52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #38 Harriett Jones

Harriett Jones was my paternal 3rd great grandmother. She was born in about 1818 to Solomon Jones and Elizabeth Woodson, and she is the grandmother of my great grandmother Hattie Finney. There is more information in my post Will the Parents of Kate and Hattie Please Stand Up plus copies and references for most of the census records I mention below.

After Harriet's mother Elizabeth died, her father Solomon married Sarah Davis in 1821. Harriett had at least one half brother, William B. Jones (b. about 1825). She may have had another half brother named Thomas S. Jones (b. about 1827), as her daughter Irene was living with Thomas and his family in Thomas County, Georgia, at the time of the 1860 U.S. census. But we haven't found a connection. Also, there is a 15-year-old girl named Sarah Jones living with Harriett and John Finney in the 1850 census. This could be Harriett's half sister. Harriett's step-mother Sarah Jones is also living with them.

Harriett married John Finney, possibly around 1840 in Laurens County, Georgia. I haven't found a marriage record for them in Georgia's Virtual Vault in the Laurens County records. I haven't searched other counties yet. However, there is a John Finney in the 1840 Laurens County census with a wife of about the right age to be Harriett.

Harriett and John had six children: Irene (b. 1841), Sarah (b. 1843), Eliza (b. 1845), William (b. 1848), Rebecca (b. 1850), and Virginia (b. 1853). By the 1850 U.S. census, they had moved their family to Washington County, Florida, where her brother William was living. John died sometime before 1857, maybe by 1855. Harriett married Ira Shine Williams and gave birth to a son George Washington Williams. Ira had left by the 1860 census and was living in Seven Leagues, Smith County, Texas, with his older children.

At the time of the 1870 census, Harriett was in Walton County, Florida, with her daughters Sarah, Rebecca, and Virginia Finney, her son George Williams, and her granddaughters Kate and Hattie (whose last name is listed as Williams in the census). In 1880, Harriett is in Rosa County, Florida, and her granddaughters (listed in the census with the surname Finney) are still with her.

Harriett died on January 20, 1892, and is buried in Hart Cemetery in Okaloosa County, Florida.

The illusive Jones and Finney families haven't been easy to research. For more information, here's a link to some of my cousin Jerry Merritt's research into our Jones and Finney branches The Finneys of Washington, Walton and Escambia County Florida. Jerry is a descendant of my great grandmother Hattie Finney's sister Kate.

Catherine

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.

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52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - #23 Henry Washington Brown

Twenty-one out of 22 of my 52 Ancestors posts have been about my foremothers. In honor of Father's Day coming up, I thought I'd write about one of my forefathers. I've been avoiding writing about my paternal great grandfather Henry Washington Brown, because of the tragedy he caused, but his blood runs through my veins, too, and it's time I tried to get to know more about him.

One of ten children, Henry was born on March 4, 1863, in Covington County, Alabama, to William Jackson Brown and Sarah Adams. By the time he was born, the American Civil War had been raging nearly two years.

Henry grew up on the 120-acre family farm in Covington County where they grew wheat, corn, rice, tobacco, cotton, peas, and barley; raised pigs and cows; churned butter; and made molasses from sugar cane.[1] His siblings were Thomas Jefferson (b. 1847), William Franklin (b. 1849), Elizabeth (b. 1851), James Andrew (b. 1852), Mary (b. 1855), Sarah Cecille (b. 1858), John Berry (b. 1862), Willis Jackson (b. 1864), and Robert Joseph (b. 1867). Henry's mother died about a month after her last child Robert was born when Henry was just four years old.

By the time Henry was 17, he had moved out of his father's house, but I don't know where he went or why he moved out at such a young age. Probably to find work. He's not listed with his father in the 1880 census and I haven't found him elsewhere.

Where's Henry? The James Brown and Franklin Brown in the above 1880 Covington County, Alabama, U. S. census are Henry's older brothers. W. J. Brown is Henry's father. Henry is also not listed with his brother Thomas Jefferson Brown. (Click the image for a larger view.)

Henry married Hattie Finney on April 16, 1884, in Escambia County, Alabama.[2] Their children were Lucy Belle (b. 1887), Lavada (b. 1890), Elliott Medric (b. 1893), Helen Larue (b. 1896, my grandmother), and Hoyt Henry (b. 1896, my grandmother's twin). My dad wrote in his memoirs that their children were named after Henry's friends.

Henry seemed to have held a variety of jobs over the years, but most might be the same job or within the same field--lumbering. At the time of the 1885 Florida state census, he was working as a cooper. By 1900, he was a log driver. The 1910 Federal census index on ancestry.com does not match the digitized original record that comes up, but the 1910 Pensacola, Florida, city directory says he was a laborer. Here are a few more:

• 1911 Pensacola city directory: contractor
• 1913 Pensacola city directory: lumber
• 1916 Pensacola city directory: laborer
• 1919 Pensacola city directory: carpenter
• 1920 Escambia County, FL, census: foreman in a shipyard
• 1921 Pensacola city directory: carpenter
• 1924 Pensacola city directory: carpenter

By the 1930 census, Henry had a truck garden business. By this time, he was 67 years old and probably retired. According to my dad, Henry also had a moonshine still.

In my post Fearless Females: The Tragic Death of Hattie Finney Brown I wrote about the tragedy that I mentioned above, so I won't recount it here. I also wrote about Henry's death two years later in that same post. I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of this family.

My dad wrote in his memoirs,

My mother was Helen LaRue Brown (Thomas) Pendleton (1896-1972).  Her parents were Henry Washington Brown and Hattie Finney Brown of Pensacola, Florida, formerly of Alabama. Mama said one parent was Scotch [sic] and the other was Irish—and that was an unpredictable combination. 

Catherine

This post is part of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by genealogist Amy Crow at No Story Too Small.



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[1] 1860 U. S. census, Covington County, Alabama, nonpopulation schedule, p. 21, line 20, William J. Brown, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 April 2014), citing NARA microfilm publication M279.

[2] Ancestry.com Alabama Marriages, 1809-1920 (Selected Counties), for Henry Brown and Hattie Finney.

Fearless Females March 11 - A Tragic Death

Lisa Alzo of TheAccidental Genealogist is having the fourth annual "Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts" for the month of March to Celebrate Women's History Month. There is a topic for each day of the month of March to commemorate the "Fearless Females" in our families. The topic for March 11 is "Did you have any female ancestors who died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances? Describe and how did this affect the family." For this topic in March 2012, I wrote about the tragic death of one of my paternal great grandmothers in "Fearless Females: The Tragic Death of Hattie Finney Brown."

In that post, I said that I didn't even know what my great grandmother Hattie looked like. I now have two photos of her courtesy of a cousin who shared these with us Finney/Brown cousins a few months ago. Seeing this photo, I think that my grandmother Helen (Brown) Pendleton and my Aunt Clyde (Thomas) Joyner looked very much like Hattie.

Hattie (Finney) Brown

Hattie (Finney) Brown

I'm extremely happy to finally see her face!

Catherine

Fearless Females: The Tragic Death of Hattie Finney Brown

Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist wrote a post for Women’s History Month titled “Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month.” There is a topic for each day of the month of March to commemorate the “fearless females” in our families. I planned to follow along from March 1, but I got behind getting ready around that same time for my trip to my home town to visit family. I checked to see what today’s topic (March 11) was and saw that it was to honor a “fearless female” who “died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances.” I immediately thought of the post below. I wrote it months ago but was hesitant at the time about posting it. Now is a good time.

The Tragic Death of Hattie Finney Brown

On one of my visits home to Valdosta, Georgia, a year or so before my father died, he asked me to look for his memoirs, Growing Up South Georgian (n.d.).  (He was bedridden with Parkinson’s Disease and couldn't look for them himself.)  It seemed to weigh on his mind not knowing where they were.  It took me a little while, but I found most of his memoirs scattered around his office.  He asked me to read them and then put them somewhere so they would be found when we were ready to make copies to give out to family. 

I must not have read all of the chapters at the time or maybe this particular chapter about the circumstances surrounding the death of my paternal great grandmother Hattie (Finney) Brown was one I found later, because it sure came as a shock when one of my cousins told me how she died.  Another cousin (or maybe it was the same one...I've since forgotten) sent me some newspaper clippings about it.  I wondered why I had not heard about this before. Why didn't my father tell me?  How could I have missed this in his memoirs?  A couple of years ago, I started retyping and editing my dad’s memoirs, and I came across what he wrote about Hattie's death at the end of one of his chapters (below is her death certificate):

Just recently, I was reminded of just how Mama Gangie [Hattie] died.  Papa Gangie [Henry] thought he heard someone after his chickens one night, got up to see and shot Mama Gangie accidentally.  He was arrested and released but not before the newspapers had a field day with it.  Mama Gangie died instantly.  About five years ago one of Aunt Lucy’s [Brown Ward] sons told me that Papa Gangie was a bootlegger and thought someone was after his moonshine, that Hoyt [Hattie and Henry's son] was there one day in 1933, had an argument with him, and left in a huff in his truck, but first he backed over Papa Gangie in the yard.  Mama kept a lot from us.  That was her right.

My father wrote that Hattie and Henry lived in a place called Brownsville outside of Pensacola, Florida.  Hoyt was my grandmother Helen's twin brother and was at Hattie and Henry's when Hattie was shot.  She died right in front of him.  Henry met with a tragic end, too.  My father writes in Growing Up South Georgian (n.d.) about the death of Henry,  "Papa Gangie died when a kerosene lamp blew up and he didn't survive the burns."


Lisa asks in today’s blog prompt, how did this death affect the family? I wish I knew. I know how it affected me when I found out about it. After I told one of my cousins about Hoyt backing over his father Henry with his truck, he said there was probably no love between them after Hattie’s death. Sometimes in researching family history, you find out things you'd rather not know.  I try not to pass judgment on how my ancestors lived their lives or on the things that they did.  It's not easy sometimes, though.  After I found out how my great grandmother Hattie died, I didn't want to know anything about my great grandfather Henry. I was angry with him for what he did even though it was ruled an accident. However, later on I began to wonder about this family and wanted to know more.  What were their lives like?  Why did Henry have moonshine still (silly me)?  I don't even know what Hattie and Henry looked like.  I came across a wedding photograph on ancestry.com of their daughter Belle and her wedding party.  There are some older couples in the photo, but the person who posted the photo didn't know if Hattie and Henry are in it.  I'm sure they are, but which couple are they?  My cousin showed the photograph to his mom (my father's sister).  She was pretty sure she'd picked them out.  My father didn't seem to know a whole lot about them, so I hope one day that a descendent of Hattie and Henry will fill in the blanks for me. 

Catherine

Will the Parents of Kate and Hattie Please Stand Up

Yep.  A genealogical brick wall.  Hattie Josephine Finney (1869-1931) was my paternal great grandmother, and Catherine Florence Finney (Kate, 1863-1922) was her sister.  Until two or three years ago, I knew nothing about Hattie except that my father called her Mama Gangie, she was married to Papa Gangie (Henry Brown), she lived in Pensacola, Florida, and she was the mother of my grandmother Helen Brown. 

When I started working on this branch of my tree, I contacted one of my first cousins to see what he knew.  As we started working though this branch, he made contact with a descendent of Kate Finney who has done a phenomenal about of research into the parentage of these two sisters.  He shared his research with us, and we have all continued to look for and share information about this elusive family.

I just want to kick myself for not getting interested in this branch before my father died!  What did he know about this family?  I don’t think he knew a whole lot about who came before Hattie and Henry or he would have told me.  A couple of years ago, I was looking for clues in the infamous paper piles in his office during one of my annual visits home.  I found a 1986 note that his sister Frances and written to their sister Clyde that included some names of possible fathers of Hattie.  This note told me that my dad and his sisters were looking for clues themselves two decades ago.  They were going on the assumption that Finney was the father’s name.   However, it appears that Finney is the maiden of their mother who was one of several sisters.  But which one?  It’s also interesting that other children of some of these sisters also went by the name Finney.  And that’s not the only crazy-making feature of this family.  Just delving even a little into the Finneys makes my head hurt. 

We know that the maternal grandparents of Kate and Hattie were Harriet B. Jones and John Finney from Laurens County Georgia (Harriet was probably born in Jones County Georgia but moved to Laurens as a child).  They had five daughters and one son: Irene (b. 1841), Sarah (b. 1843), Eliza or Elizabeth (b. 1845), William (b. 1848), Rebecca (b. 1850), and Virginia (b. 1853).  Sometime before 1850, the Finneys moved to Washington County Florida.  The 1850 census lists all of the children except for Virginia who was born after the census was taken [1].  This census also includes Harriett’s stepmother Sarah Jones and her half sister, also named Sarah Jones.




John died, and Harriett married Ira Shine Williams sometime before 1857.  They had son George Williams before 1860.  This marriage was brief as Ira isn’t listed with Harriett in the 1860 Washington County census (See image below.  Notice son George with last name of Finney; maybe a mistake by the census enumerator) [2].  Ira Williams is in Texas by 1860 with his children by his first wife [3].  Also, Harriett’s children Eliza and William disappear after the 1850 census.  Irene is in Thomas County in 1860 with the Thomas S. Jones family.  She is listed as Irene Huson with Isaiah Huson and son Jasper [4].




In the 1870 Walton County Florida census, Kate and Hattie appear on the scene.  They are with their grandmother Harriett and her son George Williams and daughters Sarah, Rebecca, and Virginia Finney (misspelled as Frunetz) [5].  Kate is six years old and Hattie is only eight months old [6].  Their last name is listed as Williams.  This may have been an assumption made by the enumerator, or maybe that’s what he was told, or maybe that was really their last name.  Next door is Harriett’s daughter Irene (Finney) Huson and Irene’s son Jasper Finney (see what I mean about the maiden name).   Below are pages from the 1870 Walton County Florida census.  Harriett, Sarah, Rebecca, and Virginia are at the bottom of page 57, and George, Kate, Hattie, and Irene and Jasper are at the top of the following page 58.





Below is the 1880 Santa Rosa County census listing Kate and Hattie as granddaughters of Harriett and with the last name of Finney [7]. 




Kate married Orin Martin Merritt in 1882, and Hattie married Henry Washington Brown in 1886 [8, 9].  Both the Merritts and the Browns ended up in Escambia County Florida where they lived out their lives [10, 11].

There is way more to the Finney story than what I’ve written here and way more research that has been done (using both direct and indirect evidence) by my Finney cousin than just the census records that I present above.  From what I understand in reading my Finney cousin’s research, he’s narrowed down the mother of Kate and Hattie to possibly Sarah, but so far he hasn’t been able to confirm this.  I don’t even want to get started discussing the possible fathers (I’ve mentioned one here).

I’m sending this into cyberspace in the hope that information about the parentage of Kate and Hattie is out there somewhere in someone’s family history…Please get in touch!

Catherine
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[1] Ancestry.com.  1850 United States Federal Census.  Division 3, Washington, Florida; Roll: M432_59; Page: 302B; Image: 582, for John and Harriett Finney.
[2] Ancestry.com.  1860 United States Federal Census.  Washington, Florida; Roll: M653_109; Page: 1033; Image: 505; Family History Library Film: 803109, for Harriett Finney.
[3] Ancestry.com.  1860 United States Federal Census.  Seven Leagues, Smith, Texas; Roll: M653_1305; Page: 65; Image: 133; Family History Library Film: 805305, for Ira S. Williams.
[4] Ancestry.com.  1860 United States Federal Census.  Thomas, Georgia; Roll: M653_138; Page: 71; Image: 71; Family History Library Film: 803138.
[5] Ancestry.com.  1870 United States Federal Census.  Uchee Anna, Walton, Florida; Roll: M593_133; Page: 814A; Image: 765; Family History Library Film: 545632, for Harriet Williams.
[6] Ancestry.com.  1870 United States Federal Census.  Uchee Anna, Walton, Florida; Roll: M593_133; Page: 814B; Image: 766; Family History Library Film: 545632, for Kate and Hattie.
[7] Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census.  Precinct 1, Santa Rosa, Florida; Roll: 132; Family History Film: 1254132; Page: 190D; Enumeration District: 136; Image: 0076, for Harriett, Kate, and Hattie.
[8] Ancestry.com.  1900 United States Federal Census.  Muscopel, Escambia, Florida; Roll: T623_168; Page: 27A; Enumeration District: 15., for marriage year of Kate Merritt.
[9] Ancestry.com. Alabama Marriage Collection, 1800-1969. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006, for Hattie Finney and Henry Brown.
[10] Ancestry.com. Florida State Census, 1867-1945.  Florida State Census of 1885; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M845, 13 Rolls); Record Group 29, for Kate Merritt.
[11] Ancestry.com. Florida State Census, 1885.  (National Archives Microfilm Publication M845, 13 Rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, for Hattie Brown.