane and Charles Cain are buried here. Jesse Cain and Martha, parents of Ambrose Cain are buried here along with his sister Mourncy Cain. There is obviously a relationship between the Cains and the Kennedy family at this point, but it is not clear what that is or what is going on. The memorial data on Mariam Lowe Cain indicate that she was the wife of Jesse Cain and the mother of Mourncy, Nathaniel, Belthelmite, Griffith, Charles L. (1818 -1894), Lassel, Jesse, Shunamite, Mary, Bently, and John Cain. If she is the mother of Charles Leo as well as Ambrose and Charles Leo is the husband of Sarah Jane, daughter of John Bennett and Charity Kennedy, sister of Samuel Thomas, it explains their presence together in the same area and the use of both Cain and Kennedy of this cemetery. Some of the Cains would be son-law, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, etc. of grandfather and grandmother John and Charity Kennedy.
A history of Northwest Missouri published in 1915 and presented on a website for Andrew County, Missouri, has a section devoted to Henry Newton Kennedy, a son of Samuel T. and Lucretia Webster (Smith) Kennedy born November 25th 1855 in Nodaway County. According to this account, Samuel was fourteen when he arrived in Platte County, Missouri. The area was mainly inhabited by Indians at the time. When he moved to a farm near Maryville in Nodaway County in 1850, there were no families between him and the town and only four families and a single store in the town itself.
Samuel seems to have been a Methodist, Mason, and an Odd Fellow Lodge member. Also, Samuel was district deputy grand master for the Masons in 1873 and 1874.
He was elected chairman of the County Court in 1873.
His son was a successful farmer, according to this account, but a tornado took away all the buildings and trees July 13, 1883. In 1901, Henry Newton Kennedy moved to Andrew County on 320 acres, which at the time of the article, were graced by “a handsome set of buildings.” These included the “most up-to-date machinery and equipment.” His wife is described as a graduate of “Stanberry State Normal School” and as a local school teacher in Andrew and Nodaway counties.
This description of the situation of Samuel and his son Henry (father and brother of my great grandmother Henrietta (Kennedy) Lingenfelter) illustrates the fate of my great grandmother’s branch of my lineage. Originally from Ireland, Scotland, and England via the Guilford area of North Carolina, arriving in the 1730s and 1740s, they found that the land nearest the larger rivers had already been claimed. Political positions and good schools were reserved for established families. Even if they could read and write in the old country, after a generation in the backcountry, their children had largely lost the ability to sign their own name. It was inevitable that they would quickly move on to new land in Indiana and Missouri, as soon as it opened up to settlement. Slowly they obtained training and schooling for their children and the land and equipment necessary for success in farming and local crafts, eventually achieving political and social positions of importance.
By the time my mother’s generation appeared, as far as the family members that raised me were concerned, teaching was a generally accepted occupation for women. Both my mother and her sister, Jean and Miriam Thompson, had teaching credentials, my Uncle, Victor Thompson, had a degree in microbiology from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MD from USC. Henrietta (Kennedy) Lingenfelter’s son John Lingenfelter was an MD gynecologist. It was said that he never lost a single mother in sixty years of practice at the Poly Clinic in Seattle, Washington.